They had wheeled me out on my hospital bed, not wanting anyone to touch my body. They covered me up but my arm still hung down over the side of the bed. Blood ran down my arm. "I'm sorry, Katie."

I turned and walked away from the place where my body lay only a week before. I walked into the cafeteria where everyone was eating lunch. I walked over to the table and bent over Ryan. "Ryan, it's Becca. Come into the hall so I can talk to you. You can't see me right now but in the hall, I can show myself to you. Come with me."

Ryan got up and walked into the hall. "Ryan, where are you going?" Abby was calling to him.

"Oh, I forgot something. I'll be right back." He turned the corner and saw me standing there. He smiled. "Hi, Becca."

I smiled back. "I just wanted to thank you. I'm a lot happier now than I ever have been. I'm with Katie now."

"Your friend?" I nodded. "That's nice. You do look a lot better, happier too. So, what's it like…to die?"

"The way you showed me? As though you're going to sleep. And when you wake up, you find yourself in a field filled with flowers made of paper and in the purple sky, clouds of candy float. It's so beautiful. I feel like a kid. Someday you'll see."

"Curious…" He looked as though he was thinking. His look was a bit puzzled.

"What? What is it?"

"That's the rest of the song."

Now was my turn to look puzzled. "What is?"

"In my field of paper flowers and candy clouds of lullaby, I lie inside myself for hours and watch my purple sky fly over me." I smiled at him and he smiled back.

"You should come with me. Death has no time. The sun always shines, even in the rain. No sunburns, no paper cuts. Nothing to worry about. Come with me." I held out my arms and he came to hug me. I kissed his cheek. His body fell. "Hey, Ryan, you just died of heart failure," I chuckled. "You have a week, I'll find you." With that, I turned and walked down the hall, singing softly, my voice echoing through the halls.

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

"Hello, Becca."

I turned to see Katie standing behind me. "Katie."

"Are you ready? We won't be coming back."

"I've just got one more thing left to do." I walked up to the coffin. The funeral service was almost over. I bet over Ryan's body and whispered in his ear the song he'd given me. "If you need to leave the world you live in, lay your head down and stay awhile. Though you may not remember dreaming, something waits for you to breathe again." I looked back at Katie, Ryan stood next to her. I ran to catch up to them. "Now, I'm ready."

Katie grabbed my hand, as did Ryan. Then we disappeared and lay in the grass, picking paper flowers and looking up into the purple sky. Things were definitely much happier.