“There is nothing physically wrong with him.” Danny heard the doctor say, in echo, his vision blurred. “The CAT scans did not reveal any abnormalities of any type.”

Danny held his chest, feeling as though his heart were about to explode.

“Then why is he still grabbing his ribs?” he heard his mother say.

“I honestly do not know. He should….walk….”

The voices were breaking up as he felt the pain overtaking him.

“…ny? Da….! Noo…..! He’s… brea…. any……!!”

He felt comfort well beyond his childhood memories of being in bed, and without the aches and pains he thought intensified after Lucy stopped letting him see her at all.

A humanoid body appeared in the murky distance. No one he recognized, and no familiar features, but he felt more and more comfortable as he approached “it”.

“Hi Danny.”

“Hi… Sorry, I can’t remember your… well come to think of it, I’ve never met someone with a face like a cloud.”

“No need to worry. We take on a form most comfortable to the soul when it arrives, but in your situation, we knew being ambiguous was the best option.”

“What happened? Why didn’t Lucy ever reconnect with me after the chaos? My heart was never the same after the last time I saw her.”

“A very complicated set of circumstances--”

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The balance of this story is available as part of a collection of short stories in "Short Stories: To Think and Feel"