Eric Hated Being Dead

By Joe Prentis

There had been little time in Eric's busy schedule for his mother or his younger brother. A new job in a highly completive business left him tense and anxious, and may have contributed to his tragic accident on a rain slick highway. Dying was something Eric had never really thought about, and he certainly wasn't prepared to find himself in a situation as demanding and chaotic as the life he had just left. Michael, Eric's guardian angel, was harassing him, and there were rules he didn't understand. And if his new existence wasn't complicated enough, Eric found himself unexpectedly teamed up with Erin, an attractive young woman, and the type of person he had always dreamed about. Eric Hated Being Dead will warm your heart and amuse you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joe Prentis
• Release date: Jun 24, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458069788

Joe Prentis

Joe Prentis is the author of over 70 short stories and fifteen novels. He is currently working on the third novel in a series about the Middle East and doing research on a book set in the Colonial Era.

Book preview

ERIC HATED BEING DEAD

by

Joe Prentis

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHD BY

Joe Prentis on Smashwords

ERIC HATED BEING DEAD

Copyright 2011 by Joe Prentis

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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To Gloria Jackson Coln

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Eric Hated Being Dead

by

Joe Prentis

Chapter 1

One moment Eric was behind the wheel of his car, engaged in a conference call with the top supervisors at Kennett-Arms Development Corporation, and in the next, he was skidding on the rain slick pavement toward a bridge abutment. This was bad enough - leaving his mother and a younger brother in a declining economy - but now that he was dead, he had to face the shocking reality that the economic crisis extended beyond the grave into eternity.

He had read an article in Reader's Digest about a drowning victim who saw the 'other side' before the trauma team resuscitated him. The man gave an eloquent description of how he floated toward a bright light, only to be snatched back through a tunnel before he reached his destination. What Eric experienced had been nothing like that. There was at least a month he could not account for. There had been no trip through a tunnel toward a bright light, no heavenly chorus, no angels with wings. Instead, he was seated in a rickety office chair in what had probably been an insurance office. He had no memory of how he had arrived there. The two 'men' on the opposite side of the desk looked more like civil servants than heavenly messengers. This was not what he expected at all.

Immediately after his arrival at the office, he had signed a series of documents when directed to do so by a stern looking woman seated at a small secretary's desk. She responded to his questions with some incomprehensible answers that told him nothing. After he finished filling out the forms and approached her desk again, she gave him a knowing look and snatched her purse away and placed it on the other side of her chair. He turned away from her cold, accusatory stare and went back to the rickety visitor's chair.

So you're saying that I'm going to have to stay here for a while? Eric asked cautiously as soon as he took his seat. I thought when you died you went either to heaven or to . . . He stopped suddenly. I'm a Protestant, he said, his sense of uneasiness growing. Am I in Purgatory? I never believed there was such a place. This is so confusing."

The two men exchanged glances, and then the taller of the two– he had asked Eric to call him Michael– sighed and shuffled a stack of papers into a folder. Instead of transferring this folder to his out basket along with the others, he dropped it with a sense of finality into a red wastebasket under the corner of his desk.

I know this is confusing, Michael agreed, but we have a difficult situation we've been wrestling with for the past month. When the hurricane came through the Gulf Coast, a large number of people perished. We simply couldn't process them all at once. This is a temporary measure until we can get everything back on schedule. Hopefully, we won't have any more earthquakes or floods like we had last year.

What Michael had just said was so mind-boggling that Eric could not take it all in. What he had always believed would happen after death was probably based on guesswork or preconceptions, but this was not what he had expected at all.

I thought everything in eternity was supposed to be perfect, Eric said hesitantly. I don't see anything perfect about your inability to handle the victims of a hurricane.

The stern looking woman at the secretary's desk gave a disapproving snort- very unladylike to say the least- and settled her pale eyes on his. She started to comment, but made a dismissive gesture with her hand before she went back to her work.

Michael sighed again. Eric, this isn't a problem you need to address. Miriam will be your caseworker and I will be keeping a watchful eye on you as we move along. We're in charge here, and this is the way we are going to handle the situation. You can consider yourself lucky that you have been selected to . . .

Okay, I'm sorry, Eric interrupted, not wanting them to get started on that again. Michael had described how they had carefully weighed the evidence against him after considering the strong claim from the other side. He couldn't help giving an involuntary shudder as he thought about the alternative.

Eric took a careful look around the room and realized that the office was as