The Appointment in Samarra

Death speaks: There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I saw in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

[Reference: This story is written by "W.Somersete Maugham," and from the book "Literature: An Introduction To Fiction, Poetry, Drama, And Writing, fifth edition"]
******************************************

``` I love the theme of the story: we can never avoid or hide from Death. However the modern medical technologies come out times after times, we can never postpone our date of death. Karma already arranged our death since we were born. All of us are living alive without knowing three things: when we die, where we die and how we die.