Sucker's Portfolio

by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

“What’s it like to be dead? In a word: dead. That’s what it’s like.” He put his stethoscope to the old man’s now-pounding heart. “What will our friend tell us?” He shook his head. “He’ll say what it’s customary to say. You’ve read it a hundred times in newspaper stories. The back-from-the-deaders don’t remember a thing, so ninety percent say the customary phrase just to be interesting.” He snapped his fingers. “And it’s so much bunk. Know the phrase I mean?” “No. Up to now I haven’t been interested.” Dr. Boyle fished a pencil stub and a scrap of paper from his vest pocket. He scrawled a sentence on the paper and handed it to David. “Here. Don’t look at it until our protégé comes around enough to talk. Five dollars says we’ll hear him say what I’ve just written.”

I like this doctor, betting on the undead