あらすじ
Richard Burley is dead. Long Live Richard Burley. When is Death not an ending, but a beginning? Perhaps it's when your spirit crosses over to the afterworld, or maybe your atoms scatter across the cosmos and add to the total collective consciousness of the universe. Or could it be that the myriad forces and energies that intersected at the nexus of reality that is you will simply divvy up your total potential energy amongst your alternate selves? Whatever the ultimate answer you choose to believe in, it comes down to the same basic premise: that your essence is eternal, and thus, death is, as the poets say, just a door to another level of perception. When Richard Burley lay dead on the hospital floor, perhaps some of his friends were convinced that that would be the last chapter in his story. A few suspected otherwise, and his handicapped brother spent many months trying to convince anyone who would listen that he had simply stepped across the threshold of the world and into a mirror reality, where he could watch over them from afar. But what is Richard's ultimate fate? Will he go to Heaven or Hell? Will he transcend reality for a higher plane of consciousness? Will he dissipate and leave his friends lost and wondering if they can carry on without him? And, knowing what we do about Richard's mental health, how can we be sure that his death isn't just other another psychotic fantasy?
