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Somewhere else, a sinner awakens, and wonders where they might have hidden the lake of boiling blood.

I got to my feet, dusting stalks of dead grass off my bare butt, wriggling my toes in cool green living grass, wondering if Dante was somewhere nearby, wondering why there were so many Italians in Hell.

There were trees, tall thin things with scaly gray trunks, surrounded by a carpet of brown pine needles and, just as I looked, a couple emerged, holding hands, a man and a woman, both of them very thin. She was a redhead; he had thin brown hair and a sculpted, curly brown beard. And seeing me, they waved, hurrying fonvard.

"Scott! Scottie!" The one from the man, the other from the woman.

Despite the best of intentions, I kept looking at her crotch, and that made her smile in a shy sort of way. Him too.

"Katy. Ben."

He said, "That was a damn good idea you had!"

"Glad you liked it. Uh ... " He laughed. "It was nowhere near as bad as I expected. You know, we almost made it to the rainout?"

That little pang of guilt, remembering the night I sent him away to die. All for nothing. I could have told him to go get Katy and bring her back. But I didn't. So how am I different from Paulie then? Wasn't Ben my friend? Or Katy, with her lovely little snatch?

"I, uh ... well. I hope it wasn't too bad for you. I mean ... "

Katy said, "If you've got enough Seconal, it's easy enough." She laughed at my look. "Hey, Ben and me woke up together. He told me, um, you and Connie..."

I shook my head. "We made it through the rainout. After that..."

There was a shadow in Ben's face, however sunny Katy was right now. And, of course, for them, that rainout was minutes ago, on the other side of a double-handful of mother's little helper. Look at them. They belong together.

And, somewhere out here ... Connie? Lara? I...

The two of them were looking past me now, faces curious. When I turned, there was a naked woman with curly black hair, smiling, just like you'd expect. And she said, "So, is this my reward in the hereafter?"

What a grin!

I don't think she expected me to pounce on her the way I did, grappling, almost knocking her down in my eagerness. She pushed me away, laughing, wiping her mouth, "Jesus! Down puppy!"

Behind me, Katy said, "Shew! You don't waste any fucking time, Scott! You know this nice nekkid lady?"

To his credit, naked Millikan was even blushing. When I introduced them all to each other, Katy looked Maryanne up and down slowly, lingering on her tits the way women will, then said, "Hey. Connie shows up anytime soon, we can compare notes." Letting Maryanne know where she'd been. Maryanne looked at me, bit her lip, made a little crooked smile, and shrugged. I felt something cold touch my spine, making my balls pull in a bit. I looked down the hill again, towards the shining sea. People were coming out of the bushes everywhere, milling, calling out to one another.

Down there, most likely not far away, a pretty blonde woman of about thirty is inspecting her right wrist, and wondering what the hell she did wrong.

Wonder what I'll say if I run into her?

Somewhere nearby, maybe just beyond the trees, an elephant howled and then we heard a man's terrified scream. Millikan spun, looking towards the sound, then over his shoulder at me. "I guess I wasn't paying attention when the Gods did their bit. Did they say anything about the animals coming here too?"

Gods? As in, I'm not the only one was told where we are? I said, "You got a nice ass, Ben."

He gave me a weird look, then turned back to the woods. You could see a fucking elephant in there, a big gray shadow, blundering about among the pine trees, getting all tangled up, thrashing this way and that. In front of it, you could see a big fat white guy running our way. Every once in a while he'd look over his shoulder, scream, trip and fall, get up and stumble on.

Maryanne said, "The trees came to heaven with us, why not an elephant?"

I put my arm around her waist, and said, "Long as you're here, the details don't matter."

She twisted in my grasp, trying to look me in