It wasn't a shock—at least he could understand what was happening. What truly surprised him was his inability to control his emotions. Ever since he woke up, he had been struggling with the urge to cry. Not just to cry—he wanted to sob. Convincing himself that his situation was dire, but that panic would only make things worse, he tried to remain calm.
Whether due to emotions or some other reason, Bill was overtaken by a wave of drowsiness again: "Let's sleep, it'll be better when we wake up, and then we'll try to move a bit."
Upon waking, Bill felt as if he was slowly rising into the air. He sensed something under him, but not having been lifted for nearly ninety years, it was a strange feeling.
Bill: "Uh?"
Before he could comprehend what was happening, Bill saw a giant with large black eyes and a covered face.
Bill: "AAAAAA!"
Instantly switching to fight-or-flight mode, Bill, to his shame, screamed at the top of his lungs and loosened his bowels. With his eyes wide open and his legs twitching frantically, he saw something and suddenly felt like he was having a heart attack.
"M...my!! "..."
Seeing his chubby short hands, Bill could no longer resist and immediately lost consciousness.
Upon regaining consciousness again, Bill did not open his eyes.
"No... this can't be. This can't be. This can't be."
Bill was never an Olympic athlete, but he also never claimed to be an Einstein. Nevertheless, he was experienced enough to know the basic realities and laws governing biological life on Earth.
"There are no giants. Giants can't exist and look like humans.
I'm 183 cm tall, and for a giant to hold me in his hands, he would have to be over 20 meters tall. That's impossible.
He would be too heavy; he wouldn't be able to breathe."
Shying away from the thought of his chubby short hands, Bill continued to convince himself that it was a dream or a pre-death hallucination.
"This can't be.
"Alright, let's think... rationally. I'm very ill. Yes, I'm sure this is just a hallucination, ha-ha, nothing special. Hang in there, old man."
Although the idea of a hallucination was unsettling, Bill continued to find reasons why he wasn't actually being held by a giant. After his reasoning dragged on for some time, he decided that the next logical step would be:
"Listen, we'll just open our eyes and look ahead — there will be no giants, no monsters, nothing unusual. Nothing at all."
Gathering all his courage, Bill opened his eyes gradually. These stages required more bravery than he cared to admit to himself. After a while, although the light was still bright, it caused nothing more than minor irritation. Thus, he slowly allowed his vision to stabilize.
"See, that wasn't so hard. And look, nothing unusual. I'm just in a bubble in some large medical... stadium. Surely, they're training new medical students here, ha-ha, of course. Ah, technology is a wonderful thing."
Smiling, perhaps a bit madly, Bill felt a weight lift from his shoulders as his eyes darted from side to side.
"Ha-ha, see, that was nothing, old man. What did I tell you?"
In his excitement, Bill decided to raise his hand to rub his face, and although it was difficult, it was still possible:
SMACK!
Hitting his face and lying in a daze, Bill relaxed his gut again. Slowly raising his hand toward the ceiling, he thought only of one thing:
"This can't be..."
Coming to his senses again, Bill thought only of one thing:
"I'm... a baby."
As if this knowledge came from the darkest corners of his subconscious, it was initially hard for Bill to accept the truth.
And it was difficult until the so-called giant returned to the room, and denying it became impossible. It was still frightening, but after he looked at his hands, Bill no longer panicked to the point of losing consciousness. Although he was still confused, he now had a way to comprehend what was happening around him.
The room was not large, and the bubble was an incubator used for infants.
"This doesn't make sense. This is not where I was supposed to end up."
Bill had been a Christian all his life, and for him, the idea of reincarnation was unimaginable. However, the facts were right in front of him. Although he couldn't fully turn his head when a doctor, or whom he assumed to be a doctor, entered the room, he was able to see more of himself.
"Damned Buddhists were right..."
Bill was a knowledgeable man, but like most Americans, he wasn't familiar with the details of Eastern religions. For him, any time he saw a bald monk or heard of someone who wouldn't kill even an ant, he attributed it all to Buddhists.
Reincarnation was something strange to Bill. Despite the fear of his current situation, he had no hint that he had ever lived before his previous life, and as far as he could tell, he had nothing to learn from. How was he supposed to achieve some sort of enlightenment that he hadn't reached in over ninety years of life?