There’s a local ghost story your friends have told you of a dog…

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A young girl lay on a soft bed of grass, a gentle breeze causing each blade to sway back and forth. Stirring awake from a restful slumber, she slowly opened her eyes. However, when she opened them, she found that she no longer resided in the regular world. She looked at the grass beneath her and saw that it was not green; instead, the grass varied in color from cornflower blue to lavender to rosy pink. Of course, she didn’t recognize the landscape at all, either, although it was rather plain, with rolling hills extending in all directions around her except to her left, where there was a distant forest instead. The sky matched the colors of the grass, and a crescent moon hung peacefully in her line of sight. She got up and looked around.

From what she could tell, no one was there except for her. The world was extremely quiet, almost too much so. Although breath taken by the beauty of this unfamiliar world, the girl could not help but find it eerie that there were no signs of other life around. If that wasn’t strange enough, she was rendered baffled as to how she got there in the first place. Many thoughts crossed her mind on the matter. Her first thought was that she had somehow died and gone to heaven, or some sort of afterlife, but she dismissed the thought as she wasn’t sure she believed in those sort of things. Maybe, then, she was just dreaming. That would explain a lot, she decided. With that, she decided to sit back down and enjoy the tranquil scene while it lasted, relishing in the opportunity for a much-needed escape from everyday life.

However, her peaceful state did not last long. The voice of a man sounded from behind her, startling her into a slight panic. Turning around, the girl saw an elderly man with a round, gentle face. Strip away Santa’s costume and beard, and this man could be his twin. The old man chuckled apologetically.

“Sorry, dear. Didn’t mean to scare you.” His face crinkled into a kind smile. There was something about his facial features that made him appear trustworthy, the girl thought. She eased up and shook her head with a small smile.

“May I sit with you?” he asked. 

“Sure,” the girl said. I guess it’s nice to have company, she thought. Maybe he could tell her about where exactly they were now – something about the way he approached her made her think that there was something he wanted to tell her, or ask her. He carried himself with a sense of knowingness that made her think that perhaps this was not just a dream. 

“It’s nice to see someone else here,” he said.

“You haven’t seen anyone here before?” The girl had many questions streaming through her mind, but tried to keep them to herself so as not to overwhelm the man.

“No, I’m afraid it’s just been me here.” The old man squinted at the crescent moon through the lenses of his glasses. “It’s quite tricky to estimate how long I’ve been here. But I have noticed that the moon has stayed as a crescent moon, a waxing crescent moon, since I awoke here.”

“Really?” The girl’s eyes widened in curiosity. “That’s so strange.”

“Indeed,” the old man replied. “It’s very confusing. I’m sure you must be confused as well?”

The girl nodded.

“Do you remember how you got here?”

“No.”

“I figured as much, since I hadn’t seen you before. You mustn’t have been here long.” He hesitated for a moment. “This will sound very strange, but bear with me,” he continued. “Shortly after I first awoke here, I ate a piece of grass to test what kind of place this is.”

“The grass?” The girl asked, surprised. She looked down at the unusually colored grass beneath her and contemplated the man’s method. Definitely not something I would’ve thought of, she thought.

“Yes, it’s silly, I know,” he said. “But you wouldn’t believe what happened after I ate a blade of it.”

The girl looked at him expectantly.

“I remembered what had happened to me before I woke up,” he said with a glint in his eye.

“Really?” It did indeed sound strange, the girl remarked, but she was ready and willing to believe it if it would give her answers. 

“Yes. Maybe if you eat the grass, you’ll remember, too. What happened to you, I mean.”

The girl slowly nodded, then plucked out a strand of blue grass. She lifted it carefully to her mouth and chewed. It tasted particularly sweet. She closed her eyes and relaxed her mind, waiting for the memories to resurface. The old man sat beside her patiently, examining the moon again.

Behind her closed eyelids, the girl saw a familiar scene. Rain pattering against the city bus window, the outskirts of the city blurred through the motion of the bus and the raindrops. The bus skidding off the road into the lane of oncoming traffic, colliding with another vehicle, and tipping over. Her line of sight skewing sideways, as she fell against the side of the bus that impacted the ground below. The world going dark after her head collided with the shattered bus window. 

Her eyes shot open, and questions began flooding through her mind once again. Suddenly, death seemed like a more probable possibility for her than merely dreaming. Maybe this was heaven or somewhere between life and death after all.

“So?” The old man looked at her expectantly.

“I… I think I might have died. I was in a serious bus accident.” The reality of her situation sunk in.

“I thought I did, too.” The old man smiled sadly.

The girl paused for a moment. “Sir, if you don’t mind me asking… what was it that you remembered when you ate the grass?”

“Well, I was lying in a hospital bed before I found myself here. My health hasn’t been so good, hasn’t been for a long time. I assumed my time to pass on came.” A wistful expression befell the old man’s face.

“Oh.” The girl’s eyes crinkled into a frown. She looked down and fidgeted with her hands in her lap. “I’m sorry to hear that. I hope that’s not the case.” To her surprise, the old man chuckled.

“Oh, don’t worry about me, dear, I’ve already made my peace with it, if it is the case,” he said. “I’ve lived plenty long, and spending your days ill isn’t exactly the most pleasant.” He stopped for a moment. “Now that I think of it, I don’t think there’s anything left for me.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, like I told you, I’ve been ill. So there’s not much I can physically do, even if I want to. My wife passed a couple years ago, and what little family I have lives far away, so I’d be alone if I did wake up.”

“That’s so sad.” The girl looked down again.

“Yeah, I suppose so,” the old man said. “Unfortunately, I think it’s rather common. But enough about me. Maybe there’s a chance you survived the crash?”

“I don’t know,” the girl looked away glumly. “I guess maybe it’s not so bad here, though. I guess if it’s how my life ends… this is a peaceful last place to be alive.”

“You don’t want to wake up?”

“I mean, maybe I do, but life… is so hard. I remembered what was happening before the crash. My best friend moved away. I had just had an eye exam, and found out I can never be a pilot. Money has been short, so I have to spend all my spare time working to help keep my parents afloat.” The girl gave a long, deep sigh. She whimpered and cradled her head in her knees. In a soft voice, she mumbled, “what is there to live for now?”

The old man smiled sympathetically. “Teenage years are the worst- I’m assuming you’re in high school?”

She nodded.

“To be honest, I think everyone is struggling at your age. It may not seem like it, but even the most cheerful and rambunctious ones are hiding pain somewhere in their hearts. Most of the time, you just can’t see it.”

She nodded. “I guess you’re right. It’s just so hard to think about returning to all that stress when I could… just spend the rest of my time here.”

“Yes, I understand,” the old man said. “But remember, all moments in time will pass. The sad, the miserable, and the happy. These burdens you’re carrying won’t weigh on you forever,” he said with a reassuring smile. “And I’m sure that if you look closely enough, you’ll find there are people who love you and want to support you. Don’t be afraid to lean on others, if you’re struggling. That was hard for me to learn, but I hope you will learn to do so sooner than I did.”

The girl’s eyes welled up, but she gave a small smile.

“Oh, would you look at that,” the old man said. “The moon, it’s almost set.” Sure enough, the moon was nearing quite close to the horizon. His expression became serious, and his eyes widened.

“It’s time to go now.”

It was much darker now, but the girl also experienced a sense of her surroundings fading away from her. Alarmed, she called out to the old man. “What do you mean? Who are you?”

He did not answer. Instead, he said to her, “it’s time to wake up now.”

With that, everything was gone.

Moments later, the girl’s eyes fluttered open once again, but now, she was in a hospital room. Fluorescent lights burned her eyes. Most of her limbs were wrapped in casts, and her head throbbed in pain. She groaned, catching the attention of her mother, whose face fell into tears of joy.

“You’re awake!” The girl’s mother explained, tears slipping down her cheeks. “We thought for sure we lost you!”

“I… survived?”

“Do you remember what happened?” The mother asked.

The girl nodded.

“Well, the doctors said… said you had a very… small- small chance of waking up,” the mother choked out. “They said that… it would be a miracle, if you did.” She took a breath. “But I’m surprised you remember what happened, after all the head trauma you suffered,” she said.

“Yeah,” the girl replied slowly. Words felt like sticky peanut butter in her mouth. “I had a strange dream…” she began, then stopped as something across the room caught her attention.

In a chair lay a newspaper, turned to the obituaries page. On it, the face of an old man with round, gentle features reminiscent to Santa was plastered at the top.