Second Day on the Job

"The guardian."  Richter stood up straight and scanned the man before him.  "You look like one of the tribe."

The man scratched his face absently.  "Yes, well.  That's to make you more comfortable."

Richter looked around the hallway for signs of danger but saw none.  "Comfortable?"  He let out a snort of disbelief.  "After the journey, what is comfort to me but another obstacle to overcome."

The stranger nodded.  "You're right.  Bad choice of words.  Familiar.  It's to make me more familiar - I mean that I look like one of you.  One of the.. uh... tribe."

"Are you not?"  He took an aggressive step forward.

The man hopped back, visibly nervous.  "I'm not... well.  Okay.  You've been through the test - taken the journey as you say and this is really only my second time being the greeter - the guardian, right?  So anyway."

Richter glanced around again but saw no thoughts.  "You are not the guardian."

"I'm not.  My name is..."

"Then get out of my way."  He grimaced but made no move to step forward.

"Right.  Okay.  Here's the deal."  He cleared his throat.  "Look at your hands."

Richter did.  He half smiled.  "What trickery or illusion is this?  Do you tempt me with visions of youth?"

"No.  You're young.  20 years old, actually."  The stranger sighed.  "It's a simulation."

"What?"  Richter winced with confusion.  "You are not the guardian.  This is a simulation?  Why would you tell me that?  Who are you?"

"I'm Dave."

"Dave?"

"Dave."

"You're not the guardian?"

"I'm the receptionist."  Dave sighed again, deeper.  "Not like a note taking... never mind.  I read your file and that wouldn't even make sense to you.  I'm kind of the guardian but not to the heaven you were expecting.  I don't have the flask of immortality or the eye of wisdom."

"My tribe is doomed, then."  Richter's posture buckled slightly.

"You're tribe isn't real."  Dave cleared his throat.  "That was your childhood.  Look.  I'll give you the tour and whatnot but your whole life - the tribe, the plague, become the ghost hunter - that was what you needed to uhm... figure things out.  And so now you're ready."

"I'm ready?"  Richter shook his head.  "Ready for what?"

"You just spent 20 years dreaming.... the bosses call it 'prepping'.  It's, uhm, like I said - what they figured out that you, based on who you are, need in order to do the best you can do here.  You know - live life to the fullest and whatnot."

"My world was a dream?"  Richter laughed a bit.

"Yeah.  And so, I'll give you the tour so you can kind of see what we do here in the real world."  Dave started to walk down the hallway a bit.  "And then you hang out for a week and if you don't want to stick around we can send you back - with the flask and the eye if you want.  You'll be the savior of the whole tribe, I guess."

Richter followed along.  "And this?"

"Yeah, you can stay if you want."

"And if I don't?"

"We'll send you back, no problem."