Samandriel was running late, again. Running across the white marble floor, he thought flying would be quicker but the multiple corridors he had to pass through were not tall enough to clear the foot traffic as well. Weaving through the other angels, his wings fluttered behind him. Limbo was so close he just might still make it.

The service door slammed open into the sterile room and Samandriel slowed to a stop, leaning over with his hands planted on his knees, trying to catch his breath. “I’m here,” he wheezed. “I made it.”

Uriel looked over his clipboard, “Barely. I was about to write you up for Failure to Report. You know what being AWOL would mean for you, right?”

“Yes…yes” replied Samandriel between breaths.

“Take your post,” says the other angel as he walks to the exit. The service door disappeared as Uriel walked through.

Samandriel stood beside a white door. Across the room is another white door. There should be an angel standing next to it as well. “What are you doing?”

The question nearly makes Samandriel leap out of his wings. “What do you mean?” he asks.

“What do you mean, ‘what do I mean?’” said the angel. “This is my door today.”

“That can’t be, Uriel told me to man this door today,” said Samandriel. The other angel shrugged and trudged across to the other door.

The wall beside the two doors held a double door where the new arrivals would stream into this celestial sorting room. Samandriel looked at his door and grinned, manning the portal of the Stairway to Heaven always made him just a little bit happier.

The double-doors opened, and the newly arrived souls began streaming in and peeling off to each angelic door. Queuing before Samandriel’s door, the angel straightens his white robe. The soul, a woman, looks nervous. The angel puts his hand on the woman’s forehead and closes his eyes. A moment later he smiles, “You may enter,” he says, opening and closing the door behind her.

A man steps up. Samandriel touches his forehead and frowns, “Yours is the other door,” sending the man on his way. The line passed as souls were processed. Before long, the angel noticed the souls he was sending to the other door were reappearing in his queue. Sending them away again, it was a matter of time before the other angel walked over.

“Sam, why do you keep sending the sinners over to me?”

“Because they’re earmarked for your door,” Samandriel says simply.

“I’m manning the Stairway to Heaven,” said the angel, now pointing to Sam’s door. “You said you’re working the Escalator to Hell today.”

Samandriel shook his head and even laughed as the news was sinking in. If he had been letting the Redeemed into his door…he looked sweaty. “I…um…but…WHY ARE ALL THE DOORS WHITE?!”