Humans are made from nuclear ash of dead stars

Adam strokes my head, my face, he kisses my tears. We are blessed. Let them all go. The sound of a bird flying low across the garden. Then nothing. Nothing. A cloud passes. Nothing again. Light falls through the window, falls onto me, into me. Moments. All gathering towards this one.

Like a tree losing its leaves. I forget even the thing I was thinking.

And now he's down this for me. He's made me famous. He's put my name on the world.

Death straps me to the hospital bed, claws its way onto my chest and sits there.I didn't know it would hurt this much. I didn't know that everything good that's ever happened in my life would be emptied out by it.

All I know is that I have two choices – stay wrapped in blankets and get on with dying, or get the list back together and get on with living.

Maybe I’ll come back as somebody else. I’ll be the wild-haired girl Adam meets in his first week at university. ‘Hi, are you on the horticultural course as well?