Z is for NEVER THE END

"Everyone owes nature a death, but in our unconscious, we are immortal." 
- Sigmund Freud

"Everything ends badly -- that is why they end." 
- Samuel McCord

"There is nothing fair or well in farewells."
 - Empress Meilori Shinseen

 "When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it's always twenty years behind the times." 
- Mark Twain

The ghost of Sigmund Freud looked oddly sad as he said to me, 

"We now reach the letter Z.  What occurs to you now?" 

"Never the End," I said.

Mark nodded, "From Tom Sawyer to Huck Finn, I always had trouble with endings, too."

Freud shook his head.  "Why am I not surprised that even here at the end, you make this all about yourself?"

Mark Twain sighed, 

"You, of all people, should know that death has always been a door only one person wide."

Freud twirled his still unlit cigar.  

"Yes, that is why I requested my doctor to end my life with morphine when the pain became too great to bear."  

He looked off into the darkness.  "It was my door to open when I wished.  My doctor agreed."

Freud gestured to our haunted surroundings.  "And after all my talk about Thanatos, I find myself here."

Mark smiled sadly, 

"Your life was never what you expected, brother, so why expect death to be any different?"

Freud raised an eyebrow. "Brother?"

"Of course brother.  

We're both ghosts so that makes us brothers, don't you know?

Why, if you t'weren't my brother, I'd have to kill you.  And since you can't kill ghosts, I decided to think of you as a brother."

Mark smiled crooked, "Of course, I think of you as the black sheep of the family."

Freud squeezed the bridge of his nose.  "You would."

Mark glanced over the doctor's shoulder.  "Why if it isn't Napoleon over there playing chess with Darwin."

Mark winked at Freud.  "Let's wander over there and pop some pompous ego's.  It'll be fun."

Freud shook his head.  "You will not drag me into another maddening exchange of nonsense."

Mark nodded off to our right.  "Why, lookee there.  Old Jung and Adler are heading our way."

Freud hastily got up without looking.  I did.  Neither were to be seen.  Mark winked at me.

Freud sighed, 

"I suppose I should accompany you to spare Napoleon and Darwin from your uncensored wit."

Mark tugged on the man's arm.  "This will be a hoot.  Just you watch."

I got up to join them when I noticed Napoleon had a pistol in his waist sash.  

I remembered how innocent by-standers fared at Meilori's.  

I sat back down.  

I smiled wide.  This had certainly been one A TO Z CHALLENGE I'd not forget.

How about you?