Chapter 41 40. One Night in Paradise

Once upon a time, there were two very good friends. They made an agreement: whoever gets married first will invite the other to be the bridesmaid. Soon, one of them died, and the living one was getting married, not knowing what to do.So he went to the confessor priest for advice. "It's a difficult thing," said the priest, "but you must keep your promise to invite him even if he is dead. To his grave and say what you want. Whether he can come or not." It's his business to attend your wedding." The young man came to the cemetery and said, "Old friend, I'm getting married, so you can be my bridesmaid!"

The grave cracked open and the friend jumped out. "I will come anyway. I must keep my promise, otherwise, I don't know how long it will take me to go to heaven." They go to the groom's house first, and then to the church for the wedding.Then he attended the wedding feast, at which the dead lad told all kinds of stories, but nothing about his experiences in the other world.The groom wanted to ask him some questions very much, but he didn't have the courage.After the wedding banquet, the dead man stood up and said, "Old friend, I have fulfilled your request. Can you give me a ride when I go back?"

"Oh! Of course! But I can't send it too far, because tonight is my wedding night." "I understand that you can come back anytime you like." The groom kissed the bride goodbye and said, "I'm going away for a while, and I'll be back soon." He walked away with the dead.They chatted and chatted, and they came to the cemetery unknowingly.They hugged to say goodbye.The living people thought: If you don’t ask him now, you will never have a chance to ask him in the future.So he summoned up his courage and asked, "Since you are dead, let me ask you one thing: what is that world like?"

"I can't tell you that," replied the dead man. "If you want to get to the bottom of it, come with me to heaven." The tomb opened again, and the living followed the dead into it.The two of them came to heaven.The dead took their friends to a beautiful crystal palace with a golden gate.There the angels played the harp, St. Peter played the double bass, and danced for the Ascension.Seeing this strange scene, the living people were stupefied with astonishment.God knows how long he would have stayed in this palace if there were not many other places in Paradise to see. "Look elsewhere," said the dead man, leading him into a garden.The trees in the garden are not clusters of leaves, but colorful singing birds. "Don't be in a daze, let's go." The dead man said, and led his friend to a meadow.There, the angels are like couples, dancing happily and gracefully. "Let's go to a star and have a look." The river on the star is not water, but wine, and the ground is full of cheese. It's really fascinating, and you can't bear to leave for a long time.

Suddenly he was taken aback, and said: "Oh, my goodness! I didn't think I'd been here so long, old friend, and I'd have to go back to the bride. She must be worrying about me." "Is this enough for you to stay in heaven for a while?" "Enough? If I could choose..." "There's still a lot to see here!" "I believe it is, but I should really go back." "Well, as you please." The deceased accompanied him back to the grave, and then disappeared. The living came out of the grave, but he no longer recognized the original cemetery: it was crowded with tombstones, statues and towering trees.He walked out of the cemetery and saw rows of high-rise buildings along the street instead of the simple stone cottages in the past; cars and trams were everywhere on the street, and various planes flew across the sky. "Where am I? Am I going the wrong way? Oh, why are these people dressed like this!"

On the street, he stopped a small old man passing by and asked, "Sir, what town is this?" "Do you mean the city?" "Yes, the city. I don't recognize it, though I've lived here. Will you please take me to the house where I got married yesterday?" "Yesterday? I happened to be a sexton, and I'm sure no one got married yesterday!" "What do you mean? I am the one who got married yesterday!" Then, he told the old man about visiting heaven with his dead friend. "You are dreaming, it is an old legend: a bridegroom sent his friend to the grave and never came back, and the bride died of grief."

"It's impossible, I'm the groom!" "Listen, the only way you can find out now is to go to church and talk to our lord bishop." "Bishop? But there's only the parish priest in town here!" "What parish priest? There was a bishop here many years ago!" So the sexton took him to see the bishop. The young man told the bishop about his experience.The bishop recalled the story he had heard as a child.He took out the parish files and began to flip through them one by one.Thirty years ago, there was no record; fifty years ago, there was no record; one hundred years ago, there was no record;He continued to flip through the pages, and finally he pointed to the name on a yellowed and torn page and said: "This is a record three hundred years ago. A young man disappeared in the cemetery. His bride died because of this." Died of grief. If you don’t believe me, just read this record!”

"But, I am the bridegroom!" "So, you've been to another world? Tell me about it." The young man's face suddenly turned pale, and he fell to the ground and died.He didn't say a word about what he saw in heaven. (Friuli region) -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Notes: Source: Dolph Zojut, "Selected Friulian Folktales" (Udine, 1927 edition), page 169; Collection area: Cormons, Friuli province; Narrator: Giovanni Minin, narrated in 1913. This legend embodies important themes of medieval literature: death, the afterlife, Old Man Time.In this story, however, contemporary storytellers bring modern science and technology into the picture: small towns grow into big cities, cars, trams, airplanes.