The day I died was like any other day, right up until the brakes in my car failed and then ohnocan’tstopwhycan’tistop and then … it’s weird how a few seconds can change everything. The crunch of metal, lightning-fast pain, too fast to even know what hit me – probably a tree branch.

I woke up on a distant island, the one I’d often visited in my dreams as an Arthurian scholar. If heaven is a dream, then Avalon is my dream, I suppose. I woke on this island, green fields and flowers. Was this a dream? Was any of this even real?

And then, Arthur, the real Arthur appeared like my own personal Beatrice. I’m not sure how I knew it was him, his warm smile, at what point, if he told me or if I just knew. He was shorter than I imagined, shorter than me, with short dark hair and a kingly demeanor, straight posture. His purple brocade shirt rippled as he moved.

“Welcome to Avalon,” he told me, his voice rich and warm and real. “21st century, female,” he added. “Robin right?”

“How did you know my name?”

He said nothing but continued to hold his hand out. I took it, accepting the silent invitation. He lifted me off the ground along with him until we were floating high above the earth, no longer grounded, as the shades we now both were. And then- He showed me my new home, gave me the answers to so many questions, all of the secrets, all the secrets of the once and the future king.

I decided to do the April Challenge last minute and I hope to be able to keep up with grad school and working full time, but I’m thinking maybe I need something time-consuming and fun because of grad school.

Each day is going to be a common mythical trope in a fantasy story, because many of the best fantasies (starting with Tolkien himself) are recreations of mythology in various forms. In this case, the story of Avalon, the place where King Arthur went when he died, from which (so the story goes) he will one day return. I also felt like this would tail nicely with Easter which was yesterday and for Catholics like myself continues until Pentecost. I’ve always found the Avalon mythos fascinating.

A link to Wikipedia pages on Avalon (where I got the lovely picture) and to Dante’s Inferno which I also reference above:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy