Death Ripple.(Kevin Hughes) Author’s Note: The new “Standard Model” says that there are no particles, just perturbations in one of the sixteen “Fields” that make up our SpaceTime and Universe. The Universe is Fundamentally a Fluid, one flowing towards the Great Attractor outside of our Observable Universe. Energy must be conserved. LIFE…is Energy.

*****

Dave knew he was dead. He heard the monitor alarm go off when he Flatlined. He even felt the first fevered pressure of the Night Nurse’s hand searching his wrist for a pulse. Almost simultaneously he felt her other hand lift his eyelid to peer into eyes that no longer saw her. He felt the sheet slide over his head. Two quick pats on his torso, a quiet goodbye that the Night Nurse had given to more people than she could count. Then Dave’s perceptions changed.

He had already forgotten about the husk laying on the bed, the life it led, the people it knew. The light was blinding him.

*****

It wasn’t light like a bright sunny day, or the stark glare of a flashlight pointed directly in your eyes at night. It was brighter, fuller, more robust. It was light in all Caps. LIGHT. Dave was moving with it in every direction. He could feel himself freed from the restrictions of four dimensions, from the ordinary limits of Up, Down, Left, Right, and a moment in time.

He was everywhere at once. And at every time too. He was expanding so fast his ego was stretched past the point of self aware. The “I” was replaced with “We”. A moment later “We” was replaced by “All.” It was such a rapid progression, first the light, then vague forms, which he recognized …and was recognized in return. Welcome burned through his awareness, even as he became unaware.

Dave felt himself flattening out, stretching, vibrating.

The Universe curving in both Time and Space took him on a roller coaster of Geodesics as his World Line merged with many more. Some as bright and bubbly as his own no longer narrow view of everything. Others faded like the last few notes on a Cello’s strings, as subharmonics settled out of hearing. Every moment was present. And the past too. The Future surrounded him. He burst with joy.

Ripples around him absorbed the joy.

Dave no longer had any need, desire, or wish for anything material. Or ethereal. The world of matter, didn’t matter anymore. Wealth meant nothing as he was exposed now to riches beyond mere objects. And still what was left of Dave melted into the shifting Fields nearby. Until, finally, all that he used to be was cast into the cacophony of an empty Universe.

Virtual foam road the peaks and valleys of nothingness. Rising up out of Virtual Reality to Reality itself. Presenting the first new electrons from the Electron Field as they pressed their way into other Fields. One ripple in one Field causing a perturbation in the Field nearest to it. Collecting bits of Energy. Twisting them together in such a manner that they rose to become that slowest form of Energy…Matter.

Matter made up of all Energy lost by Death. Including Dave’s.

A ripple formed, took shape, and coalesced. It had incomplete memories, bits and pieces of a formerly sharp mind. Humor from a thousand sources linked into what would become the “E” chord on Life’s Octave. The lump would form without any awareness. It would take months, even years before it understood “I”. Slowly “You” would dawn on it too. Finally arriving at “We.” “All” being just beyond its reach.

Life had emerged. And now it had another name: Eric.

*****

“Eric, did I ever tell you that you remind me of my Grandfather Dave. He was the best. I loved him. I can still remember the smell of his pipe when he told me stories of his childhood?

Eric laughed and hugged his young Bride, Mary Stella.

“Honey, every member of your family has told me that at one time or another. I saw the pictures and I have to admit, a part of me felt a kinship with him. Like I knew him before.”

Mary Stella laughed, then she stopped as she saw the look on Eric’s face.

“What was that?”

Eric debated wether or not to tell her. No secrets in love was Eric’s mantra. So he told her.


“I don’t know. I felt a shiver, or quiver for just a moment - a faint contact.
When you were talking about how much you loved your Grandfather, I felt a tingle. No, that’s not it. A ripple. Yeah, a faint little wave of pleasure, like those ripples you see in a pond when they kind of disappear before they hit shore. Just a small wave of…joy?”

Mary Stella laughed. A moment later, so did Eric. Both thinking how silly reincarnation was.

A ripple formed somewhere in the void.

It couldn’t smile, but it would have.

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