Dan finally worked up the nerve to stop one of the passing angels and ask.
“Excuse me, sir, could you spare a moment?”
“Of course, blessed one, how may I help?”
“Well, we’ve all been patiently shuffling along in this queue, and we were just wondering how long it might be?”
“You all have infinite time to spare. What do you folks know about the Pearly Gates, exactly?”
“Just what everyone knows, I guess. There’s a description of New Jerusalem in Revelations, and some pop culture mythology. Not that much.”
“I’m Geburatiel, associate angel third class, pleasure. Well, Saint Peter is up by the Gate, and he looks souls up in the Book of Judgments to determine their final disposition, into Heaven or elsewhere. Peter has a massive angelic corps employed just to handle the addendum pages, new souls always being born and adding onto the Book at the modern end. Are you with me so far?”
“Think so. That’s pretty big.”
“Friends, you may rejoice when you advance far enough in the queue to see the nearest end of the Book of Judgments. At one soul per page side, the Book is currently just over 1500 miles thick.”
199 words, for this week’s Sunday Photo Fiction prompt:
(The number of deceased homo sapiens is estimated at about 100 billion–with lots of margin for error, obviously. At 500 pages per inch… that’s one BIG book. Dead Tree Editions, tsk tsk so wasteful.)
ParkInkSpot 