The time it took for Nelson to travel from the riverbed to his destination was less than a heartbeat, but in that moment time stood still. Nelson felt every cell of his body slowly separate, as if he was ice cream melting in the sun. It sounds awful, but it wasn’t. For that split second in time, Nelson felt every part of himself connecting with every single part of the universe. I know that sounds strange, and the truth is, it was. Nelson had been a boy for almost all his life, and more recently a sort of half fish, half boy, but now he was dissolving into nothing and yet at the same time becoming part of everything. He was reduced to his very essence, which he now realized was his soul. Nelson didn’t just feel it and know it, he could hear it. The hum of the universe. Like the sound that’s left over after a gong has been struck. Ommm. This was the sound of everything, from a rock to a rock star. It was the sound of the soul.
* * *
Everything had suddenly become so clear to Nelson that he realized he had made a mistake in where he had chosen to go. Home was not to be his final destination, and in that fleeting moment of time, he redirected himself.