John's Journey Zhanara Kushueva   © Copyright 2018 by Zanhara Kushueva

John was supposed to have his standard day today. He woke up in the morning and headed to his work by his car. It was raining a lot, roads were slippery. Nothing should have happened but…when he was driving on a highway some car suddenly hit his car…

His head had some injuries. Ambulance came quickly and took him to hospital. John has been in coma. Doctors were waiting for him to ‘wake up’ from coma. However, John had very different feelings. He didn’t know about his head injuries. His mind was in other state. He thought that he suddenly somehow went to other place as a guest.

He was in a bright, cozy place. He saw wonderfully beautiful pool. There was a man standing near it. He was wearing white and green clothes. The man was so kind, friendly; there was a special light in his eyes. He said: “John, welcome. I’ll show you some places that you need to see.” John agreed, he felt as if he knew this man for years. 

Man: “Firstly, please wash your face, ears, mouth, hands and feet in this pool.” John: “Ok, I really want to taste this water, it looks so special.” John washed his body parts; when he was washing he felt how miraculously his body was becoming purer and purer. He felt that all his sins done with his mouth, hands, feet etc. are disappearing, he felt himself like a saint!

Then they came to a place with spectacular fence. On the fence there was some writing in a language John didn’t know. Two guards were at the entrance. As soon as they saw the man they bowed and opened the door. “Oh my God!” thought John while entering. The view and atmosphere was beyond his imagination. He saw some houses. Outside they were decorated with diamonds, emeralds, and ruby stones. Tiles were made of silver. What could be inside?! He saw rivers, as if there was liquid gold flowing…John: “Is that like “liquid gold” river?”

“Yes”, said the man. “On that side you can see honey and milk rivers”, he went on.

There were lots of tall trees. But these extraordinary trees were upside down! Roots were upward and branches, leaves were downward. They smelled like vanilla and saffron. John remembered “Starbucks” smell, so attractive that you want to go and buy from them. The trees smelled even tastier. Instead of flowers and fruits he saw shining pearls, sapphires. He picked one pearl; suddenly it became a pear in his hand. He tasted it, the pear was exceptionally delicious.

The man said: “People who would live here can have any food they want. Whenever they think of it, this food comes immediately in front of them, like in a fairy tale.

Food never spoils here. You know why? Because spoiling is the process which occurs with time. On earth you have three dimensions and time/space is fourth dimension. You measure your time, your moment relatively to the Earth rotating around the Sun. Your life also measures with time; years, months and days. You get old with time. In your world everything has a beginning and an end. Life beginning as a baby, ending in oldness. Fruits, trees, rivers and even mountains had beginning and would have an end someday. Maybe it is “bitter law” of your existence. You know that you will end someday, and you don’t want it, you can’t even imagine it. The important reason of this feeling is because your soul is eternal; it doesn’t want any ends, end of your parents, end of your youth, end of Love. Love is eternal because it is in your soul. I got too deep…”

“Let’s talk about eternity”, my friend John. “Here there is no such a notion like “time”. Timeless life is probably what your soul wants. Never ending joy, never ending friendships, never ending your favorite TV program . When I say “eternity” I mean “good eternity”, including happiness, love, satisfaction. Here there will be no “bad eternity”, no feelings such as sadness; no envy, no oldness, no illnesses, even no bad smells! It is real John, believe me!

You stay forever young here. You can also change your face from the app in that computer, just for fun”, he showed the computer with special monitor to which you touch your face. You choose a face and just press “enter”.

As I mentioned before, because we don’t have time here, there are no days and nights here, so you don’t sleep here, you are forever energetic . Don’t you want to be in such a place?”

“Yes, of course, I’d like to be here! I don’t want my stress in my job, illnesses, constant bills, traffic etc. Our life is full of unhappy moments too.”, said John.

“Oh John, actually your life is just a moment. You think of many years but at the end it would turn out to be just a moment, whole life as a moment. And in this world, your life is a long moment; before I said “eternal”, maybe a long moment means eternity…Moment and eternity seem like opposites, but sometimes they are so close to each other.

Ask a 70 y.o. dying man “How long was your life?” He’ll probably say “It was just a moment, now I see all my life in a minute.” Ask a woman in labor “How long was your labor?” She’d answer “It seemed like eternity, so painful, but after seeing the result, it seems like a moment”. Or a parent, whose child is going through important surgery; every minute/moment seems like infinity. Everything is relative.

I hope you comprehend when I said that here time/space stops. Sometimes we can’t get things by our brain and by our logic, because even brain has limitations. Sometimes we need to just believe with our heart. Oh, maybe I said too much, and you are tired”, he paused.

“So John, however, you need to deserve this place my friend. Not everyone can come here. If you are patient and strong enough against your job, illnesses, bills then you can come here. If you live kindly, helping others, sacrificing for children then you can come here. Life worth living for that; every day is worthy when you are useful. And you can be quite useful John, like everybody else, if you really try. Life is an examination; sometimes it is unjust, just pray at those hard moments.

I know inside of you there are two sides, selfish side and good side. They are constantly fighting; you decide which side will be stronger, which side you feed more. It is very hard, but the reward is wonderful, you can see all these rivers, houses. If you had lots of really good deeds one of the houses would be yours. And inside there are much more amazing things, I promise. This world consists of seven “floors”. We are at the lowest floor, which is just a beginning of wonders. It is reality John, I’m not lying.” There was pure truth in his eyes.

“I have a question”, asked John. “What if I’m not good enough, living selfish life, not deserving this place, where I go then?”

“Oh dear, there is another place for bad people, you can faint if I show you it…it is another story… ”

“Wait sir, what is your name?”

“Let me keep it secret, you’ll learn it later. See you!”, he smiled.

John finally woke up; he was in coma for three days. Now he was aware of what happened to him, car accident, coma… He looked at window. It was dawn; new day, new hopes, new challenges and successes. He decided not to tell anybody about his “journey” with Mr.X; maybe people could think he is crazy or something.

However, he has learned some lessons for himself. One of the lessons was about Love. There is a girl whom he deeply loves. Only one life, only one love. He has been constantly missing her. They couldn’t be together in this world and maybe they’ll be together in that world, eternally in love…that is what he hopes for.

My name is Zhanara Kushueva. I am 34 years old. I teach school in Kyrgyzstan. I like math, ICT, and sometimes I enjoy writing stories.