TWYLA

Twyla knows this is the end.

As the crushing pain in her chest intensifies, she drifts between her failing body and a hazy, peaceful vision of a beautiful garden. All she can focus on is the desperate effort to open her eyes one last time, to imprint the faces of her weeping mother, father, and little sister, Bella, into her memory. They are her world, and they are granting her silent permission to finally let go and escape the excruciating fight for life.

But just as Twyla prepares to close her eyes for an eternal rest, feeling the sweet, blurry warmth of the afterlife approaching, the gentle, loving silence is violently shattered by a sudden, frantic shout: "Oh my goodness! Call the head butler! Someone fainted in front of the gate!"

What meant to be a loving goodbye and an end turned out to be a foreign start of something unfamiliar.