THE STUFF OF MAGIC

Chapter 16 . Yachting

Great-Uncle Zhen and I sit at the bottom of the dunes watching the sunrise. The summer is more than halfway over and the decision I must make is constantly on my mind.

"I don't know what to do," I say to him.

"I cannot tell you what to do, LizBeth," he tells me. "I can tell you what I want you to do. But you are the only one who can make that decision."

"It's a big decision."

"A very big decision."

"And there would be no turning back once I drank the elixir, right?"

"If there were a way of turning back, I would have done it by now."

I sigh.

The early morning air feels thick, sultry, warm... Great-Uncle Zhen wipes the sweat from his forehead. "I have an idea," he says. "Let's go for a swim."

"What?"

He stands. "Come on, let's go for a swim!"

We stroll slowly across the sand with Great-Uncle Zhen holding onto my arm. Beneath my shorts I'm wearing my one-piece suit, ready for surfing. Great-Uncle Zhen takes off his t-shirt. He looks even frailer than before with his bony shoulders and skin like a sea turtle's. He limps into the water ahead of me, occasionally pausing then moving on.

I wade past him, the sky golden pink as the sun inches over the horizon. When the water is thigh deep, the first wave hits us and knocks Great-Uncle Zhen over. "Are you okay?" I ask him.

Before I can get to him, he stands, hooting with glee and clutching his belly as he laughs. "I'm fine!" he exclaims. "Just fine!"

I swim out beyond the breaking waves to the deep water. Great-Uncle Zhen follows at a slow crawl behind me. I turn and float on my back, looking up at the sky. The rising sun reflects on the water in discs of orange and yellow. A row of pelicans soars overhead. Great-Uncle Zhen swims up and floats on his back beside me.

"Ahhh," he says as we watch the clouds change from pink to gold. "It feels good to have my body feel weightless like this, a brief respite from the aches and the pain. It's as though I can feel myself float up, float up into the sky, and out of my body, up into the clear blue nothingness."

I look over at him. I've never seen his face look so peaceful.

"Do you think there's such a place as heaven?" I ask him.

"Why do you ask?"

"When my mom and dad died, everyone told me they went to heaven. But I didn't know where heaven was. I didn't know the way there. And sometimes, when I was feeling the worst, I thought maybe there wasn't such a place at all."

"You miss them."

Tears well up in my eyes. "Yes." A sob catches in my throat.

He reaches over and takes a hold of my hand. "There is a heaven, LizBeth. No one knows where it is, or exactly what it's like. But heaven does exist."

"If I don't drink the elixir, you'll live forever."

"It looks like I will."

"You'll never find out then."

"What?"

"Where heaven is, what it's like."

He lets go of my hand and forces a smile. His eyes look sad.

"No," he says. "I won't."

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