Heaven Will Wait

By: Jenna

“I’ll show those guys I can fix this, wait until they see this,” Nick Carter exclaimed as he worked on the car engine.

Licking his lips, Nick bent over the car’s engine, instruction booklet off to the side, wires in each hand.

“O-o-o-okay, according to this book thing, the blue wire crosses over the green wire and goes here,” Nick stated out loud as he started to cross the wires. Suddenly there was a blinding blue flash of light and Nick felt his body fly up into the air.

When Nick opened his eyes, he found himself standing in a line, a paper clutched in his hand. He tapped the person on the shoulder that was standing ahead of him in the line.

“Excuse me, sir, can you tell me what’s going on?” Nick asked quietly.

“I don’t know for sure,” an elderly man dressed in pajamas replied.

“How long have you been waiting?” Nick asked.

“Not sure, seems like forever, this line moves kind of slow,” the old man answered.

“This is crazy! I have no idea why I’m standing in this line, I’m not waiting, I’m gonna find out what’s going on,” Nick sputtered as he left his place in line.

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Nick turned around to see Brian standing before him, dressed in a dazzling white shirt and pants.

“Bri, am I glad to see you, what the hell is going on here?” Nick asked quickly.

“Hi Nickolas, my name is Bruce,” Brian replied, smiling.

“Ha, ha, Brian, really funny. Seriously, what’s going on?” Nick asked again.

“I am serious, my name is Bruce,” Brian insisted.

A frown formed on Nick’s face. He couldn’t understand why Brian was playing this game.

“Come on, Brian, joke’s over,” Nick requested.

“We don’t joke around here, Nickolas,” Brian replied, a smile on his face.

Nick looked around where he stood. “Where exactly is here?”

“Here....is eternity,” Brian replied.

“Eternity? You can’t be serious. Come on Brian, what gives?” Nick persisted.

“Eternity young Nickolas, meaning the beginnning of the end,” Brian stated.

“Would you quit talking in riddles, dammit!” Nick was getting irritated with Brian avoiding a direct answer to his question.

“Please follow me this way to the first station,” Brian directed.

Nick had no other alternative than to follow Brian to a light blue door with the number one written over the top of a cloud. Upon entering the room, he noticed it was just an ordinary room, containing a wooden desk, couple of chairs and a lamp. Brian took the seat behind the desk and motioned for Nick to be seated across the table.

“Let me see your paper, Nickolas,” Brian requested.

Nick forgot that he was holding onto the slip of paper. He handed it to Brian.

“Brian, I don’t like this weirdo game you’re playing, where’s the other guys, huh? Where’s Howie?” Nick said as he looked around the room.

“It’s no joke Nickolas---”

“Would you stop calling me Nickolas, dammit!” Nick interrupted.

Brian shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, we just call everyone here by their christian names. Okay, Nick, what’s the last thing you recall?”

“Well, I was working on my car’s engine cause you guys are always teasing me and saying I’m not mechanical and stuff,” Nick recalled.

“Go on,” Brian encouraged, leaning forward in his seat.

“I crossed some wires and then there was this flash of blue light,” Nick looked up and his eyes locked on with Brian’s, “and I was thrown and then I was standing in line......Holy shit, I’m dead?”

Brian nodded solemnly.

“HOLY SHIT I’M DEAD!” Nick jumped up out of the chair and paced back and forth, trying to grasp the reality of the situation. He stopped in mid pace and turned and looked at Brian, his eyes narrowed. “But if I’m dead, how come you’re here, you’re not dead!”

“I told you the first time, I am not Brian, my name is Bruce,” Brian softly replied, in a soothing voice.

“Come again? I still don’t understand any of this,” Nick asked.

“I am the exact image of your friend, Brian, in fact we are all mirrors of someone on earth,” Bruce stated.

“Really? So where’s my duplicate, I bet he’s sitting at the right hand of God,” Nick proudly exclaimed.

Bruce smiled and shook his head no. “Nick, thats, um, reserved for Christ, no your exact image is, um, shall we say in a lower capcity.”

“Where? A janitor, sanitation worker?” Nick asked, trying to read the ledger that was laid out in front of Bruce.

“He’s one of Satan’s disciples and his name is Nathan,” Bruce replied.

Nick’s mouth dropped open. “Okay, okay. But I bet AJ’s double is Satan’s right hand man,” Nick stated.

“No, actually, AJ’s exact is one of the workers in the Heavenly Choir and his name is Andrew. The same goes for your other friends, they all have highly esteemed jobs.”

Nick looked puzzled. “Then why am I in hell?”

“No, not you Nickolas, just your mirror image, it has nothing to do with you,” Bruce tried to reassure Nick.

“So, um, where am I gonna wind up at?” Nick hesitated, looking past Bruce.

Bruce opened the paper Nick had and pulled a dark green ledger from a drawer. “Let’s see here, hmmm, Carter, Nickolas G. Oh, no, this isn’t good, not good at all.”

Nick swallowed hard. “You mean I’m going down?”

Bruce shut the book hastily. “No, it’s not that.”

“Then what is it, you’re hiding something from me!” Nick exclaimed.

“A mistake’s been made, you’re not supposed to be dead yet,” Bruce quietly stated as he reached for the black telephone on the desk.

“Oh this is just great,” Nick sputtered as he sat back down into the chair.

“Yes, this is Bruce down in service, I need you to look up Carter, Nickolas G....yes, that’s what I have too.....3/18/52...cardiac arrest....I don’t know for sure.....yes, see if Claude can arrange that....thank you.”

Nick’s eyes narrowed as he heard the date and the cause of death. He then realized that he wasn’t supposed to be dead until he turned 72 and it was from cardiac arrest.

“You guys messed up! Put me back, now!” Nick insisted.

“Well,” Bruce nervously fiddled with the papers on his desk, “it might not be that simple.”

Nick grabbed Bruce by the shirt. “What do you mean, not that simple, you guys messed up and I need to go back, now! We have a show tonight at 8.”

“Calm down, Nick, there’s a slight problem and I have to figure out how to fix it,” Bruce said as he pried Nick’s hands off.

Nick’s eyes narrowed. “Slight problem?”

“Well, it’s easy to put the deceased back into their body as long as they haven’t been discovered by the living,” Bruce began as he pulled out a globe and sat it on the desk. As the filmy cloud of smoke disappeared from it’s center, Nick saw an image of himself laying on the grass with Brian kneeling beside him.

“It seems your friend Brian has found you,” Bruce replied softly.

“Just put me back, hell, Brian believes in resurrections, I can come back to life,” Nick pleaded.

Bruce sighed. “I wished it were that simple, Nickolas.”

“But I have a life, I have friends and family,” Nick begged, tears welling up in his eyes.

Bruce thumbed through a rolodex of cards on his desk. “I have a female from China, age 17 or a male from Norfolk, age 32.”

Nick slammed his hand down on the desk, causing Bruce to jump. “Dammit! You are not listening to me! I want back into Nick Carter’s body, not a girl’s from China or some guy from Southfork---”

“It’s Norfolk,” Bruce interrupted.

“I don’t give a rats ass where he’s from, figure this out and put me back NOW,” Nick hissed.

“Nick, I assure you, this is only going to be temporary until I can speak with God. God can fix this,” Bruce replied in a calming voice.

Nick turned and walked towards the door. “Then let’s talk to the Big Guy right now.”

“Can’t,” Bruce answered.

Nick stopped in mid-stride. “What do you mean, can’t?”

“I mean can’t. He’s on vacation fishing in Alaska,” Bruce replied.

“ON VACATION, oh for christsake,” Nick shouted and then thunder rumbled.

“I prefer you refrain from talking like that around here. Hey God gets stressed every now and then. He’s only gone for a week,” Bruce said as he looked up from the rolodex. “Nick, you have to make your decision in two minutes or we will have to pick another person. It’s only for a few days, okay?”

“Just a few days? And by then, what, my body will either be embalmed or cremated, no dice, put me back, NOW,” Nick demanded.

“Okay, Nick, what God can do for you is do a reverse in the time frame continuity. I can’t do it, so you are going to have to wait for God to get back from vacation. He will reverse time and we will be back to when you were working on your car and you will have no recollection of this event at all and neither will your friend Brian or anyone. So, please, make your choice now, the girl or the man.”

Nick debated his choices. He hated Chinese food, he closed his eyes tightly, “I’ll take the Southfork dude.”

Nick didn’t feel anything happen but once he opened his eyes, he saw a nurse standing in front of him.

“Doctor, are you alright?”

Nick looked around the room for the person she was addressing. His heart skipped a beat when he realized she was talking to him.

Nick cleared his throat, “Um, yeah.”

He was suprised at the tone of the voice that came from him. It was deep and thick sounding with a hint of a southern accent.

“Are you okay to see the next patient?” the nurse asked Nick.

“No..no, I-I, um, close up, I’m not feeling well,” Nick stammered. He spied the door to the doctor’s private office and made a quick dash for the room and slammed the door behind him. Breathing heavily, Nick looked about the sparsely decorated room. His eyes fell onto a full lenght mirror. He was met face to face of the person whose body he had inhabited temporarily.

The man was heavyset, sweaty looking with dark skin and dark hair. Nick saw that a pack of cigarettes laid on the desk next to an ashtray brimming with cigarette butts. He soon reasoned that this man would be dying of a heart attack, he remembered Bruce saying something about that before the transfer was made.

As he made his way to the desk to sit down, Nick felt uncomfortable in the body and wished Bruce would hurry up and get God. His eyes fell onto a picture in a frame on the desk. It was of the doctor and a woman, which Nick assumed to be his wife and a baby girl. “God, he’s so young and he will leave a young family,” Nick thought out loud as he looked at the photograph.

A sharp knock on the door brought Nick back into reality.

“Doctor Culton, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just going to lay down for awhile, just send all the patients home and put my calls on hold,” Nick directed.

“Will you be alright for rounds tonight and remember you have the shift for the ER this evening at Community Hospital,” the nurse reminded.

“Shit,” Nick mumbled. “Find a replacement, I am not up to this at all,” Nick replied.

“You have to at least do the rounds and Maxine has a call she needs to put in from your wife,” the nurse stated from the other side of the door.

“Oh great,” Nick mumbled. “Put her through.” He was mentally cursing the nurse because she didn’t say the woman’s name. With a stroke of genius, Nick called out, “Hey what’s that cute name you always call her?”

“Ann? That’s it doctor, no cute names,” the nurse replied.

“Hello?” Nick said as he answered the phone. He was immediately hit with a woman’s shrill voice on the other end with a baby crying in the background.

“Listen here, Dave, I am sick and tired of your bullshit, you fatass. I know you’ve been screwing Marcy. I want out of this marriage and I am taking Emily and I am taking everything you have!”

“Ann, calm down,” Nick could feel his chest tightening up. ‘No this isn’t suppose to happen, I am not supposed to die in this guy’s body.’ Nick thought to himself.

The woman kept yelling, delivering a non-stop barrage of insults and comments at Nick. Nick started feeling pains in his chest and arm. He slammed the phone down and started yelling for Bruce.

“BRUCE, GET BACK HERE, DAMMIT.” Nick stood up to get to the door. He felt like he couldn’t breathe. The pains were getting stronger. Suddenly, Nick collapsed to the floor.

Nick opened his eyes and was face to face with Bruce. Nick looked down and realized that he was still inside the doctor’s body.

“NO! I am not to be dead in this guy’s body, you are messing up,” Nick cried.

Before Bruce spoke, Nick woke up, finding himself in a hospital bed, with monitors hooked up to him and a tube down his throat. An image of Bruce appeared at his bedside.

“This is only temporary, Nickolas, you will be out before anything happens.”

Nick was too weak in this man’s body to protest. He just closed his eyes.

“Er, um, Nick, if you cross those wires, you’ll be blown to pieces,” Brian laughed as he watched Nick concentrait on the wiring.

Nick jumped when he heard Brian’s voice behind him. He suddenly realized that Bruce put him back where he belonged and forgot to erase the memories of what had happened.

Nick rushed over to Brian and wrapped his arms around him, relieved to be back to normal and back in his own body.

Brian let out a dry cough as Nick was squeezing the air out of his lungs. “Easy Nick, it was just a suggestion."

The End

Tell Jenna what you thought of this story!