I WAS LETTING myself die.
Letting go of life. Looking forward to whatever waited for me up ahead in the light-filled tunnel.
My whole life flashed before my eyes. My time as a baby on Alpar Nok. Riding the roller coaster at the Kansas State Fair. My first ice cream cone.
I saw all the cute girls I’ve ever had a crush on. That was nice.
I saw Mel and me meeting for the first time. In Kentucky. I’d been riding on Xanthos but ended up on my butt in a very cold creek.
“Ride much?” she’d said with a laugh.
And I was instantly head-over-heels, wackaloon crazy about her.
I flashed back to my time in Portland. Los Angeles. London. Stonehenge. Tokyo.
I remembered my days time-traveling into Terra Firma’s past. Hanging out with Merlin, the medieval magician. Chatting with Benjamin Franklin and George Washington.
Then I saw all sorts of wonderful memories of my home planet, Alpar Nok. The gunjun flowers blossoming in the high mountain plains. The Bryn Spi Symphony Orchestra. Me riding on the back of Chordata, this gigantic telepathic elephant. Spending time with my grandmother, Blaleen. Uncle Kraffleprog calling me “stinky boy.”
Next I saw some of my earliest memories. Joe, Willy, Dana, Emma, and me in preschool playing in a sandbox. That was the start of our “drang”—an intense friendship bond that kept us eternally linked, even when one or all of us died. Those scenes were probably my favorite ones in my whole life. My “drang” and I sure shared a lot of laughs—like that night we took over a whole amusement park and rode all the rides, even to places they were never meant to go.
Happily, the part of my life where I hunted aliens or they hunted me was condensed to a ten-second “greatest hits” clip collage of mayhem, explosions, martial arts lessons from my dad, and monsters dying. I was glad when that section of my life review was over because I was done with all that.
I was dead.
Up ahead I saw a white light that was more brilliantly intense than any I had ever seen.
I flew straight into the welcoming comfort of the light’s glorious embrace.
Soon, there was nothing but the light. Peaceful. Tranquil. It engulfed me.
I let my memories drift away.