Excerpt
Sometimes one reads in a book that a person "thought he was dead." In most cases the whole story is either made up or the phrase is just a poetic way of saying that someone nearly died. In Jerick’s case, however, it was really true. That moment when he crashed into the bottom of the basket, he really did think he was dead. But it was impossible to believe it for longer than a few seconds. What with the searing pain in his left shoulder, the warm blood oozing out and drenching his light-colored shirt, and his face smashed against the hard floor of the basket, he could not long deny his presence in the land of the living.

Curiously enough, he felt a flash of disappointment. He did not feel relief at the discovery that he wasn’t dead, as people do in books. Even though he had never told anyone, he was horribly afraid of death. When he was alone, panic would sometimes grip him. He was afraid his heart might stop beating, which is why he was in the habit of putting his hand over his chest to check that it was still all right. Now if he had really been dead and known it, then at least he would know now that there was life after death.

It was not to be. Not yet in any case.