Death has greeted him somehow. He knows it waits for him. Sweet child cries out to his mother before he shifts into slumber, “I don’t want to die, Mommy.”

What answer does a mother provide when the easy one of “Heaven waits for you” isn’t an option.

“Your body will die,” she says. “But your soul, who you have been for eons, forever, will continue to exist.”

It is all she has. He hears her words, wonders what they mean. Then he snuggles under the covers, curls closer to her body. He falls into the dream.