A Visit from Death

Episode 1

Mr. Jack Peacebolt, Esq. lay in a hospital bed in a private hospital in London, rather pleased with the inclusion of the phrase ‘terminal’ in his recent prognosis and with the fact that his remaining time of mortality was measured in days, rather than weeks or months. Apart from wanting to meet his great-grandson and namesake (who was being induced that same day in the same hospital) before he died, Jack sincerely looked forward to the visit he would soon receive from his old friend Death.

Jack and Death had been friends since childhood.

All through school they had been inseparable and it wasn’t until around thirty years later when Jack had become heavily involved in his new job that he and Death had fallen out of touch. Workload and family life had certainly been a factor in the lives of these two friends drifting apart, however, the greatest component was a small matter of mutual disagreement. Now, almost thirty years on from when they had last spoken, Jack still thought of his best friend often.
He was aroused from this contemplation by a knock at the door. Without waiting for a reply, a slim but curvaceous black nurse with a complexion like silky chocolate mousse, strode in with a tray of food, and said,
‘Rice and vegetables, Mr. Peacebolt.’
‘Yes, well, I’d prefer the liver and bacon I requested two hours ago, Nurse Gayle,’ replied jack, with a wry grin.
‘Mm-hmm, I know what you’d like, deary,’ said the nurse placing the tray down on his eating table. She turned to open the curtains, ‘but you ain’t so well that you can have it.’
Her words fell on deaf ears, Jack was busy eyeing up the curvaceous expanse of her bottom.
Nurse Gayle glided around the room smoothly and efficiently, leaving a trail of tidiness in her wake, like a kind of domestic tornado. Then, as she was leaving, her head floating around the corner of the door, she said,
‘Oh, by the way, you got a friend come to see you, says his name’s Death. I’ll send him in when you finished your rice.’
Jack perked up as much as a man in his condition could, and said,
‘Ah, I’m not hungry. Send him in now, would you, Nurse.’
‘I’ll send him in,’ said the nurse more slowly, ‘when you finished your rice.’ And she closed the door, leaving Jack with no appetite and a plate of food he would never have eaten anyway.
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