It was May 15, 1965. The sun was shining on a beautiful Sunday morning where Max and Emy were traveling with their new Alfa Romeo car, all over the stunning streets of Tuscany. Max was 28 and Emy only 24. They had known each-other for two years now, they were very happy and were planning to spend the rest of their lives together.  

“Emy how do you like our new car?” asked Max with a lot of pride for his excellence choice and knowledge of car brands. 

“I love it my dear but be careful and slow down. It’s such a wonderful day we don’t want anything bad happening.”  

Max and Emy went by the sea. They had a lovely walk in the sand, and then stopped by to have lunch in one of their favorite restaurants. They were talking about their future, and how much they would want to have children and create a family together.  

As they hopped on the car, Emy felt a drop of rain on her head. Heavy rain started as Max was driving to get home. Max wanted to get in time to their house for a football match, and began driving very quickly.  

“Max, Max, slow down, we’re going to have an accident,” yelled Emy in a worried voice.   

Max wasn’t bothered at all and was just going faster and faster as he said with a loud voice, “It’s okay, I got it, let me have some fun with our brand, new car.”   

“Maaaax, stop the car, stoppp, you’re going to crash into something!” Just as Emy said that, a car cut off the road and Max wanting to avoid an accident, turned the steering wheel to the right and furiously ran into a big tree.   

Emy opened her eyes and saw herself in the hospital, laying in a bed with many appliances around helping her to live. She called one of the nurses outside her room, “What’s going on? Where am I? What happened to me? Tell me! Where is Max? Where is he?” The nurse told her that a car accident had happened. She had lost consciousness and wouldn’t be able to walk again; she had become paralyzed from the waist down. But that wasn’t all of the bad and shocking news. As Emy asked her again about Max, the nurse told her the heartbreaking news of Max’s death. Emy burst into a series of yelling and screaming and shouting with all she could. She was horribly devastated.  

Many years passed and, on a cold, harsh afternoon of February 2025, Emy was standing in front of her big TV screen, watching her favorite show. Suddenly, she saw something move, a shadow. Since she could not get up, she grabbed what was closest to her, the remote control of the TV, and shouted in a shacky voice: “Is anyone here? Who is it? Come out!”   

The shadow started talking: “It’s me Max, don’t be scared. Oh, my dear Emy, I have begged God to come and meet you. He warned me that what I would see would be painful, but I was determined to come. Why are you in a wheelchair? What has happened during your life?”   
At first Emy was speechless, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing, but then she started talking: “You, you Max, it’s you here with me? How, is it, it possible you haven’t changed?”  
He responded: “I am an illusion of Max; you are the only one who can see me and hear me.” Max looked at Emy, she was still charming, and he could see her beauty in her small, blue eyes. He continued talking, “Emy tell me, what have you done in your life? How hard has it been? Has anyone been there to help you?”  

 Emy continued with a crying voice, “Oh, Max you left me very early, alone in this beautiful world. The day of the accident, at first, I lost conscious and when I woke up in the hospital, I found out I was paralyzed, and wouldn’t be able to walk.”  

Those words came as a shock to Max. He hadn’t known that the accident had left such serious damages to Emy. He couldn’t say a word.   

Emy responded shortly: “I missed you, every each and single day I would think about you and how we could’ve created a wonderful family and lived an amazing life together. Moreover, I was miserable and couldn’t believe the thought that I would never be able to walk again. My older sister, Aurora helped me. She stood by me this entire time and devoted her life to mine. Sadly, she died because of cancer two years ago.” She had a minute of pause, gulped down a few sips of water and continued talking about a new topic and on a more positive note she  said: “Things have changed here, and it hasn’t been as hard for me to fit in and live a normal life even though I can’t walk. I have a special car know, that I can drive. It is a remote-controlled car with electrical battery. I can either go out myself grocery shopping, or I can order food to my house using my phone, my iPhone. Technology has advanced a lot. People can talk through their phones from one corner of the world to another, even looking at their faces with a camera. Remarkable things have been invented.”   

As Emy was saying all of that, she saw Max’s face expression, he had a sincere smile on his face. Max was patiently listening to her but wasn’t talking. So Emy continued: “You could stay here with me for a while, after all I don’t think I will be living for a long time either. I have cancer too, just like my dear sister, that we have inherited from our dad.”  

When Max heard those words, he got very sorrow and some tears dropped off his cheeks. He agreed to stay with her for some time. Emy took Max to all the places she had visited frequently throughout her life. They went to some parks, a dog park too. They ate some great food at her favorite restaurant in the main square downtown and went to all the other spots they used to go when they were young.   

Max and Emy were having a very lovely and delightful time. However, Max would see that Emy’s health conditions were getting worse every day. Until one day, Emy was in a lot of pain and called an ambulance to come pick her up. Max went with her too. As she laid in her bed in the hospital room, Max was trying to make her feel better, and Emy would respond to him. The nurses saw Emy talking, but since they couldn’t see Max, they suspected that Emy also had a dementia problem. She was getting treated with tons of medicine, but they were not working.   

After two days, Emy could barely talk, and she would take her food from some intubations. With a quiet, dried voice, she said, “Thanks for being here for me during my last moments. I spent an awesome time with you. Never forget how much I love you.”  

As she said her last words and slowly closed her eyes, Max responded, “It won’t be the last time we see my dear Emy,” and Max disappeared as mysteriously as he had appeared.