Cheating Death

“ A way to cheat Death?” I looked him steadily in his eyes. My question penetrating his eyes. Yes, this man wanted to cheat death all right. “Why, may I ask, are you asking me?” he looked at me as if my mind had wandered, as it so often does these days. I sighed, he was like so many other young lings these days. “Have you cheated it once yet?” The boy looked on, not bothering to answer me. I did not need an answer though. I wasn’t daft, though others might differ with me. “So you haven’t cheated Death yet,” I wasn’t asking a question, it was a statement and there was no way he could disagree with me, or try to hide the fact that he has hasn’t cheated it yet. “Cheat it once, then come back, but not before. I will give you a hint then, though not before.”

I waved him out with my hand, a gesture that takes to much from me nowadays. I laid my head back against my pillow and watched with slitted eyes as the boy walked out of the room. I don’t doubt he will cheat Death, only that he will forget to come back.

Years later. . .

I looked at the young man standing in front of me. I do believe he came a few years ago. I must say, being honest with myself, I did not expect him to of kept to what I told him. Normally they forget all about it. “So, have you cheated Death once?” He nodded slowly at me, a might sheepishly I should add. “What, might I enquire, did you cheat it by?”

“Cliff diving,” his head was bowed and no eye contact was being made with me. The fool! Cliff diving! “An idiot pass time no doubt!” he nodded again. I let out a sigh, trying to left out my anger with it. I don’t even know why I bother trying. I laid back down on my pillow and closed my eyes.

“The hint?”I cracked open on eye. His voice, wasn’t sheepish or ashamed like it had been minutes before, no it was commanding, demanding. But I suppose I could forgive him. Now where was I? Oh yes, the hint. I promise this to soon, I should know better.

“Death doesn’t like odd numbers. He never does do good with odds. Yet when you are even he does you in. Only the first time is he caught off guard. Never again can he be cheated when you are even.” I paused to catch my breath, everything takes more of a toll then it did before. “Remember this boy, you cheated him once. Don’t do it twice, only the third.”

“I doubt that, the odds are never stacked to us, only to him!” The boy was outraged, as they all are. They don’t believe what I tell them. I can see why. I closed my eyes again and spoke very slowly, as if he was the one with the fading mind, not me. “ Death is fair, no matter how you might say he is not.”

“Fair?! Death fair?! He took my Mother away at six, my sister at fourteen! How do you call that fair!”

“The same rules apply to everyone, how many beats of the heart you get, how many broken bones you are allowed to get. How much blood you may loose. Death doesn’t-“

“He doesn’t take away my family from me, kill my Mother, destroy the world?!”

I must applaud him with his words. Those are so true. “Death isn’t the one who kills, humans do that. He sets the stakes, and you run toward them. We all try to cheat, but Death, Death is fair.”

I opened my eyes to study the young man more. “Why do you think Death chooses not to do odds. He thinks that it is unfair. He only takes you when the stakes are even. You all call him a cheater, one who plays unfair, but he isn’t and Death upholds that.” I closed my eyes again and felt a calm, one that only comes when a cheater is thinking.

“Keep this in mind, never play with Death when the odds are even.” The boy left the room that was echoing with my words.