Death: the Grocery Salesman.

Like all good stories this one starts with a bang.  It was abrupt, loud, and deafening.  Anyone too close to the explosion died instantly.  One man was just in reach of its blast that shouldn’t have been. This is a story on Gordon on that day, the day he became Death.  It was a Thursday, there wasn’t anything very important about this day.  He had set up his stall selling aubergines, dragon fruit, oranges, he called his stall Gordy’s Greens, no one really paid attention to the name of it but he liked knowing it had a name.  In fact, no one really paid much attention to Gordon, to most he was just the green grocer.  A face they’d recognise briefly then forget as soon as they left his stall. 
That day someone had forgotten their change, Gordon, in a very Gordon way chased after them to give them their change.  He was so caught up in giving them their ten pounds that he had found himself down a street that he didn’t recognise.   It was then that he heard a loud bang, and saw a white light that covered everything he saw. It faded and he briefly saw his fingers, the white flesh the coated them had given way.  All he could see was bone.  Gordon died.
“Gordon?” Said a very ominous voice.
“Yallow?...”
“Gordon... you’re dead”.
“Great! Just what I need.  And I take it I owe money to you as well and I can’t pass over till I pay you back, correct?”
“Well no, as a matter of fact.  Let me introduce myself.  I’m Death.
And to cut a very strenuous and boring story short you’re going to be Death.  You weren’t meant to die today.  No one can be brought back from the dead, and no one can be brought forward to the afterlife until they’re meant to.  So this is all you can do now.  Collect souls”.
“Whatever happened to resting in peace?”
“Did you ever get to rest in peace when you were alive? What makes you think you can now?, because it was on a gravestone?” Death condescendly said.
“So do I get training?”
“I didn’t get any, why should you? Here’s a robe. You’ll get the hang of it, if you need any help just look at the parchment inside your robe.  Everything you need is in there.  Good luck Gordon! Or should I say Death....”
Gordon was taken aback with the recent news that he was now Death that he didn’t realise he was in a hyper-real world where every texture seemed to transcend itself.  However this supreme happiness was short lived as he caught his reflection in a shattered mirror that seemed to tingle with every matter in the world, the mirror looked sublime, he however looked like a skeleton.  Having previously looked at his skeleton fingers it hadn’t occurred to him that his whole body was now a meat rack waiting for some flesh.
Remembering the words of Death he looked for a parchment, his recent melancholy making him seek out a mild distraction.  He pulled out a scroll and let it unravel in his ivory fingers.
Welcome and congratulations on your new job!
Please remember the dead are usually very tired from all the living they’ve had to endure.  If you could kindly escort them to the afterlife they have had chosen for them it would be heavily appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
Death, the First.
0000-∞
Gordon wanted to say he had a gut feeling what he needed to do, but he knew those be a poor choice of words.  Instead, he said nothing and followed a natural instinct to a close hut nearby where a girl had just sliced her wrists opened.  Her body was cold.  A pool of dark crimson blood circled her body.  It was a morbid sight.  Gordon forced himself to feel something for this poor girl, but he most he could manage was a very begrudging feeling of hollow.
“You must be Samantha”.
“How did you know that?” Samantha said, with a scepticism that morphed into embarrassment as soon as she noticed the skeleton in the big black cotton cloak.
“I am not sure, not really... so suicide, eh?” Gordon felt a conversation was polite. 
“I wasn’t very happy.  I still don’t feel very happy.  I’m still unhappy and now I don’t even have my own body”.
“It’s a bitch isn’t it? Life.  Hate to break it to you but death’s a bitch too.  Why did you kill yourself?” Gordon was in a position he never had been in before, a position where he wasn’t feeling judgemental. 
“A lot happened, quickly.  Everything was alright for years, I had a husband, the most beautiful baby girl and I don’t know how I managed it but I was an assistant manager.  I never thought in my wildest dreams I would do so well.  Then it all went from me.   My baby July died from complications, she had a weak heart from birth and one day it just went.  Derek couldn’t cope, he just hit the bottle.  And when he drinks he just can’t control himself, he went home with a new girl every night.  I just let it happen.  I understood.  But then I got made redundant.  The business was doing poor and we were shut down.  I lost control.   I just don’t understand how people find it easy to stay in control for so long.  I let myself spiral, okay? I didn’t want to but sometimes you’re swallowed up by the waves and every time you swim back up it pulls you back under.  I stayed under.  This was my out.  This is why I’m here.  For fuck sake”.  Samantha broke down in tears in front of Gordon.
“Dry your eyes”. Gordon said as he laid a hand on her shoulder.
She got up with eyes red.  He pointed her to a spiral that opened up from none existence.  She turned towards Gordon.
“Thank you, for listening”.  Samantha said as she seemed to perk up.
Gordon walked away.  He muttered underneath his breath as the spiral shut closed behind him.
“Better than selling aubergines”.
Gordon was now Death, and he was off to a good start.