BEYOND THE VEIL

Is death the end? Most people in the world think not.

In Book I of this collection, Ted Myers imagines seventeen possible post-death experiences, all first-person narratives by people who have died. Each narrator―whether they be male, female, straight, gay, black, white, or something else―has a completely unique experience. And, each narrator’s environment varies with their experience in life. In “Bardo Train to Canarsie,” a Buddhist monk traverses the bardo on a New York City subway train, with only a homeless Black poet as his companion. In “Shop Till You Drop,” two middle-aged matrons meet in their afterlife―the lingerie department at Bergdorf Goodman’s, where they can shop to their hearts’ content with no limit on their credit cards. In “Ghost Academy,” a Black high school teacher learns to be a vengeful ghost, and its cost.

Book II, “I Dream in Black and White,” is an homage to the chiaroscuro noir films of the ’40s and ’50s.

A retired copywriter in his late sixties dreams a film noir story in black and white. Every night, his dreamlife reveals a continuation of the story. In the dream, he is young, strong, and handsome. But every morning the dream fades. Try as he may, the dreamer can only recall tantalizing slivers. He knows it’s no ordinary dream; he knows it’s exciting and romantic―everything his boring and repetitive life is not. He becomes obsessed with remembering it, so he seeks help from a hypnotherapist. What he learns leads him into uncharted territory, a place where life, death, and dreams intersect.