It hit him all at once. In a moment his entire basement had melted into an entirely different world, and slowly, so very slowly, this world began to construct itself around him. And it started with blue. Light baby blue that filled his vision entirely, and then that blue became the walls that surrounded him and was sitting. He looked down. He was in a desk. And he was so small. He looked up. He was in a classroom, filled with children. Posters were hung every where on those blue walls that made him feel so calm, and it seemed that he had lived this entire place before. He looked at the teacher and realized he had. He was in first grade again, looking up at his favorite teacher from childhood, Ms. Dow. She was holding with her a golden retriever. And he remembered this day. It was one of the first weeks of school and Ms. Dow had brought her dog to school. It was one of Thomas's earliest memories being played out in real time right before him. "Would anyone like to come pet Lucy here?" she said, and Thomas felt his arm shoot up like a shoot. He hadn't been in control of it, but he still felt it happen. "Well come on up here, Thomas," and Thomas felt himself shuffle out of his chair and move toward the front of the class. He hadn't been in control of a thing. Everything in this world had already happened, and Thomas was just along for the ride. Yet still, he was feeling everything exactly the way he had felt it that day. He felt the eagerness to pet a dog. His parents had never let him have a dog, and he always wanted one so desperately bad. And this moment was so amazing to Thomas at the time, but he would have never remembered. He reached the front of the class and wrapped his arms around Lucy's ears and Tom looked into her eyes while she stayed back. He felt so happy. He felt that amazing sense of bliss and excitement exactly the way he had felt that day. And suddenly, the room began to fade away and something a different world began constructing itself in it's place. He saw the blue sky, that blue calming sky. And then a ferris wheel and the smell of popcorn. He was walking on a board walk next to an ocean. He looked to his left and saw his Uncle Peter, a man who he hadn't seen or bothered to call in years. Uncle Peter looked at him with his amiable smile that might Thomas feel so calm. He remembered where he was now, he was off to the dock to spend the day fishing, something that had seemed like such a bore when suggested to him but ended up being one of the most relaxing days of his childhood. So he went on with that memory. Spending the day fishing of the dock and washing the waves crash into the shore. He felt every emotion exactly how he felt them that day, an overwhelming feeling of peace and serenity, and after a while that memory deconstructed itself as well, and in it's place was Thomas's high school graduation, followed by the night he snuck out to go see his girlfriend and they spent the night laying on top of his car staring at the stars, followed by hundreds of more memories of happiness and bliss, some as small as the time when Thomas made a joke around his construction friends that they all got a good laugh out of. It was incredible. All those painful memories were simply not there. Just all the positive memories in Thomas's life that he never considered to think back on. Thomas had no idea how much time had passed in the real world, but after what seemed like an endless amount of happy memories he began to realize that the inevitable end of this amazing 'trip' was going to come sooner or later. He made the most of what he could in the very beautiful time he had left. He began to become increasingly certain the end was near, and after experiencing a successful drag race from his senior year, a new memory began to form, but this one wasn't like the others. First began the red, which drifted into red walls. Suddenly he was sitting in a comfy red chair, and their was a desk in front of him filled with all sorts of papers. There was woman sitting at the other end, he recognized her as his 8th grade guidance counselor, but had couldn't recall whatever memory he was remembering. She had a calming way of speaking, yet Thomas did not feel calm at all. He only felt embarrassment and sadness, yet he did not know why. She stared at him from a long amount of time before speaking. "Thomas, what's the matter? Please tell me what's been bothering you lately." "Nothing is the matter Ms. Kline. I promise I'm fine," Thomas felt himself say. She looked at him with a defeated look, as if she'd heard this whole thing a hundred times before. "Thomas I know that's not true, your parents and your teachers are telling me you've hardly talked at all the past couple weeks." Thomas said nothing. Whatever memory this was, there was no sense of happiness here. "Thomas, your teacher english teacher tells me that a few weeks ago you tried to ask Alissa to the dance and she said no. Is that really what this is all about?" "No," Thomas said, chocking back a wimper. Ms. Kline looked disappointed and arose to stare out the window. After a moment she came and back and sat. "Thomas I want to give you some advice that I wish someone would have given me when I was your age," She looked Thomas in eye and spoke with passion, "The truth is, there's going to be bad things that happen in your life, but if you have to learn to move past them, or you're not going to be living life at all. You can't live your life dwelling on the past, and I know that sometimes it's hard not to, but when you're feeling down, just think of all the good times that you've had and think of all the good times that are going to come, and I promise that more good times are always going to come." She paused and laughed, "I guess I might be rambling a bit but Thomas, the truth is that this world is going to be as beautiful as however you decide you want to see it." She paused again, "Do you understand that Thomas?" The young man in that chair simply looked down at the floor and said nothing, and Thomas Bradley realized that that young man hadn't listened to a word. And suddenly the room was fading away and now Thomas was looking at a TV. He was sitting on a couch surrounded by water and pretzels. He felt so thirsty, so weak. Had it been a week? He looked at the clock. It was Saturday of next week, 9:32. And that realization came over him with full force. I'll be dead soon. And in realizing that, he realized something much worse. I don't want to die. That voice that had once shown him all the negative parts was gone. He realized how many beautiful parts of his life had just slipped by and how he never even cared to enjoy them. He realized how much time he'd spent seeing the worst in life when there was so much beauty it had to offer, and there was so much he hadn't done, so many people he hadn't seen in so long, so many new memories he could be out making. Thomas Bradley, tried to get up, but we was so weak he could hardly move. He feel off the couch and onto the floor. So thirsty. So weak. He crawled his way across the floor to his phone on the countertop, using all power he had in the world he dragged himself up into a chair and grabbed his contact book from the cupboard. He was breathing heavily as he flipped through the pages and found the number he was looking for. It took three tries to dial the number correctly befor Thomas heard it ringing. It rang once. Twice. Three times. Oh dear god please answer. And midway through the fourth ring did he hear a familiar voice on the other end of the phone. "Hello?" Thomas was breathing even harder, but was so happy to hear that voice. He smiled weakly and said, "Uncle Peter?" In a surprised tone the man replied, "Thomas! Is that you?" "Yes Uncle Peter," Thomas said weakly, "It's me." "How have you been, boy?" "I've been okay Uncle Peter, I just wanted to ask you a question." "Yes?" "Do you remember the day we went fishing out by the board walk?" Thomas said weakly, as tears began to well up in his eyes. "Yes son, I do." Uncle Peter said. Thomas tried to respond, but could only manage sharp breathing in between his tears. "Thomas... Are you alright?" Thomas did his best to compose himself and said, "Uncle Peter... could we go again sometime?" He breathing was become weaker with every breath. "I just really would like to see you. We could have such a good time." "That sounds great Thomas. I'm free next weekend if you'd like?... Thomas?... Are you there?" But now there was only silence coming from the other end.