The Sweet Means of Death

“If I desire not to desire, is that not already desire? How can I desire not to desire? How can I surrender myself. In myself is precisely. To hold on to cling to cling to life to continue to survive. I can see rationally that by clinging to myself I may strangle myself. I may be like a person who has a bad habit, as a result of which he is committing suicide and he knows that but can’t give it up. Because the means of death are so sweet.” - Alan Watts

1

In 1980, Ada Reynolds was a senior at Battle Ground High School in Washington. She was in the band, but didn't love it. She played the clarinet. Her favorite class was Biology, but her senior year she didn't take a lot of courses that were challenging. It was her second semester, and she'd already been accepted to university, at Washington State.

In her Biology class, she sat near a boy named Garl. It was an odd name for a boy but she had known of him her entire high school tenure. He may have known of her too, but she didn't have proof of that, because they'd never spoken, outside of those situations in class where she'd be called on and answer a question, and he'd say something after, or vice versa.

One day, Garl gave a presentation. He stood in front of the classroom wearing his overalls and a black Metallica t-shirt. His hair was long, and his glasses were circles of metal twisted behind his ears and over his nose. He squinted at the class.

"My presentation is about the uncanny ability of the Earth to heal animals," he said. The teacher of the class, a Mrs. Becker, stood with her arms crossed, leaning back against her desk. Ada could see the teacher was trying to keep quiet, but also wanted to jump in.

"Contrary to popular belief," the boy said, "death isn't the end for animals a lot of times. My whole life, I've dealt with animals dying on my farm, and I've always wished I could stop it, and of course that's impossible, but it turns out I've figured out a way to restart it once it's stopped."

Mrs. Becker stood up, biting her fingernails. "Garl, is this going to be a presentation about biology, or is this Dungeons and Dragons? I'm not convinced Necromancy is a valid scientific process."