A Moment's Peace

Today's story is called: A Moment's Peace (2008 words)

This is a continuation of the project I started and sent out last week, hence the 'two' on the cover.

The concept, which I'm confident enough to reveal now, is about the Grim Reaper. 

I'll freely admit I got the idea watching American Horror Story (I won't say how in case it's a spoiler!) but I thought it might be interesting if Death were to visit everyone shortly before they died to 'evaluate' them. I imagined he/she to be sort-of a psychiatrist who makes evaluations that are then forwarded to the next stage for consideration- be that Jesus, St. Michael, Budda or whoever. So the 'judge' makes the final decision as to heaven, hell or purgatory but they use Deaths evaluation as a recommendation.

So what would those conversations be like? He would need to get a good picture of their morality, regrets, fears, etc. He couldn't pass judgement or make recommendations to the person, and if it were a suicide he'd have to be careful not to talk them out of it. He'd need to gain their trust quickly so I thought it would make sense that he would always appear as a familiar face of a similar age- If Death is always a middle-aged woman not everyone is going to be comfortable talking about their feelings with her! 

For myself as the writer I decided to set some rules- it could only be 2000ish words, that way I could get more work done as I would be writing to a plan, but also it would be a challenge to have someone give a picture of their psychological make up in so short a piece. I also wanted to remain quite ambiguous regarding the judgement- present unusual or conflicted characters and leave it to the reader to judge whether they're blessed or cursed.

The interesting part for me was the choice of story- Death can come to anyone from any age, I didn't want to get bogged down with the Santa Clause paradox (he needs to be everywhere at once) but I thought it might be hard for him to visit certain people who either don't meet anyone new or are in difficult situations that don't lend themselves to meaningful chats-

This weeks one concerns a Private during the Normandy landings, a very tough time for Death to get a chance to talk.

Hope you enjoy, the next few weeks stories will be more of these cases and now you know the real concept it might change the way you read them, help you understand the stakes for the subject!

B A Jones 16/06/2014