Another stolen year

A man died. He was a decent person, nevertheless he was sentenced to spend eternity in hell.

The man grew accustomed to living in hell. It wasn’t so bad, to tell the truth. There was work to be done each day, things to fix, things to experience, even some moments of pleasure to be had. The problem was, he missed his wife. Terribly, terribly much.

The man mustered his courage and approached the devil. “Where is my wife? Is she in heaven?” The last thing he wanted was to accidentally summon her away from a more blessed existence.

“No, she is also in hell,” the devil replied.

“Then why aren’t we living in the same unit? Don’t you have someone competent doing rooming logistics?”

“The point isn’t rooming logistics. The point is that you should suffer for eternity.”

The man had an idea. “Would you let us spend one year together? When that year is over, I will still suffer for eternity. After all, infinity minus one is still infinity. In fact,” the man added, “my suffering will be greater; having cherished the company of my wife for another year, my longing for her will be even stronger for eternity.”

The devil stroked his white goatee. He acquiesced.

The man’s reunion with his wife was a sight for the ages. They embraced, they kissed, they pressed their noses against each other so close they could see nothing else. They hardly left each other’s presence for the entire year.

When their time was up, they simply could not bear to part. So the man approached the devil again.

“Would you grant us one more year? We have grown even closer, thus my eternity of suffering will be even worse. An infinity of years still remains.”

The man sweated and held his breath. The devil sighed, and acquiesced.

At the end of another beautiful twelve months, the man beseeched the devil once more. And so the man and his wife continued again and again, deferring the day of their inevitable separation; precious time carved from eternity, another stolen year.