[The More He Considered His Death]

The more he considered his death, the more he felt

certain it must be a handsome fellow- muscular,

sharp-featured-perhaps a younger version of

himself, somebody who had managed to avoid the

moral and physical pitfalls which had caused his

own road's mortal constriction. So, as he aged, his

death became younger, healthier. Its loveliness

increased. It regained the virtues of innocence,

compassion, generosity: virtues that, if he had ever

possessed, had diminished as his own troubles

multiplied. Until at last, when his time came, his

death had been transformed to pure possibility. It

had all the future that he now had to do without.

Eager and full of promise, it was the child who

hurried forward to take him by the hand.