On a deathbed in the slums of a nameless town, seventy-year-old Samuel Sol laid weakly while staring at the ceiling of his dilapidated room. Even with his old blurry eyes he could still discern the blemishes and imperfections of the once upon a time white wall.
The peeling, yellow now paint and the ever-present mold, reminded him for the last time of the hardships, injustices and losses he experienced in his seemingly fulfilling life.
His eyelids slowly became heavy, and it wasn't long before he lacked the strength to keep them open.
And while those were closing, Samuel Sol was taking his last breath in this world, full of complaints and unanswered questions about what the meaning of this expired life of his was.
Any last-minute thoughts and feelings ceased to exist in quick succession as Samuel Sol sank into the abyss of oblivion.
An unknown duration of time later, Samuel Sol became aware of himself suddenly. The darkness and the physical absence of him, the recently deceased, didn't last for eternity as he expected to. Very soon in fact, he felt yet again the weight of his eyelids as the feeling over his body returned.
The first thing he saw was the darkness from his still closed eyes, and then, as he slowly opened them with some difficulty, sunlight entered and drove that darkness away. Its warmth was embracing him, welcoming him again to the world as if it was waiting for him.
In response to this warm welcome, Samuel Sol squinted his eyes in slight annoyance while he lifted his arm and placed his palm over his eyes, covering them from the blinding light.
He didn't feel any ounce of joy for not dying yet, as his misery of a life didn't have any substantial meaning any longer.
'No matter.' he thought.
He only needed to wait a bit more for his eyes to close again. The next time should be the one.
The shadow his palm provided him though felt different than usual. Its shape was dissimilar to the one he was familiar with.
While waiting for his inevitable end he didn't mind solving this small mystery first; there was nothing to lose anyway.
When he opened his eyes more to see better, what he saw shocked him immensely.
Where his five long, thin and withered fingers should have been, there were instead five tiny and chubby fingers. The flesh of his palm and hand was plumb and its skin rosy, without any trace of his wrinkles.
Beyond baffled, he checked the rest of his body, or how much of it he could at least see. He only managed to lift his head high enough to catch a quick glimpse of the small body he possessed, before he exhausted himself and let it unwillingly to drop down in shock.
Even though he didn't want to believe what he saw, the feeling and physical connection he had with this tiny body was indeed real.
He no longer had the old body which accompanied him through the difficulties of his seventy-year-long life. Now, from a surreal but also physical point of view, Samuel Sol had the body of an infant baby!
This situation seemed to be straight out of a fantasy novel. But nonetheless, he needed to accept it, it was reality. At least he thought it was..
Regarding his new small body, he could only control it only a little, which told him it was not older than a couple of weeks after its birth…. his birth! Him, Samuel Sol, a seventy years old man who died, has now been reborn!
With his inner feelings in turmoil from the unbelievable situation he found himself in, Samuel Sol did what he knew best. He chose to concentrate on the environment around him and observe it.
The first things that caught his attention were the wooden bars of the crib he was lying in... he blinked his eyes a few times to make sure he was seeing correctly, and yes, he did! They were indeed made out of wood, as it was all the crib...he was speechless.
Even for him, who lived so many years, wood was old-fashioned and in the brink of extinction as a chosen structure material.
Even before he was born - the first time - the most basic and preferred structure material choice was the latest synthetic plastic that was invented at the time. It was "clean", had the feature to change color, form and even density!
For that reason, no matter how much he kept thinking, he couldn't figure out why someone would choose such an archaic material as wood.
Looking further from the crib, another surprise waited for him.
The walls of the room he was in were made of small blocks of stone, just simple stone! He expected to find them made of steel or some kind of alloy so they could protect their interior from the atmospheric storms, but that was not the case. The stones would not provide any protection. 'Then why did they use them?' he thought in question.
The absurd sights though did not stop with these.
The windows' frames were made of wood too and the windows themselves from simple glass! The window from which the sunlight was reaching him, and was situated right next to him, was just the same. The floor and the inner roof were wooden as well!
The entirety of the room, along with the furniture he could see, was all made from materials forgotten in the time period Samuel Sol lived. He was so speechless with disbelief that it wouldn't have surprised him if the outer roof of this house was made up of historic tiles!
"He...he...h-he...." He couldn't even laugh with the seemingly funny and ridiculous speculation he had just thought. With everything he has seen so far, it wouldn't be unbelievable for them to be just that, actual tiles!
Suddenly, a feeling of tiredness overwhelmed him.
All these absurd surprises proved too intense for his reborn mind, and his baby body didn't help at all, except only to add to that fatigue with its own little energy.
Samuel Sol, now a baby only a few weeks old, closed his eyes again. But this time, he did only for his afternoon nap.