A holy Iman dies in peace. He is astounded to be welcomed by St. Peter at the Pearly Gates.
“Sorry about the no 72 virgins. In this heaven we spend our days in the glory of God, who is non-denominational. You’ll meet the truly blessed evolving into the truly blissed.”
The Iman accepts this heaven in all its goodness, but after a few weeks he goes up to St. Peter and says, “Heaven is great, but all those years on Earth when I was preaching about the horrors of Hell, I was often curious what Hell was actually like.”
“Pretty much as you envisioned it.”
“IS there anyway I can see it?” The Iman was more than slightly bored with the communal utopia of Heaven.
“Of course there is.” St Peter opens the Pearly Gates and points to a set of endless stairs. “You can visit Hell on a one-time visa. Two weeks. Do anything you want. You earned this holiday by all the goodness you create on earth. Get it out of your system and then return to the bosom of the Creator.”
“And I can go now?”
“Anytime you want?” St. Peter walks the Iman to the stairs. He is greeted by doe-eyed houris and escorted to a bar where Jimi Hendrix is playing LITTLE WING. Hitler painting the walls and Marilyn Monroe working upstairs in the Satan a Go Go. It’s great fun and time passes in the blink of an eye. The Iman says goodbye to everyone and climbs the steps to the Pearly Gates.
“So how was it?” St. Peter asks peering down the stairs.
“Not like I expected it.”
“Well, at least you got it out of your system. Back to the eternity of bliss.”
Unfortunately his holiday infected the Iman. He can’t stop thinking about hell. Heaven is all communing with the great oneness. He goes back to St. Peter and asks if there’s a way he could go back to Hell.
“Sure, but if you go you can’t come back.”
The Iman looks over his shoulder at the fleecy clouds and praying angels.
“No problem.”
“See you on Judgment Day.” St. Peter is all smiles like a dealer selling a hot shot and so is the Iman as he walks down the stairs, although this time the houris greet him with pitchforks. Fire laps his legs. His flesh is torn open by the demons.
“St. Peter, this isn’t the Hell I knew. Why’s it so different now.”
St. Peter shouts from the Pearly Gates, “That’s the difference between going someplace on vacation and living there.”
