Oblivion Dream Chapter 4

Her eyes opened to a void. Then suddenly, her sight filled - with visions of times past. She saw a girl, about five years old, playing at a may-pole with two older girls. The smallest one, she realized with a smile, was herself. That was a happy child, she knew, but soon that dream would be shattered. Memories, so many memories.

"And that's what makes a full life, they say." a voice in the nether spoke.

The sound of another voice, especially one so otherworldly, should have surprised her. Somehow, it seemed normal, familiar, as it changed. In the floating darkness, constellations began to appear. Tiny specks of light blinked into existence, comets streaked magnificently through the filling void, and a celestial body very close to her ignited for the first time, becoming an orange sphere of perpetual flame, Sol - the Sun. Stepping out from this show of lights, came a man she knew and loved.

"Daddy Jay?" she thought, unable to speak for her apparent lack of a body or vocal chords.
"Kate-Lynn." the gray-headed senior said, in a voice she remembered well.

Daddy Jay was actually her grandfather, Jay Wright. Daddy Jay had been a marine in World War II. The horrors of war had left their mark on the man, and at war's end he went home to find his faith. He had been a preacher of the Gospel for many years afterwards, and Katie remembered as a little girl the long talks and stories with Daddy Jay. His vocation took him to many faraway places, and he would always return with a trinket or souvenir from his travels. She dearly loved the man, but thought it strange that she should meet him here. He'd passed away seven years before, succumbing to aggressive brain cancer.