A man and his dog were walking along a deserted country road.
The man was enjoying the tranquility and the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying and also recalled that the dog walking beside him was his old dog that had been dead for years.
He wondered where the road was leading them.
After they had been walking for a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like the wall was made of fine marble.
They continued walking to the top of a long hill, where the white stone wall was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
When he reached the arch and was standing before it, he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like Mother of Pearl and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.
The traveller and the dog walked toward the gate and as they got closer, the man saw a figure sitting at a desk to one side of the arch.
When he was close enough, he called out, “Excuse me, where are we?”
“This is Heaven, sir”, the man at the desk answered.
“Wow!”, the traveller said in a state of surprise. “Would you happen to have some water?” he asked the man at the desk.
“Of course, sir. Come right in and I’ll have some ice water brought right up”.
The man at the desk gestured and the gate began to open.
“Can my friend come in too”, the traveller asked, gesturing toward his dog.
“I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t accept pets”, the man at the desk replied.
The traveller thought for a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued on the way he had been going, along with his dog.
After another long walk and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road which led through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed.
There was no fence and as he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.
“Excuse me”, he called to the man reading the book. “Do you have any water?”
“Yeah, sure, there’s a pump over there”, the man replied.
The man pointed to a place that couldn’t be seen from outside the gate. “Come on in”, he said, beckoning to the traveller.
“How about my friend here?” the traveler asked, pointing to the dog.
“Of course”, the man said, “there should be a bowl for him by the pump”.
So the traveller and his dog went through the gate and sure enough, there was an old fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.
The traveler filled the bowl with water and took a long drink himself, then he filled it again and gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man, who was standing by the tree waiting for them.
“What do you call this place?” the traveler asked.
“This is Heaven”, the man answered.
“Well, that’s confusing”, the traveler said. “The man down the road said that was Heaven, too”.
“Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Oh no, that’s not Heaven, it’s Hell”.
“Doesn’t it make you mad for them to use your name like that?”, the traveller asked.
“No not really”, the man replied. “I can see how you might think so, but we are just happy that they screen out the folks who will leave their best friends behind”.
Sometimes, we wonder why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word, maybe this could explain:
When you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do? You forward jokes.
When you have nothing to say, but still want to keep contact, you forward jokes.
When you have something to say, but don’t know what and you don’t know how, you forward jokes.
And to let you know that you are still remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still cared for, guess what you get?
A forwarded joke of course.
So my friend, next time if you get a joke, don’t think that you’ve been sent just another forwarded joke, but that you’ve been thought of today and your friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile.
I have no idea who wrote this in the first place and I’m not going to claim it as I didn’t, but it’s a story that makes you think as well as making you smile, so hopefully you haven’t seen it before and you enjoyed it.
You know what to do now then… Please help more people to see this by sharing it with your friends. The easiest way is to click on one of the buttons at the top or bottom of the story to share on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In or Pinterest. Thank you very much if you can help us to reach a wider audience.
Image used under a Collective Commons License from https://pixabay.com/photos/man-dog-walking-shetland-sheepdog-6562628/
