"Sorry, forget about that. I just make it about me again, don't I?" I say with a grin, feeling selfish.
I wish I could just get rid of his dark clouds at least before I go, Alex thinks to himself.
"Hey, Billy, what does your faith actually say if someone doesn't get what they want here on Earth?" Alex asks, opening a new topic.
"That they'll get it in heaven instead?" I answer, feeling pretty skeptical.
"Exactly," Alex replies confidently. "Remember what I said about my princess's things appearing in heaven whenever she longs for something?"
"Yeah?" I say, lifting one of my eyebrows.
"She gets every single thing she wishes for," Alex explains.
"Is that really true? Then who creates all of that?" I ask doubtfully.
"I don't know, I'm not really sure either," Alex answers honestly. "But hey, see it for yourself."
"Water, please, can you show us my palace in heaven?" Alex says to the puddle right below our bench.
"To be honest, I don't know if you can see everything clearly with regular human eyes, but... well, let's just find out," Alex continues.
Suddenly, I notice the reflection in the puddle below my feet begins to shift. I start to see something.
"Okay, what do you see right now?" Alex asks.
"Umm... are those castles?" I guess, totally terrified of looking stupid. "Are they built right on top of super steep, high cliffs? Swirling with waterfalls all around them?"
"Seriously?" Alex cracks a smile. "Nothing weird that you've never seen before?"
Hmm... I pause, staring back at the reflection with intense focus.
"Oh, now I see... a red dragon and a river floating around those high cliffs?" I say, telling him what just I saw.
"Hahaha!" Alex bursts out laughing. "Is that what your version of heaven looks like? It seems that you can only see the best imagination you can think of about heaven," Alex explains. "Let's skip straight to my princess's gallery room. There are a lot of items from Earth there, which you might be able to see clearly this time."
"Is this whole space the gallery room?" I ask Alex.
"Yup, I arranged it all myself," Alex nods with a smile.
"Whoa. This is basically a mall," I say in absolute awe, looking at the multi-layered collection room that is structured exactly like a shopping mall—my favorite place. "This really is heaven."
"Is this section specifically for toys? Wow, it's so complete. Toys from the shows I love are all right here. This is the hamster house play set that I always wanted, but it was way too expensive to buy. It's so cute. And this is the red dragon robot that I searched everywhere for—the one that can combine into a bigger robot. And this... oh my god, this is that magical girl scouts action figure set that my parents refused to buy for me, haha!"
"I really wish I had something like this," I admit honestly.
Suddenly, the gallery room, which was initially a bit dim, lights up as the lamps turn on one by one.
"Whoa, it looks so beautiful now that all the lights are on," I say, still completely mesmerized. Alex only smiles in silence, watching me suddenly get lost in happiness.
"Wait. Is all of this just a fantasy that I want to see, or am I actually looking at real items?" I ask suspiciously.
"Yes, Billy. You're seeing them right," Alex explains.
Whoa, is this the comic book section? These are all the comics I have been searching for all my life. The collection is entirely complete. And this is my favorite comic tabloid that went out of print, oh my god. When I was a kid, I owned a few issues, but then my parents threw them all away along with my toys because they thought I needed to grow up. If I am in heaven, of course I want to have them all back again. All my good memories, even with my parents and sister, are there.
I then move over to the movie collection room.
"Are you sure these are actually your princess's favorite movies?" I ask Alex in disbelief, looking at all the video cases neatly displayed on the shelves just like in a rental store.
"I don't know. Why, though?" Alex asks back.
"There are a lot of cartoons here. I'm pretty sure most women don't enjoy this kind of stuff. And these are all my absolute favorites," I answer. "I've always wanted to own this collection, and that one too. Man, it really is heaven if I can have all of this."
"Is there anything you don't like in there?" Alex asks.
"Hmm... let me check..." I scan around, searching for anything that might displease me. "None. I love every single thing."
"This room, the choice of colors, the interior, the arrangement, the lighting—it's literally everything I have ever dreamed of." I smile, totally starstruck. "Are these all just what your princess and I are into, or does everyone in the afterlife actually enjoy this kind of stuff?"
"Hmm, interesting..." Alex starts thinking of something. "What about these places, then? Do you share the same taste with her too?" Alex asks. "This is a mini park specifically meant to store all the landmarks she treasures, I think. Honestly, I don't know much about it either."
"Whoaaaa, this is so beautiful!"
"Oh my god, no way! Is this department store coming alive again?" I say, staring at the first building with absolute shock. When I was a kid, my family used to hang out here all the time. I have so many beautiful memories here. I've always wanted to come back, but it went bankrupt a long time ago. "Does your princess have memories here just like me? It seems like she really lived in this exact city."
"Really? What kind of store is it?" Alex asks.
"Well, you could call it a mall, but a bit smaller. Back then, whenever a new cartoon movie came out, my mom would bring me and my sister here. Look over there—they used to put up movie posters, the painted ones, right in front of the gate."
"There are four floors. The basement is the supermarket and the cassette and CD shop. The second floor is the cinema. The third floor is for clothes, which always bore me, and the very top floor is my ultimate favorite—the toys and other quirky novelty items. I used to cry here a lot, begging to be bought those toys I saw earlier, hehehe," I explain at length while the water displays different sections of the store one after another. Alex simply nods along.
"What about the other buildings? Do you know them too?" Alex asks, kind of curious.
"Yes, this was my favorite bakery too. It's like a small minimarket but with two floors. This is where I used to buy unique pastries that were rare anywhere else. Look, the pastries are actually still there, hahaha!" I let out a surprised laugh. "That's the chocolate cake with the little white rabbit topping. I used to stare at it in the display case because it was so cute, just like my wax duck here, but I never bought it. And that's the colorful cat-shaped steamed cake that I loved to buy because it was cute and much more affordable. My birthday cakes were bought here too; I remember always picking the ones with pink and green colors, just like our petulo colors before."
"The second floor is for books and magazines. Yeah, this is where I loved to buy my comic books and that comic tabloid I mentioned earlier. But just like the previous place, this store went bankrupt a long time ago. It's just a memory now," I explain as the water reveals the inner layout of the next building. Once again, Alex nods in absolute silence.
"And this is the place where my mom used to buy me unique ice creams—windmill shapes, dinosaur shapes, branded cartoon shapes, tart shapes, even my mom's blue soursop-flavored ice popsicle there. Man, back then, it felt so memorable to me."
"As for this store, I didn't actually like it that much. My mom always shopped for clothes and boring household items here for a really long time, leaving me stranded while she talked to the saleswoman. But the part I loved was the portable game vendor in the electronic section under it, and all the staircases inside. I've always loved buildings with lots of staircases. I actually wouldn't mind coming back here again, remembering how thrilling it was to explore this place like I was in a video game back then."
"Do you recognize every single one of these places?" Alex asks.
"Yeah, it seems so. I never knew this city well even at my age now, because I rarely go anywhere, but those are all the places that I myself ever visited in this town, except for that sad bench over there. I think I saw it in a different town during my lonely trip many years ago," I answer.
"Wait a minute. All these buildings preserved in this park... it feels like I have a personal memory in every single one of them. And all the items in the gallery too, are absolutely things that I really love. If all of that is true and the two of us met, it feels like we could be close friends, or even twin siblings, you know," I joke, totally clueless.
"Billy, can you do me a favor?" Alex says, suddenly turning completely serious. "Can you forget all of your problems for just a single minute?"
"Okay..."
"Then think about this seriously: what if I am truly your destined soulmate in the future... would you want that?"
I freeze for a moment, hardly processing. "What? You're joking. You already have your own soulmate, it's impossible," I say, trying to respond to it as a joke.
"What if it's true? Can you please just imagine it for a second. Would you want that?" Alex asks, his face still completely serious.
"Are you kidding? Of course I would want that, and you know that. It would be the most beautiful day of my entire life," I say, while picturing myself being with Alex, finally together forever.
"Good..." Alex answers. "Because you are truly the princess I have been looking for all this time."
"And everything you saw just now... those are your items, and that is your palace in heaven."
I stand there frozen, completely melted by his words, caught between pure happiness and absolute confusion over how he could even possibly say something like that.
Updated 06/11/2026
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