I became conscious. It was like waking up, but somehow it was more than that. Not wanting to see anything yet, I chose to meditate for a moment. Peace. It seemed a world away from what I had last felt—gut-wrenching anxiety, dread, terror. In more ways than one. Flashes of arrangements hurriedly being made, rushing, sitting in something, all entered my mind in brief fragments. But I swept them aside. Surrounded by peace no...

“Nightclubs just don’t work for me,” I sighed as my friend, Nate, tried to cajole me on my cell into going to a club with him. “Come on,” he said, “I’ll be your wing-man.” “That’s because you never need a wing-man,” I replied. Six-foot four, thirty-one, clean-cut with black hair and an almost perfect tanned physique, as well as good taste in dark clothes, Nate didn’t need any help with attracting women, or usually getting...

AN ENDING “My life is over!” I yelled to my aunt the day she came to discharge me from the convalescent center. With my parents being claimed by a car crash almost eight years ago, I had striven to be a careful driver since then — despite my having bought a silver BMW convertible thanks to my folks’ insurance proceeds and estate. But I almost bought the farm, too. My fiancée wasn’t so lucky. It was evening on a quiet stre...