He had no idea where he was.
He had a vague recollection of lying in a bed. It may have been a hospital. He had been feeling really poorly and there were nurses and a doctor and… It came to him that he may have died. He felt completely fine now, sitting in this chair… in this waiting room… His head was spinning, though. He looked around. There were a couple of dozen others, all sitting patiently. All sorts, young and old, mostly old. A mix of ethnicities, but all sitting in a calm repose as though they knew exactly why they were there. Maybe they didn’t. Maybe they were all like him, dazed and confused. He thought he’d get up and take a look around, but found he couldn’t. He looked down to see whether he was held by restraints of some kind, but he wasn’t. He took a deep breath and went back to waiting.
Not long after this, a large, double door at the far end of the room parted. The creature that came in was dressed in a white, long-sleeved, full-length smock from head to toe. It was hard to tell the gender, but it towered at around twelve feet high. It was thin and walked very slowly. He could see that it had a face, although strange, it was a face; eyes, nose, mouth. It moved to the centre of the room looking intently at some kind of clipboard. It gazed around at the room’s occupants before speaking. It sounded like a person whispering down a tunnel, there was a slight echo to it. The strange being was explaining that what they were each hearing was being heard in their own mother tongues. It asked if they understood. He nodded with the others. It went back to its clipboard.
It was slowly coming to him that this had to be some sort of ‘between lives’ place. This wasn’t heaven or hell, he thought. This was some alien setup. He found it incredibly difficult to imagine the purpose of having a room full of people like this; hard to imagine where it was all going. His thoughts were cut short when they were asked to stand up and follow their host.
With no difficulty at all, he got up. They all filed through into what was a long corridor, with rooms on either side. One by one, and in no apparent order, despite the fact that the alien was continually checking his board, they each entered a room. When it came to his turn it opened the door for him. Inside, a similar being stood waiting. Some flimsy paper thing was handed over and it left, closing the door gently. He looked around while the alien studied what he’d been given. It seemed to be nodding slightly, without any facial expression, presumably receiving a summary about the man that stood gazing around the room. The room was featureless, save for one enormous wheel that stood against the far wall. It looked just like the sort of thing he’d seen on TV game shows.
With its lips barely moving, the new creature explained that he was to spin the wheel to determine the sort of life he would return to. Despite the unbelievably ludicrous situation he found himself in, he felt a calm wave come over him as he went forward to take a closer look. It was huge, if anything it was higher than the thing that had followed him and now stood beside him. It looked down and began to explain. However, it was self-evident. There were numbers from one to a hundred in a normal sequence and pins that ran around its outer edge. A flap hung from the top that would bend with the passing of the pins. He stood thinking about how remarkably close it was, in style, to the standard wheels-of-fortune he’d seen before.
He became aware that the creature was most probably giving him time to think about it. Turning it over in his mind, he presumed that he could return as a member of any one of a number of races. He could return to a war torn country or somewhere nice and peaceful. He also considered that any single life expectancy, in general terms, could be very long or very short. It amazed him that with so many potential outcomes, these unknown life entities had managed to get these alternatives down to just one hundred.
He heard the entity make a gentle hiss, and a long, thin arm came up. Its slender finger pointing to a handle. It was high up on the right-hand side, no doubt for starting a clockwise spin of the wheel. He was instructed to pull down hard. Again, he was surprised at his unquestioning obedience as he took hold of the handle and with gusto got the massive thing turning. The rotation wasn’t fast, but it seemed like a very long time before the huge wheel stopped. He noted the number, the significance of which was entirely meaningless from his point of view.
He looked up into the peculiar face and waited. A few moments passed while the paper like material it was holding was studied. Twice it looked up at the number…
Despite the fact that the thing’s face was just about expressionless, he thought he detected just the hint of a smile…