Lying in total darkness and unaware of his current situation
he had to rely on sounds to find out what was going on.
The surface he rested on was hard and coarse, almost like rough sandpaper.
And his position was very uncomfortable; that much he could tell
Alex: "Is this blood?"
He had an iron almost metallic taste in his mouth.
With words fading in and out, he was only able to make out three words: accident, pulse, and defibrillators.
Alex was scared.
He tried to remember what had happened.
How he ended up like this.
But he couldn't.
The world he knew was going away and the thoughts of death slowly drowning him.
Alex: "I'm too young to die."
"I'm only 19 and have my whole life ahead of me I never got to see the pyramids.
Climb the Eiffel Tower. I promised to take Monica to see the Aurora lights above the Iceland sky.
"Hang in there", said the paramedic,
Paramedic: "Don't give up! It's important that you talk to me. Tell me something about yourself."
"Can you do that for me? Blink twice if you understood this."
Paramedic: "Hurry! We're losing him!" As the ambulance raced through the street.
Alex: "No, this isn't how I die. I demand help; I demand to be alive!"
He screamed, but no one could hear him, for his thoughts had no voice.
Alex was from Colorado Springs, where he studied Software Engineering.
He and his girlfriend Monica had been together for five years.
He planned on marrying her one day as soon as he found a good paying job and set everything up.
He had always planned on traveling with her around the world.
But despite his best efforts, he couldn’t say these things out loud.
He couldn't even blink.
Alex's blood pressure started dropping.
As Alex was being unloaded from the ambulance, teams of nurses and doctors rushed toward him.
The doctors grabbed the pedals and began resuscitating.
Light began flashing in and out.
His chest sinking and rising, his fingers feeling cold, and now, his entire body feeling stiff.
Alex: "Is this really how I die? Has it all been for nothing?"
"Would I have been forgotten in 2 years time? What will they say at my funeral?"
"They'll talk about “the boy that got killed by a car.”
"Pathetic"
"And why did this happen to me? Where was the angel that was supposed to watch over me?"
"It doesn't matter anymore."
"My heart must have stopped beating, and I feel my brain running out of oxygen."
"I'm going to sleep."
But Alex didn't die.
Instead, he fell into a state of deep coma.
His friends and family kept visiting him.
They shared updates with him, cared for him, cried and laughed with him.
But Alex was in another place, between life and death.
And in that state, Alex would find himself sitting on a bench in the playground.
There, he saw a young boy and a girl sitting on a teeter-totter.
He walked toward them and asked where he was, but they didn’t notice him at first.
Alex: "Maybe they too are between life and death?"
He insisted they tell him what they were doing there.
But the children continued playing, wholly immersed in their game.
After a while, the boy finally noticed Alex.
Turning his head and looking at Alex, the boy presented himself as Death, and the girl, his sister as Life.
Both never stopped playing, only putting their feet down to push back up.
He explained that if they stop playing, all would disappear.
Death: "The entire existence is the result of our game; yours too."
"Both Life and Death are needed for you to exist."
"And yet people value only Life and despise Death. Why is that?"
"Why do you refuse to see us as one?"
Alex had no words to say. He was still processing the idea of being in a coma and talking to Death and Life.
He asked the boy if he was dead, and the boy replied,
Death: "There is no such thing as being dead. I am Death and yet you see me playing with Life."
Life: "I am Life," said the girl, "and yet you see me playing with Death.
Life: "We are inseparable. We are black and white, together creating all the colors you see around."
"We are silence and sound, together creating voices and music emerge."
"For too long have humans plotted new ways to separate me from my brother."
"You portrayed him in the worst possible ways, described him as an old wraith with a scythe, lurking around corners."
Alex felt anger in his confusion. He felt like the teeter-totter Life and Death were playing on.
Life claimed he was being unfair to Death, and Death was saying he was taking Life for granted.
"What we are doing is the Universe," said Life.
Life: “And you are part of it; you too are playing it. It is a place for both dead and living."
"It starts, sometimes feels right, sometimes wrong, and then ends."
"And if it didn't end, it wouldn't be worth playing."
"And when this particular game ends, it doesn't mean another isn't starting."
"But you people aren’t living nor dying; you are merely surviving - demanding to be alive."
""You must go on,” “you mustn't get sick,” and “you mustn't give up.” Why?"
"Because of your fear of dying you are only surviving, not living, enjoying nothing, afraid of everything."
"And in the moment of death, you regret not living."
"You regret not seeing Pyramids because you thought there would be enough time."
"But how much time is enough time?"
"Oh, the future is the sweetest lie on Earth", said Life.
Life: "No one ever thinks that you and all the people you ever met will eventually die until death."
"Did you genuinely consider it? Did you accept the inevitability of Death?"
"You didn't."
"Otherwise, you would cherish present very dearly."
"You would love your friends and family on the level you couldn’t understand. Did you truly love them?"
"Did you cherish the present? You weren't, for you would appreciate every moment and every fiber of it."
"You were breathing, feeling, seeing, hearing, scenting and tasting."
"You had the opportunities for living, and you took it for granted, hooked on the drug of the future."
"Tell me, when did time ever solve anything? Did it work out for you?”
What Life and Death had spoken to Alex had him burst into tears, regretting not living in Life and dying in Death.
As Alex stared at Boy and Girl rising and falling, he understood the game Life and Death.
The constant push and pull are in no one's hands, but the choice to fear Death is the same as fearing Life.
Boy and girl gave him a choice: to either wake up and live, or die and leave everything behind.
He chose Life.
They told Alex he wouldn't remember having this conversation, but he will bring with him the feeling of tranquility.
From now on, he will know that no matter what happens,
Death will remind him that everything is going to be alright in the end.
And if the fear of dying sometimes overwhelms him, he will accept it.
He will no longer curse death, but see it as a gift of nature, a chance to let go of everything he held dearly,
to experience pleasure and love, to experience death.
He will see the huge role it plays in his life, the magnitude and the importance of it.
In some weird way, he will see that Death is Life.
Thus Life snapped its fingers, and Alex woke up.
With the help of his loved ones, he quickly regained strength.
Alex eventually graduated, and together with Monica, saw the Pyramids, climbed the Eiffel Tower,
saw the aurora lights in Iceland and married each other.
At the age of 72, he held Monica’s hand as she was dying in a hospital, old and sick.
To honor the promise they made to each other, he traveled to England and brought her ashes with him.
He was there, witnessing the Stonehenge sunset.
He dropped a tear as he scattered Monica’s ashes and said “Goodbye.”
When he came back home, Alex visited the nearby playground.
He enjoyed the bright and sunny day.
There, he saw a boy and a girl teeter-tottering, playing as if there was no yesterday, today or tomorrow.
They were out of space, time, and themselves.
At that moment, he felt unexplained tranquility.
At that moment,
He was absolutely willing to die.