[ WP ] '' Death extends his hand , smiling , “ Deal ? ” ''

I couldn ’ t look directly at him. He was only really “ there ” when I saw him in the periphery. Even at that, the weight of his presence, seemed to dampen all my senses. Colors were grayer, the sea that had smelled so strong moments before, was now the barest whisper of a scent, even the taste of the salt water that I had gulped in my last desperate moments was faint, almost the remembrance of taste rather than actually taste. 
 
 Death bobbed in a little dinghy next to me. I had a flash of thought that he must have been like Barbie, perfectly accessorized for any occasion. God, I must be in shock if I ’ m comparing Death to Barbie. I saw movement and realized that his skeletal hand was reaching towards me. Instinctively, I took it and was hauled, with surprising force, into the seat across from him. 
 
 “ You seem to have died, Nicholas. ” 
 
 I gave him the same look I gave my idiot intern. It always withered him on the spot, but Death sat placid and unmoved. “ No shit, Sherlock. ” 
 
 Death didn ’ t react in any way. Anger, that was a stage of grief wasn ’ t it? He must have seen this before. Nonplussed, he continued: “ I ’ ll let you make a very fortunate recovery from the position you find yourself in now and you ’ ll have one month to set your affairs in order. Hug your kids, make a will, the general sort of thing your lot tends to do. ” 
 
 Silence stretched for a few seconds after he finished speaking. “ That ’ s it? I just get out of this little boat and head back to life as normal for thirty more days? ” 
 
 “ There ’ s no such thing as a free lunch. ” 
 
 Geez, if I knew this piece of work in life, I would have avoided him like the plague. 
 
 “ In exchange you will forfeit the best event of your life. It will have never happened, but you will have the memory of it to keep you company. Whatever your life would have been without that moment in time, will be the reality you live in for the next month. ” 
 
 I thought over my life. It was a normal life, highs and lows, but the best event stood out above all else. “ So I ’ ll remember the best thing that ever happened to me, but it won ’ t have actually happened? Not to me, not to anyone else it involved, not even after the month when I ’ m gone? ” 
 
 Death nodded, or rather the darkness that shrouded him gave the impression of movement. Death extends his hand, smiling, “ Deal? ” 
 I thought of my wife holding our tiny, screaming, ebony skinned girl the day we had taken her from that rat hole of an orphanage in Ethiopia and smiled bravely, “ no deal. ” 

