Karza opened his eyes. He was on a boat and surrounding him was probably one of the most spectacular landscapes he had ever seen.
At first glance, it looked like he had gone to Pantanal. A swamp so big that he could not tell if the green patches on the horizon was the edge of the waterbody or just another big bush veiling more water. The water was shining bright green. Looking closely, the bottom was a freshly growing forest of reed or some other underwater grass. It ought to have been just after the first spring shower, because the air smelled of new life instead of decomposition.
Someone “spoke” to Karza from behind, except it was less of a voice and more of voiceless telepathy.
“Thank you for helping us, now go and enjoy the party with your friends.”
The voice jokingly pushed Karza into the water. It was such a strong yet friendly push that got him surprised but not at all annoyed.
When Karza resurfaced, the original boat had vanished and a different boat had appeared just several body lengths in front of him. Specifically, it was more like a houseboat, with a sizeable rectangular white cabin stacking on top of this vessel. Several heads poked out of the cabin, most of them were faces that he knew: they went to University together.
The girl nicknamed Woody was the first to wave her hands at Karza.
The ramp door at the front opened and lowered into the water, as if it was a giant lowering its hands to pick him up.
Karza climbed on board and was warmly greeted by Calvin, Vivianne, Big Mouth and the few others that he knew he had bumped into on campus but never learnt their names.
The group receded to the interior, specifically the communal area. Although they were on the inside of the boat, it felt like they were still in the open. The living quarters was well-lit with many big windows, and the natural light bounced off neatly from the wooden furniture onto the grey carpeted floor.
All nine of them sit comfortably in a somewhat lopsided circle and in the center was a boardgame containing a deck of playing cards. Karza, somehow completely dried up, was dealt a hand as well. They started a new round, and then many more rounds. There was smile and laughter left and right.
Karza didn’t fully know what he was doing with the cards because the scenery outside of the windows had him enchanted the whole time. Looking at the swamp through the windows gave rise to augmented perspectives and feelings. Every time when he blanked out enough, he could see himself inside a miniature cabin floating aimlessly on an evergreen liquid forest, which was in turn just a small bed of duck weed drifting on a much bigger pond, perhaps on a much bigger planet too.
The steam from the coffee pot diffused to reach his nose. Its perfect scent, temperature and humidity was like a big dose of muscle relaxant, so his butt simply half-melted into the carpet the same way a soft serve ice cream sit in the cone. Unable to move a muscle, his eyes rested willingly on the imagery beyond the windows.
It was pure peace and euphoria orchestrated into a strange symphony.
After some infinitely long time – or maybe just brief moments – the boat came to a stop. The group paused and went outside to look. Not very far from them was a small piece of land formed by generations of reed bending and piling on top of one another.
A small crowd of people were standing silently on the grass, all facing a framed portrait in the center. Karza couldn’t remember the name of the face in the black-and-white portrait, but it was definitely someone that he knew, perhaps even someone important.
Again, Woody was the first to wave at the crowd. The people, all dressed in black, replied with a bittersweet smile on their faces. There were definitely hints of sadness, but it also seemed like they had accepted the grief and allowed it to turn it into something beautiful and well-meaning.
Karza still couldn’t recall who the deceased was, but the colour of the blue sky, the colour of the layering green grasses, the colour of their faces under the slightly yellowed sunlight, he just knew that this person had left behind so much love that even the pains of their death became insignificant.
No one got off the boat to join the funeral, nor did anyone utter a word. But it was that brief moment when they waved at each other and exchanged those silent mutual understandings that had already wrapped up a thorough funeral by itself.
The boat started moving again and the setting sun somehow got brighter and brighter until everything turned to white.
Karza opened his eyes and was immediately violated by the sunbeams seeping through the edges of the curtain. He rubbed his watery eyes and looked at the digital clock on the bedside. It read 11:23.
Footnote: Only 85% of this chapter was accurate to my dream because my neighbour’s chicken was making a lot of noise while I was writing it down and it made me forget some important details.