Read Can't Wait to Get to Heaven for Free Online Page B

when a little style is finally coming back. Go out to Restoration Hardware, or to the Pottery Barn, they have the cutest things now, and for great prices. I just try not to worry about it.”
    “Yeah,” Tot said. “It doesn’t do any good. Verbena said she’s not worried one whit. Of course, she thinks she’s going to disappear, right before the end of the world comes and the rest of us all burn to a crisp. She said if she ever misses her hair appointment, it’s because she’s been taken up to heaven in the rapture. I said, ‘Well, thanks a lot, Verbena, if you were really a good Christian you would at least offer me a ride up to heaven, instead of leaving me here to fry.’”
    “What did she say?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Well, Tot, if it makes her happy to think that, let her. I’ve given up trying to figure out why people believe what they do. Look at those suicide bombers that blow themselves up thinking they are going to wake up and have seventy virgins or something.”
    “Yeah, well, they may be in for a big surprise when they wake up and find out they are just plain old dead and they blew themselves up for nothing. What’s that song Peggy Lee sang, ‘Is That All There Is?’”
    “Yes, well, unfortunately nobody knows if this is it, or if there is life after death,” said Norma.
    Tot suddenly stopped brushing Norma’s hair. “God, I hope not, this one has wore me out. I just want to sleep.”
    “Oh, Tot, you don’t mean that. What if you had a chance to see your family again?”
    “Hell no, I didn’t want to see most of them when they were alive.”
    Tot then picked up a can of Clairol hard-to-hold hair spray. “What’s life all about anyway, that’s what I want to know, and I don’t want to have to wait until I’m dead to find out either,” she said, spraying Norma’s hair with a vengeance. “Is that too damn much to ask?”
    After she finished, Tot looked at Norma’s hair in the large glass, rearranged a few curls, then handed Norma a hand mirror and spun her chair around so she could see the back. “There you go, hon, pretty as a picture!”
             
    After her hair appointment, Norma felt a little uneasy, so when she arrived at Aunt Elner’s house, she was happy to see her sitting on her porch with a big smile on her face. As she came up the stairs, she said, “You look mighty cheerful today.”
    “Oh, I am, honey. I just saved a butterfly! I walked out here a little while ago and saw the prettiest butterfly caught in a spiderweb and I was able to set it loose. I’m sorry that spider missed out on his lunch, but butterflies only have one day to live, now at least he’ll have the rest of the day.”
    Norma cleared off a chair and sat down. “I’m sure he’ll be happy about that.”
    Elner said, “Did you know a turtle lives to be a hundred and fifty years old and poor little butterflies just get a day? Life doesn’t seem fair, does it?”
    “No,” said Norma. “Tot was just saying the same thing a few minutes ago.”
    “About butterflies?”
    “No, that life was not fair.”
    “Ah…what brought that up?”
    “She’s worried about not being able to collect her social security before the end of the world.”
    “Poor Tot, as if she didn’t have enough to worry about with those children of hers. What else is she carrying on about this morning?”
    “Just her usual this and that, and she’s mad because she doesn’t know what life is all about.”
    Aunt Elner laughed. “Well, join the club, who does? That’s one of those sixty-four-thousand-dollar questions, isn’t it, I’d say it’s right up there with the chicken or the egg, wouldn’t you?”
    “I suppose.”
    Elner said, “You tell Tot if she finds out, to let me know.”

    Suddenly, as loud bells began dinging, Norma was abruptly jerked back into the present moment with a start. Back to the horrible present moment at hand, when only five days ago, Aunt Elner had been happy and laughing, and now