After a car accident, Kalle moves out into a cabin by a lake. His life makes a big change.
Kalle is sitting in the hammock on the front porch of his log cabin out in the forest. No matter how many times he sits here, he is always just as fascinated by how beautiful it is out here.
The front of the cabin faces a forest pond, and in the background the mountains rise up, well within walking distance.
He has a small swimming dock with a handmade picnic bench and table, the kind you usually find at playgrounds and rest areas in city parks.
The city, Kalle thinks. Imagine that a true city guy like me—someone who almost felt lost when stepping onto a grassy lawn—is now sitting here, enjoying the silence and the solitude. The calm, far away from civilization.
Meeting the right people in life is important, and that is also what he has to thank for discovering this way of living. It was two coworkers, both hunters and fishermen, who persuaded him to come along into the forest. It only took a few times before Kalle was hooked as well. Now he both hunts and fishes too, when he’s not out hiking in the woods and fields. Or, like now, just sitting and enjoying life.
It could all have turned out very differently if he’d been a bit more unlucky. One year ago today, he was in a serious traffic accident that could have taken his life—but somehow he survived with only a narrow escape.
To recover after the accident, Kalle chose to move out to the cabin instead of staying in his small one-bedroom apartment in the city. It was a good choice.
Kalle runs his hand over his stomach and chuckles. All his life he has trained—body building, floorball, cycling, and a few other sports. The goal was to become fit with a proper Dorito body. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way. Instead, he looks more like a burrito. Good food—especially slow-cooked meat, burgers, candy, snacks, and beer—are to blame. But being a burrito isn’t so bad either. Burritos are soft and delicious, unlike Doritos, which are hard and sharp-edged. Kalle has no meanness in him and has always been kind and helpful to everyone, so being a burrito suits him well.
Kalle nods to himself, satisfied. You should be content with what you have and who you are, and not try to be someone else.
Still, being too helpful and kind also has its downsides. The fact that he is even sitting here today is a result of that. Kalle thinks back to the time leading up to the accident. He helped everyone who asked. If he had been in a cartoon, he would have been a helpful, slightly chubby but always cheerful beaver, always showing up with a toolbox and helping everyone without asking for anything in return. Unfortunately, he had taken on far too much, both privately and at work, and he was on his way to completely stressed out. If he had been more alert and not so mentally exhausted, he would have seen the moose running out onto the road much earlier. The roadside was cleared where the accident happened, so the fact that he saw it only at the very last second was entirely because his mind was somewhere else than in the car at that moment.
Kalle managed to swerve away from the moose but instead drove down a long, rocky slope where the car flipped and rolled several times before coming to rest upside down against a large pine tree. Kalle shivers as he thinks back on the event.
But there is some good in the bad. During all his hikes in the forest over the past year, he met a completely wonderful woman about a week ago. They started talking and soon realized they had a great deal in common.
She is incredibly kind, gentle beyond compare, and has a wonderful sense of humor. Kalle cannot remember ever laughing as much as he has during the past week in his adult life.
A warm feeling starts in his chest and spreads through his whole body and head when he thinks of her. Everything just feels right, and even though they have only known each other for a few days, it feels as if they have known each other their whole lives whenever they meet. She is the woman he has been searching for his entire life.
Kalle thinks about how, with her—Lotta—it is so different from all the other women he has fallen for through the years. Usually, he quite quickly starts fantasizing about all the kinds of things that only appear in movies after midnight, but with Lotta it’s completely different. Kalle just wants to be with her, talk and laugh, and drown in her lagoon-blue eyes.
Speaking of lagoons, he probably really would have drowned if he fell into one—Kalle is not a very good swimmer.
Back to Lotta. That she is also incredibly beautiful, with her high cheekbones, slender chin, and long, flowing, wheat-blond hair certainly doesn’t make things worse. Lotta is simply perfect, and Kalle is so happy that he has met her.
Unfortunately for Kalle, when he gets nervous or excited, he tends to speak first and think later. Sometimes he speaks first and doesn’t think afterward either.
The first time they met, he asked how old she was, and when she told him she was thirty-nine, it slipped out of him: “That’s no age for a horse.”
Lotta looked a little taken aback and slightly hurt, but he apologized. After that, he managed to refrain from clumsy remarks.
They are about to meet again, and Kalle starts to feel excited. He feels like he did as a child when they sat on the couch waiting for Santa Claus to arrive.
Kalle sees something light-colored appearing at the end of the path leading up to the cabin. It is Lotta’s blond hair visible between the trees. Kalle smiles broadly and jumps to his feet. “Jump” is actually an understatement—he shoots up from the hammock like a tense spring being released.
Kalle walks down the steps and meets Lotta on the grass in front of the cabin. He feels that he is smiling like an idiot, but it can’t be helped—he is just that happy. Lotta returns his smile with her warm expression, the one Kalle can never get enough of.
“Hi, I’m so happy to see you again. I mean, it’s been so long. A whole half day.”
“Hi! I’m really happy to see you again too.”
Kalle opens his arms and they embrace in a long hug. He realizes that he may be holding her a little too tightly and for a little too long, so he lets go, slightly embarrassed.
“I’m sorry I hugged you a bit hard. I just get so happy when I’m with you.”
Lotta laughs cheerfully and looks kindly into Kalle’s eyes.
“It’s okay. I like your hugs.”
Lotta takes Kalle’s hand and they begin to walk down the path toward the pond in front of them.
“Come, let’s walk around the pond and up to that cliff over there. The view is absolutely amazing from up there.” Lotta points toward a cliff that juts out from the nearest mountain, perhaps two kilometers away.
“That sounds like a wonderful idea. I was up there a few years ago and remember that it was very beautiful.”
“Mmm… How have you been since we last saw each other? You were quite down a week ago, when we first met, but you seem much happier now.”
“How could I be anything but happy when I’m with you?!”
Lotta laughs warmly and gives Kalle a kiss on the cheek.
“I’m very happy to be with you too. I have a feeling that we’ll be together forever.”
Kalle can’t manage to respond. He only smiles broadly and feels his face grow red. Every heartbeat sends pleasant, warm pulses through his body, and he feels as if he’s walking on clouds. Can this really be happening? he thinks as he looks at Lotta while they walk hand in hand up the mountain. Yes, she’s walking beside me and I can feel her hand in mine, so this really is happening.
“How long will you be staying up here, so that we can see each other?”
“I will stay here with you forever, I hope.”
Kalle looks at Lotta, and from her gaze he can tell that she truly means it. Kalle closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths, in through his nose and out through his mouth. Life cannot get better than this.
They walk along, chatting and enjoying each other’s company and the beautiful surroundings, and eventually they reach the cliff that was their goal for the evening. The view truly is spectacular. Kalle wraps his arm around Lotta’s waist and she rests her head against his shoulder. They stand there for a long time, taking it all in.
“Maybe we should sit down instead?” Lotta looks into Kalle’s eyes.
“Yes, of course.”
They sit down, and once again Kalle puts his arm around Lotta and she leans her head against his shoulder. Even though it is starting to get a little chilly, the warmth from Lotta is enough to make Kalle feel warm. They sit and talk for a long time about the music and movies they like. They talk about what they want to accomplish in life and what their dreams for the future are. All the while, Kalle’s feeling of how wonderful Lotta is only grows stronger, and he hopes and believes that it will be the two of them forever. How he can be so sure, he cannot explain. He has never felt this way before—but now it simply feels obvious.
Lotta shifts a little and then turns to Kalle.
“There’s something I need to tell you. I have to go home tonight, but I want you to come with me.”
“Uh… okay! Yes, I’d like to come with you. Where is home exactly?”
Lotta doesn’t answer. She looks down at the ground for a moment before standing up. She raises her right hand to signal that Kalle should remain seated.
“I’m going to show you where home is.”
Lotta lifts her arms toward the sky and looks upward. Kalle feels slightly lost and wonders what is happening when he notices that everything is growing brighter. He looks up into the sky and sees how it opens like a glowing portal above them. The light from the opening shines down on Lotta like a spotlight and illuminates her as if she were a rock star on a stage. Two large, feather-covered wings—surely four meters wide—unfold from her back. Kalle stares in shock and soon realizes that he probably looks like a fish on land, eyes wide and mouth hanging open as he stares at Lotta.
“I want you to come home with me. I want you to come with me up there.” Lotta points toward the sky.
“But… but… I’m not ready for that yet. I’m too young to go there.”
Lotta looks at Kalle with her warm smile.
“You are already dead. You died in the traffic accident a year ago, and now it is time for you to come home to eternity. I will always be there with you.” Lotta reaches out her hand to Kalle.
“But I can’t be dead. I eat, I sleep, I breathe—I live.”
“What did you eat today?”
“I ate… uh… I can’t remember eating today.”
“What did you eat yesterday, or earlier this week?”
“I… I… I ate… I can’t remember having eaten.”
“How do you get in and out of the cabin? Do you open the door and walk through?”
“But of course I open the door—how else would I get through?” Kalle snorts a little irritably, but then he begins to think. He cannot remember opening the door even once. He walks toward it, but it is as if he simply floats through and finds himself on the other side.
Kalle looks up at Lotta with questioning eyes. She knows exactly what he is thinking and only nods at him.
“What do you remember from the accident?”
“Well… I managed to swerve away from the moose, but then I crashed down the slope.”
“What can you see after the accident?”
Kalle closes his eyes and thinks.
“I see the car from above, as if I’m floating, and I see the paramedics carrying me out and placing me on a stretcher. Then they drive off to the hospital.”
“And where are you when the ambulance drives away?”
“I am… I am still there, floating above the car.”
Kalle looks up at Lotta again, and she nods and looks warmly at him.
“So I died?”
“Yes. And now it’s time for you to let go of this world and follow me.”
Kalle looks at Lotta. Her warm smile makes warmth spread through his body once more. He tries to resist, tries to deny it—but he realizes that she is speaking the truth. And the truth makes him calm and at peace, not angry, sad, or disappointed.
Kalle straightens up and then stands. He takes Lotta’s hand and looks into her eyes.
“I’m ready. Let’s go home.”
Lotta looks upward and beats her wings with powerful strokes. They fly faster and faster upward. Kalle only needs to hold her hand lightly to follow. Ghosts and angels don’t seem to follow the laws of nature, he thinks to himself—then starts to laugh at his own thought.
Kalle wraps his arms around Lotta, and Lotta wraps her arms around Kalle. Embracing one another, they disappear into the light, and Kalle feels happy.
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Reviewed by Lauren itall
7/8/2026
Hello! I just finished your story, and I loved every bit of it! Your writing is so engaging, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how awesome it would be as a com. I’m a professional commissioned artist, and I’d be honored to adapt your story into a comic format. no pressure, though! I just think it would be a perfect match. If you’re interested, you can reach me on Discord (laurendoesitall) Instagram (elsaa.uwu). Let me know your thoughts!
Warm regards,
lauren
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Kalle is sitting in the hammock on the front porch of his log cabin out in the forest. No matter how many times he sits here, he is always just as fascinated by how beautiful it is out here.
