Carl flipped the coin with gusto. As it went upwards his eyes followed and he wondered if he was the only one who noticed the coin was moving in slow motion. A crowd had gathered around him at the bar to watch how this was going to play out.
A man in a slick suit had come in an hour earlier offering to buy the drinks. His conversation was pleasant and his smile winning. He carried a charm Carl had never encountered before. At first it was just the two of them having a chat but it was as though every nearby ear was drawn to listen. People began to hush around them and pay attention to the words.
“So heaven is not real to you? So what is?” asked slick suit.
“Well, my friends, my job, my kid; although I don’t see him much, having as much fun as I can while I can; perhaps enough money to sail about the world without a time clock.” Carl answered.
“I tell you what, if you could flip a coin to have that sailboat dream or head on into the afterlife you don’t believe in, would you be ready to go? No soul preparation, no thought to the possibility there might be more, would you do it?”
Carl laughed but countered with “Why, are you going to fund my sailboat dream?”
With a smile, slick suit pulled out his wallet. He laid out fifteen bills of a thousand denomination and wrote a check for another hundred thousand, laying it on the bar before Carl. “Does that answer your question? This is only the down payment of course. There is more where this came from.”
Carl’s eyes were wide, he’d never seen so much money. Eyeing the man he asked, “So what’s the catch?”
“No catch. Flip a coin, your coin. Heads you take this money and more and sail your dreams. Tails you take this money and more, also sailing your dreams, however you never enter that heaven which is not real to you anyway.”
Watching the coin fall Carl could feel his chest tighten; this had to be a joke….