The Old Wayfarer - Chapter 4

The figure in the open doorway was none other than a man wearing a fedora and a gray wool suit. As the man walked into the dimly lit chamber in which Orion sat petrified, he knew he recognized the man from family drawings. Was it...

"Grandpa?" Orion uttered.

"Yes, my boy. It's nice to meet you, at long last," the old man beamed.

Half-fearful and half-overwhelmed with joy, the youth tepidly approached the Old Wayfarer - a local legend, a renowned scientist, an unknown paterfamilias. Orion had so many questions to ask his grandfather, but he instantly found himself dumbfounded and shy. Orion had heard about his grandpa his whole life and felt like he knew the old man, but Orion never actually knew him.

"Is... is it okay if I call you Grandpa?" the boy asked.

 "Of course, Oriole!" Grandpa smile. "Call me whatever you'd like."

"I'm Orion, Grandpa." "Oh, sorry about that," the septuagenarian smirked. Then the smirk faded.

"So much has happened these past thirty years."

There were a few seconds of silence as the two men let the moment sink in. Family reunited after decades of silence.  Their only connection was Orion's father, another missing link in Orion's family.

"Grandpa, what is this place?" Orion inquired.

Grandpa smiled and began to say something before he stopped himself and thought some more.

"Follow me," was all that Grandpa could muster.

"Okay," the boy followed.

Grandpa and Orion left the blue room and found themselves in a blackness surrounded by stars, galaxies, and planets. Orion immediately felt panic. The door behind them closed and the room disappeared into the stellar background.

 "Grandpa, are we in Heaven?" Orion asked in a daze.

"That's one way of looking it at," Grandpa said. "Think of this as a portal to Heaven."

"Like a gateway?" Orion wondered, still confused.

"Let me show you," Grandpa stated.

Orion and Grandpa walked along a straight starlit path through the universe. They seemed to be no closer to any star or planet than they were a few minutes earlier. Then, out of nowhere, a shooting star came rocketing up toward them, apparently on a collision course with the two stargazing amblers. Grandpa put his hand on his grandson's chest and stopped him.

"Here it comes!" Grandpa mystically asserted. "This is what Heaven looks like."

Orion tightly closed his eyes and covered them with his hands as a growing white light engulfed his visual field until all he saw was whiteness brighter than the sun. Then, the light dimmed and Orion once again opened his eyes. He truly was in Heaven.