Afterlife (short story)

William Andrews dies of colon cancer in a hospital bed surrounded by his family. He is ecstatic at the sensation of leaving his body and, therefore, leaving all of his pain behind. He sees a pinprick of white light which steadily expands.

He finds himself standing in a regular office corridor. On one wall are pinned several photographs of a company picnic. He discerns many faces from his past and, inexplicably, former president Ronald Reagan in the photos. He enters a door with "Isaac Harris" stenciled on it. Harris struggles with a tall pile of folders that have been delivered by a pneumatic tube. Harris introduces himself as a spiritual caseworker sentenced to a purgatory in which he must convey the choice facing each recently deceased person. This choice is between two doors, which Andrews sees to his left and right.

Harris explains that the left door will allow Andrews to live his life again and, apart from a vague and fleeting déjà vu, remember nothing of his previous life or his conversation with Harris. Harris says that Andrews has visited his office numerous times and always chosen the left door, despite being told that there is nothing he can do to change any of the bad things he did in his life, including incidents involving permanent injury to his brother, shoplifting, and the gang rape of a female college student.

If Andrews chooses the right door, however, he will simply and permanently cease to exist.

Andrews learns that Harris was co-owner of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, which produced women's garments. In 1911 Harris and his business partner, Max Blanck, were responsible for the deaths of 146 workers after they locked the doors to prevent theft and cigarette breaks. Harris does not know how long his purgatory will last and he still has not fully accepted responsibility for the deaths of his workers. He raves about how he did not cause the fire, he wasn't the one smoking when he should not have been, and that Andrews has no right to judge him when he was one of those responsible for the financial crisis. Andrews argues that the corruption mostly went on far above his pay grade.

Determined to atone for the bad things he has done and to re-experience all of the good things, Andrews chooses the left door despite Harris' warnings. The story concludes as Andrews is born (again) in 1956. Andrews' mother marvels at the new life in her hands and the "limitless possibilities" that ironically don't await him.

• Stephen King's short fiction bibliography