Grey clouds covered the sky in a thick blanket as she walked with bare feet through the empty field. The mud which layered the ground would have been cold if not for the fact that she could feel nothing. She could not feel the tall grass which snipped at her knees; nor the brisk wind that slapped her face and blew her hair from her eyes.
There was nothing in sight but field, field and more field. No silhouettes of distant mountains or trees freckled about the landscape. Yet despite the emptiness of it all, the scene was beautiful. The common blandness which fills many a dream was strangely alien to her. The land seemed to know the answers to all questions; seemed to know the truth to all lies.
The only sound was that of the constant wind; loud and musical. Its’ persistent rhythm covered even the sound of her steady feet. Normally she could hear her own breathing, and perhaps even her heartbeat, but not here.
Suddenly, there was a break in the clouds; a grand light filtered down as though the very essence of heaven were leaking from the sky. Bright pinks, deep blues and greens, purples, many hues of orange, and even a color she could not quite find a name for. All of these colors combined lapsed over and passed one another as though racing to reach the Earth, and when they did, they landed but a few feet in front of her.
She thought she should be afraid, but felt not a twinge a fear; felt she should run, but moved not an inch back; felt she should weep, but shed not a tear. Instead she felt excitement. It was as though this was nothing more than a long expected surprise. And with this thought, she stepped forward. Closer and closer she came until she stood in the very center of the light with her head tilted upward.
Before she could move she was in the air; already to the clouds and beyond. The field she had once thought so very beautiful no longer seemed in the slightest bit tempting. Only what lay at the end of the ascent could hold what she longed for. She knew not how she knew this or what it was to begin with; she just knew, and so she smiled.
All around her was light. She could not tell where it came from, or if it had a source at all, but she soon forgot all about it when she saw, standing alone on an empty cloud, a man. He seemed so familiar to her that she felt sure he was an old friend with whom she should run forth and rejoice in a warm, loving embrace. Yet she knew too, that she knew everything, and nothing about this man.
The man smiled and gestured for her to approach, and she found she had already been doing so without her knowledge. His smile warmed her more than sunlight; made her happier than she could ever remember being before.
Without know why, she bowed and lifted her head so as to see his face. With the smile still upon his flawless face, he told her her name. In shock, she realized she had forgotten. Too she had forgotten her life, her thoughts, her family, her friends and her secrets. Knowing this, he told her of her life. The secrets she had forgotten, along with promises, names, faces and lives. And suddenly she knew why she felt nothing; she knew why she had forgotten so much.
She had died, and this was heaven. The man smiled and nodded, yet a tear fell from his eye, and she too began to cry as they grasped hands and walked away to her new home.