About the Author: Jack Lamphere enjoys being active, which includes skiing, basketball, running, and lacrosse. He also enjoys writing as a pass time.
The gas station door stood ajar before I pressed it farther open. I yanked on the door of my shitty truck, and tossed the gatorade and oreos that I had just gotten onto the seat next to me. Before I pulled out of the parking lot, a bulky black SUV shot by me. I watched it pass, noticing each rude sticker on the back. That was the vehicle that some of the members of the hockey team drove around in. I hated those guys, mostly because they acted like they were so edgy, but partly because I wish I could hang out with them. I knew they were jerks, but I guess they would be better than having no friends at all.
I drove down the scorching road for a long while, and then finally flicked on my left signal. As I veered into the sandy parking lot, I wondering if I should actually go through with my plan. I heaved up my oxygen tank and pulled my goggles over my eyes. I slammed the door of my truck, turned around to face the water, and felt a crushing loneliness. Something about scuba diving alone felt depressing. No one would have done it with me anyways, they had all said that I was wasting my time.
“Why are you going down there?” my mom had said, “It’s just gonna be a pile of wood and junk.”
My plan to scuba dive where Holland Island used to be seemed confusing to people. “The Last House On Holland Island” story used to be popular. They even did a Sixty Minutes segment on it once, and they interviewed a lot of the people in my town. I live on Adam Island, a boring crumb of land in our huge cookie of a world. We are the island right next to where Holland Island used to be. Everyone seemed to forget about the old eroding piece of land after it finally went under, but ever since freshman year I’ve always had so many questions. Probably because I have nothing better to do but play on my Xbox and work at the grocery store.
I had researched a couple of sunken villages, such as the underwater city in China, and was exuberant at the thought of having one right next to my hometown.
I stepped into the chilling water, it was only early May, and the water was still pretty cold. When I dove under, I felt like a professional explorer who worked for National Geographic or something, instead of some nobody senior. I didn’t have too much experience with scuba diving. I went once or twice with my dad when I was young, but definitely not enough to be going all by myself to a place that probably no one else had dived before. Unfortunately, this was all hitting me now. I was only about twenty feet out but I kept floating on the water, contemplating my next actions. Finally, I just started to swim down. Deeper and deeper I went, trying to adjust to the choking feeling of breathing through a tube. I saw some fish but it was difficult because the water was generally murky. I turned my headlamp on, which seemed to make everything that the light wasn’t hitting feel darker. I felt ridiculously nervous, making me wonder if you can sweat underwater.
All of a sudden, something caught my eye that didn't look similar to all of the other logs and weeds. It was a corner of something large, protruding out of the mud. I was hesitant to swim towards it, but my body started to. What could be a natural thing down here that had a perfect edge? As I got closer, I noticed lines on the corner, almost like shingles. I passed over the top of the corner, and every muscle in my body tensed. There was a massive drop off, and it was filled with rotting buildings all lined up in a rows.
I was super confused. I started to swim back where I came from, like I could unsee it, or it would just disappear. I frantically swam back to the top, and spit my oxygen tube out of my mouth. The radiant sun burned my eyes. I knew that I couldn’t tread water for a long time, I had weak legs that wouldn't be up to the job. I turned to my left and realized that land wasn’t that far away. A started to slowly swim back to land, but then stopped. Should I leave right away? What if I want to come back to this mysterious place but could never find it again. I was definitely panicking, I could feel the rise and fall of my chest speeding up. I closed my eyes and remembered what the guidance counselor had taught me about mindfulness. I imagined I was swimming in a tropical ocean with colorful fish swimming around me. I stayed in this mindset until a wave picked me up and dunked me underwater.
I had to make a decision.
What was I even panicking about. Maybe the houses that had sunk just happened to arrange in an orderly fashion. Maybe I was just surprised and imagined that they were perfectly lined up. I put my oxygen tube back in my mouth and dove under. Swimming back down was so much harder the second time. I looked over the drop off and took a long look. It looked a bit different the second time. There were two rows of the decomposing houses, roughly eight houses long, but I didn’t take my time to count them.
I paddled toward the front of the underwater town, and floated there, taking it all in. The houses looked like the ones in my town, not anything special about them. It was so strange how much it looked like a real town. I noticed a street lamp lying a few feet away from me, almost submerged in sand.
The eeriest feeling came across me.
There was this perfectly normal street of houses, just sitting here underwater.
Why?
All of sudden something in my peripheral vision grabbed my attention; something glowing. I swung my head over to see a shining object floating a few feet above the sand. It had the intensity of staring into a flashlight, which seemed odd because anything metal would have rusted down here. I was already too confused. I considered it a hallucination from lack of oxygen, but it looked too legitimate for my mind to make up. Then, another light came in from the left of the first! Then another! The third light was closer to me. It was larger, and moved quickly towards me. Even then, I couldn’t figure out what it was, other than just a particle of light. I couldn’t think straight. My head was spinning out of control as the object hovered toward me. I choked in water. My mouth opened to spit it out but it only filled with more. I reached for my oxygen tube and thrust it in my mouth. I inhaled but nothing was working.
Couldn’t breath.
Couldn’t think.
I was swimming in a tropical ocean with colorful fish swimming around me.
Then darkness.
+ + + +
My feet pressed into the squishy ground. I looked up to view a sky that was the shade of a pumpkin. I was walking in my wetsuit down a road; the same one that I had just seen underwater. I walked up onto the steps of an ordinary house and flung openhe door.
“Where the hell am I?” I practically yell, “Is anyone even here?” I was shaking like a leaf. I heard a snapping sound and watched a human walk out from behind a wall. They had a golden glow to them, and looked really happy to see me. Unable identify their gender, I opened my mouth to speak but it was clogged with questions.
“What’s your name young man?” They stuck out their hand.
“I’m... I’m Peter.” I stammered, “Well I’m… happy to meet you!” They belted out a laugh. Even after hearing their voice, I still didn’t know the gender.
“I’m just messing with you,” They continued, “My name is Aaron, and I am happy to welcome you to Holland Heaven.” Holland Heaven? What the hell did that mean. Was I in Heaven? Why were they calling it Holland Heaven?
“Round here, everything is just fabulous!” They said, walking past me down the steps of their porch.
“C’mon I’ll show you”
We walked on the road. It wasn’t an ordinary road though. It was bouncy, and felt like an old trampoline when you walked. There weren’t any cars on the road or any I could see in the driveways, and their weren’t any sidewalks or lines on the road. Just a strip of bouncy pavement.
“Is this Heaven?” I felt stupid for asking, Aaron already told me it was but I needed more of an explanation.
“Here’s the thing,” They started, “Living people got it all wrong. There isn’t only one big HEAVEN. There’s at least 400 that I know about. They’re scattered all around the world, and not all of them are way up in the sky like you’ve been told. This one, for example, is underwater. At least that’s what it looks like until you actually die.
“So I’m dead!” I burst out.
“Well you have an interesting case.” Aaron said, “You died when you were in the underwater heaven, so you’re not exactly dead, you’re just in our heaven. We can send the undead back anytime they want, but I recommend you stay a little while. I’ll show you around.”
“I’m confused!” I blurted. “I just drowned a few minutes ago and now I’m in this stupid Holland Heaven crap! What the hell is going on!”
“Calm down Peter, and let me explain this to you.” We walked over to a nearby bench and sat on it. It felt like sitting in a bean bag chair.
“When the undead come here, It’s always so hard for them to comprehend this.
People in a two hundred mile radius of Holland Heaven, end up here when they die. You however, died when you were inside of our underwater heaven. I saw you scuba diving right over there! I tried to walk up to you but you panicked and drowned. We’ve had this thing happen once or twice before. One time a group of news reporters from Sixty Minutes where diving down here, until one saw Mrs. Betty’s light and totally lost it. When we sent him back, he decided to leave his old life behind, and go live in California. Luckily no one saw you die, so you won’t have to worry about that.”
This was all starting to make sense, and I felt a huge weight lifting off my shoulders. Now that I knew that I could go back to the world and see my mom and dad again, I was super excited.
“But like I said young lad, I recommend that you stay a while.”
We walked under a sign that read Full House, and stepped into a colorful, little room. It smelled like a restaurant, but it was completely empty. There were no tables, no kitchen, and I couldn’t even find where the jazz music was playing from. Aaron walked over to one of the walls and pressed a button that said FULL. It was next to a button that said EMPTY. As soon as they pressed it, stools and tables with no legs came popping out of the floor, and some booths fell out of the walls. Everything just hovered in place, about six inches off the ground. Every floating thing had the same golden glow to it that Aaron had. Aaron sat down at the table closest to us and motioned for me to sit also. I did.
“Peter, I’m guessing you're a bit confused right now.”
“Ya, just a bit.” I said. Aaron chuckled. Hearing my own voice brought me back to reality.
“The thing is Peter, there isn’t any gravity in heaven, it’s basically all magic,” Aaron explained.
“Would you care for a drink?”
I imagined the blue gatorade that was sitting in my truck right now. All of a sudden a tall glass appeared in front of me that was filled with the neon liquid. I stared at it
“Great choice!” Aaron said. They reached out and a glass of wine filled their hand. Aaron took a long sip, so I did too.
“Pretty neat huh?”
“I’d say!” I exclaimed.
“How come there aren’t any waiters or waitresses?” I asked
“Think about it Peter, If you died and were living in this heaven, would you really want to be waiting on people all day long?” I shook my head. They had a point.
“There isn’t any labor needed down here in Holland Heaven,” elaborated Aaron
“This place just seems to do it all itself.” I nodded my head, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling of being in a dream. I still had a burning question for Aaron.
“Excuse my manners Aaron, but are you a man or woman?”
“That’s another thing Peter. Here, you don’t have to choose a gender. You can choose one if you want, but I decided to not care. It’s not like we’re going to the bathroom or anything.” Aaron said it like I should know that you don’t have to go to the bathroom in heaven, which is pretty amazing.
Suddenly a steaming burger appeared on a plate with fries and a pickle in front of me. I looked up in awe and saw a humongous lobster in front of Aaron. They smiled at me.
“Hungry?”
After we ate we took a long stroll around Holland Heaven. I only saw two or three people outside. Aaron said that people customize their houses to fit their every need, so they had no reason to leave it. After our walk, Aaron showed me around their house. After the tour I knew what they meant when they said customized. They had a massage chair that was formed for their body, but when you got up it made a snapping noise.
“I thought you could just magically fix things like that?” I had asked.
He explained to me that their chair that they had when they were alive made the same snapping noise, so this one could remind them of their living years. They had an exercise room that they said was designed for their exact abilities, and said that they gave it a magic touch. I asked what they meant and they told me to try for myself. I lifted a barbell that was next to me. They then told me to drop it. I let it go and it hovered, just like the furniture had in the restaurant. It slowly floated toward the ground and then lightly touched down on the floor.
They even let me try on their shoes. I hadn’t noticed anything special about them before, but when I slipped them on I was in shock. They felt exactly like I was barefoot, except I couldn’t feel the cold cement floor. All I felt was memory foam. They explained to me that they aren’t really on my foot, but everywhere I step, there is the illusion that they are on, and they will block any cold or liquid that would normally get on your feet. It’s kind of a hologram effect.
“All right, that’s amazing!” I said in awe.
“Well now you have something to look forward too when you die!” Aaron said with a snort.
“Are you kidding?” I said with a laugh, “This place is way better than Earth! I don’t even want to go back.”
“That’s what I was afraid of, Peter.” Aaron quietly said. “I knew that after I showed you all these things, you wouldn’t want to go back to real life. It’s my fault Peter.”
“What do you mean it’s your fault?” I was confused. “What’s so bad about wanting to live in this magical place?”
“Peter,” started Aaron, “Trust me with this decision. Sure, this place is super cool, it’s perfect. But that’s just the thing. Back on Earth, there are plenty of imperfections. There’s arguing, rudeness, stress, mourning. But there are also connections that can reach from one person to another, that you can’t reach here. Of course this place is a dream, but after awhile, you get real fed up with perfect. I know it sounds strange, but talking to you now is the most I have talked to someone since I’ve died! I’ve just had to learn how to be lonely.”
I realized what they were saying. As much as I wish that I could live here, I should first live through my life in the real world, and discover what I will turn into. If perfection gets tiring, than I should go and live with what the world throws at me. I nodded my head, and without a word we stood up and walked to the end of the town. What I mean by end is that the bouncy pavement stopped, and it was pure orange, a sea. We stood there. I noticed my scuba equipment lying close to the edge, I hadn’t noticed it before.
After I put it on, I knew it was time to say goodbye. I strolled up to Aaron, trying to keep it together. I know it sounds silly, but this whole experience had been super emotional for me, and Aaron was the only person to walk me through it. I leaned in and gave them a hug.
“Thank you,” I said, “For this whole thing, this will definitely change my perspective on life.” Aaron nodded.
“I trust that you will keep this to yourself.”
“You have my word.” I said with finality.
With that, I turned and walked toward that water. When I dove under, I saw pitch black. I reached for my headlamp and flicked it on. I saw a moldy Holland Heaven, lying on the sand. A bright light was right at the end of the town, just sitting there. I smiled, turned my back, and swam back up to the surface. When I took off my mask, I saw my truck sitting in the parking lot.
I sat there treading water, taking all of it in. I had just been through something not only life changing, but afterlife changing. To keep this a secret would be easy enough, I always had been good at that. As I slowly paddled back toward land, I thought of the blue gatorade I had drank. When I climbed into my beat up truck, it surprised by how much it stood out. I had just seen a vibrant and impeccable world, but this truck was a perfect example of what Aaron had said. The imperfections of this world are worth living for. I cracked open my gatorade and looked out on the world with a smile. The world with perfect imperfections.
Jack Lamphere