Page 44 of Someone Save My Midlife Tonight

“Three what?”

“Three destined to represent the checks and balances,” he replied. “Three that will work as one.”

“People? Immortals? Angels? Demons?” I pressed. Was he saying that three of something would become a single entity? That was weird.

“Yes and no,” he said.

Shit shit shit. Complex questions were not the way to go. “Help me.”

Jimmy George Carrots scratched his bald head. “Recall the words exchanged about the number three—when you were discussing it with your people.”

I could do that. “Gideon talked about the three branches of the human government—legislative, judicial and executive.” I laughed. It was humorless. “I find it ironic that humans who’ve been around a much shorter time than Immortals got that right, but those who live forever seemed to have whiffed it. Big time.”

“How so?” Jimmy George Carrots inquired.

I narrowed my eyes slightly. He smiled. His question was leading me somewhere. Somewhere I needed to go. I was all in. “Immortals live in a system of dictatorship,” I explained. “Run by one entity that made the laws and the punishments for breaking the laws. Problem is that the entity is now breaking the laws It wrote, and nothing is in place to make It stop.”

“Interesting,” he said, plucking a flower from his belt and handing it to me.

I took it and tucked the purple blossom behind my ear. I had no clue what the flower was, but it smelled awesome. “Thankyou,” I told him.

“You are most welcome,” he replied. “Tell me what it is that you believe is a dictator’s greatest fear.”

“I’m not a dictator, so I’m not speaking from experience, but if I had to guess, I’d say loss of control. Or possibly an uprising, or even assassination.”

“And?” he questioned.

Again, I knew the questions were as important as any of the answers. “Umm… protests. Getting voted out. Although that’s for a democracy… which the Immortals don’t practice.”

“Such a shame, but probably for the best,” he said. “In your world, there are people who were born for a reason—very specific reasons. They were born to become who they are supposed to be.”

“You mean like me being the Death Counselor?”

“And the Angel of Mercy,” he added.

I shook my head. “No, that one kind of happened by default. I was being tested by a psycho and he rooted for me to fail.”

“But you did not,” Jimmy George Carrots pointed out.

“Correct. I didn’t fail.”

The robed man crossed his arms over his chest. “I see that as destiny. You can alter fate by making different choices, but destiny is set in stone. Who you are and who you are meant to be is gifted to you long before you come into this world.”

That was a shitload to swallow. However, dwelling in it was a waste of precious time. “Okay, got it.”

“Do you?” he inquired.

“Well, no, but I think I get the gist of it.”

Jimmy George Carrots smiled. “You will understand when you need to. Shall we get back to the number three?”

Cryptic. So freaking cryptic. “Sure. Tim said that in numerology the number three is associated with communication, optimism and creativity.”

“And what did Heather say?” he asked, trying sounding casual but failing.

Of course, that was probably on purpose. Alrighty then, Heather’s part of the conversation was important. “Heather spoke of the Holy Trinity. The trinity that consists of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.”

“Hmmm…” he said, drumming his lips with his fingers. “And how might that fit into your world?”

---