Afterlife Dream

Although Dr. Thompson declared that I was as healthy as any other fourteen-year-old boy out there, he still insisted to keep me around for at least three more days to make sure that I was truly recovered.

Jaden and Dad came over late in the afternoon that day. They just came from a baseball tournament. Jaden was covered in dirt from cap to shoes. Mom forced him to take a bath and change clothes before he was allowed to approach me.

"Daniel is doing very well today," Mom told Dad, her eyes sparkling from excitement. "The pneumonia is gone. In one night. If nothing else happens within these upcoming three days, he can go home."

Dad let out a long whistle.

"Good grief. Well done, Daniel!"

Dad came over to rub at my head affectionately, messing up my already messy hair. I merely grinned in return. What exactly did I do to deserve the praise? These days, my greatest achievement was to stay alive.

Jaden came into my room a while later, freshly showered. He looked like he was ready for a pajama party.

"Hey, Bro," he greeted me. We performed our usual cool hand-slapping routine and ended by blowing saliva bubbles from our mouths.

Mom wrinkled her face in disgust. She smacked both of us indiscriminately.

"Stop that disgusting habit!"

Jaden giggled.

"How was the tournament?" I asked him.

When he looked away, I knew that the result was not good.

"Mmm, we lost."

That was all he wanted to say.

Dad put his arm around Jaden to comfort him.

"It was a delayed victory, that's all. Jaden's team did not have enough experienced players. The other team was quite good."

Jaden looked at Dad and gave him a miserable look.

"Dad, that was an understatement."

He then looked and me and started to complain. "We were butchered by the other team. They were so good that we ended up playing into their tactic. Some of my batters..."

I did not understand baseball, so I only listened to him and nodded and shook my head fervently whenever I felt that it was the right moment to do so.

Jaden ranted all the way until dinner time.

That night, Mom pampered us with a big bucket of fried chicken and french fries.
"It is to celebrate Daniel's recovery," she said while pressing a kiss against my temple.


After dinner, my family went home.

"Hey, Jaden," I called my brother when he was about to leave. "There is a next time. Don't be too disappointed, okay?"

He tilted his head upward and shot me a grin. "Thanks, Bro."

I fell asleep soon after and woke up with a high spirit the next morning.

It was as if everyone expected me to have a relapse within three days. When I did not become sick again, everyone was surprised. Honestly, I was too. It was not like I was born and lived in the hospital, but I had never been so healthy. Even during my best days, I still was bedridden and could only get off the bed for at most an hour before I started panting and struggling to breathe.

Three days passed like a flash. On the morning of the third day, Dr. Thompson came by to examine me one last time. After the examination was done, he beamed at me.

"Congratulations, Daniel! I can only say wow. You are free to go home today."

"Yayyy!!!!"

I wanted to jump on the bed, but Mom gave me one sharp look and I abandoned the idea right away.

It was a very beautiful day, albeit a little cold because autumn just started. Mom prepared a wheelchair for me, but I refused to sit on it. I confidently climbed off my bed, got dressed on my own, and was ready to leave on my own two feet. This had never happened before. I always had to leave in wheelchairs.

I caught Mom sniffling a few times when I was not looking. She kept sending prayers to God, thanking Him for my miraculous recovery.

In light of my miraculous recovery, the hospital staff felt that they needed to celebrate a little bit. A surprise farewell party was held in my honor. Patients from the entire floor came to congratulate me on my discharge. Even the hospital director came by to shake my hand vigorously and wished me all the best in life.

The nurses on my floor gave me a farewell gift : a fire truck. It was because I once told them that I admired the firemen. Of course I did. They were strong and brave. Basically heroes in modern civilization.

"Because we like you very much, we hope to not see you in this hospital anytime soon," the Head Nurse said while flashing me a toothy smile. "Be good, Daniel."

I left the hospital not long after, prancing around like a reindeer before Mom pushed me into the car. Inside the car, I kept waving at the hospital staff who came to bid me farewell. I only stopped after the car started moving and Dad told me to shut the window.

"It's cold. You don't want to catch a cold as soon as you recover, Daniel."

When he was right, he was right. I obediently shut the window and poked at Jaden instead. My brother gave me a "Heyyy!!!". I grinned at him.

I had only left home a little under two weeks, but it felt like ages. When I stepped on the staircase that headed to the front door, I was overwhelmed with feelings that I could not describe. I was happy, but I was inexplicably sad at the same time. I wanted to burst into laughter and run around the house, but I also wanted to break down in tears.

Oh, God, I thought to myself.

Did I get to recover from pneumonia but got myself some mental problems?

I did not fancy entering any mental institution, no...

Mom and Dad kept fussing over me once I got back home.

They kept telling me to say something as soon as I felt even the slightest bit of discomfort anywhere.

When I reached at my throat, they assumed that my throat was hurting.

When I rubbed my legs, they assumed that I felt pain in my legs.

Although I appreciated their immense care, it started to get on my nerves.

"Mom, Dad, I am doing fine," I told them in exasperation.

I even performed a few jumping stunts in the living room and almost caused both of my parents heart attacks at the same time.

"Stop it! Stop it!" My Mom could not watch me performing another flip in the air anymore. "Daniel, please don't overdo it, okay???"

Realizing my irritation, they no longer kept such close watch on me. They arranged for a new guard instead : Jaden. The good thing about Jaden was that we were able to play together while he supposedly watched over me.

"Danny, you know what?" Jaden asked me as we were playing video games side by side.

My racing car was ahead of Jaden's, but I could see that he was trying to catch up.

"What?" I said, pressing on the gamepad in my hands with crazy persistence.

"Damn it," Jaden cursed when he failed to avoid a rolling wheel. His car ended up crashing and burning.

"Yess...!" I shouted, punching the air with my fist.

Still delirious from winning the race just now, I turned to Jaden with a grin. "What did you want to tell me?"

Jaden threw his gamepad aside, folded his arms before his chest, and pouted.

He refused to say a thing until I poked him real hard.

"Fine! Fine!" he shouted. "I heard Mom and Dad talking just now. They said that you might be having terminal lucidity."

Terminal lucidity?

"What's that?"

Jaden grabbed his phone and googled the term in front of me.

"Terminal lucidity is a phenomenon when terminally-ill patients gain a sudden surge of energy, become more talkative, alert, and responsive to their surroundings just sometime before death."

Before death.

Jaden withdrew his phone from under my nose and kept his head lowered while he continued browsing. I did not know what to say. To be honest, I remembered that I was really sick from the pneumonia. I could not explain my sudden recovery. What if it was nothing but terminal lucidity? Was I going to die soon? Were these peaceful days going to end in my death?

"Danny, are you dying?" Jaden asked innocently.

I lifted my head and saw that his eyes were glassy from unshed tears.

"Don't cry," I said, wiping at his cheeks.

"I am not crying," Jaden snapped.

Unexpectedly, my little brother launched himself at me and hugged my shoulder. I could feel him trembling when I put my arms around him.

"Don't go, alright?" he said in a voice so low that only I was able to hear him. "Don't go, Danny. Don't leave us."