To Be Immortal

In a faraway desert, a creature more feared than death was the Gold Snake. It was said that the bitten would be cursed with immortality, forever doomed to walk the earth and never reunite with their loved ones in the afterlife. But a princess named Neferu had a heart that felt differently, and her curiosity burned brighter than the scorching sun.

Neferu wondered what it would be like to never die. The afterlife was known, but the future was not. She would have all the time to learn and do and see everything she desired, to be more than a queen whose only purpose was to produce heirs.

One day, Neferu left home in search of the Gold Snake, and she didn’t have to venture far until she found it, as if she had been fated to.

The Gold Snake did not hiss or strike, instead waiting for Neferu to extend her hand. Once she did, the serpent unsheathed its fangs and sank them into her flesh, injecting her with the immortalizing venom.

When Neferu returned to her city, everyone knew what she had done, for her eyes had turned as gold as the Snake’s scales. Since she could not be sentenced to death for betraying her blood and people, she was banished from the land, threatened to be tortured for eternity if she ever returned. Her family didn’t want her. The gods didn’t either. Nobody did.

But Neferu was suddenly more resilient than she’d ever been, as if the Gold Snake had also given her endless energy and optimism. She traveled far and away from the desert, through villages and towns and cities, shedding her skin like a serpent to become a different person with each passing era. During her journey she collected knowledge and languages and stored them in jewelry that she wore, using them as needed to make her way around the world.

Neferu didn’t love anyone, but she was never unkind. She fed and gave to whom she could and her soul shone brighter with every other soul helped. Yet soon charity wasn’t enough; her own soul called her to fulfill a bigger mission, and she followed the calling to contribute to the sciences. The world benefited from Neferu’s contributions in return and her soul burned like the sun. Now it was making her look to the stars, yearning for an experience beyond the confines of her human body. The stars saw and understood everything, and Neferu wanted to see and understand everything too.

On a clear summer’s night, Neferu spoke to the stars, asking to be a part of them, but the stars looked down upon her with pity.

“You are immortal,” they said. “It can’t be done. Only those who die can become a star.”

Neferu was devastated. She finally realized the agony of immortality, the inability to die when one felt that they had lived enough. Lost and hopeless, Neferu wandered the earth aimlessly, revisiting the same lands and oceans in search of a new purpose, but the desire to join the stars only burned hotter until it consumed her, rendering her terribly ill. No doctor could cure Neferu. Her sickness was beyond help. She lied in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines, surrendered to the fever that would never break.

One day, a blind man visited her and sat by her side. She didn’t recognize him, but he seemed as if he’d known her for a long time.

“You have accomplished far more than any mortal could dream, and the world is a more beautiful place because of you,” he said. “The gift in your veins is the key to the cage you have found yourself in.”

Neferu didn’t understand.

“What?” she said. “Who are you? What do you mean? I am cursed. I was so foolish. I can’t die.”

The blind man laughed. “Are you sure?”

“Well, if you are so sure I can die, kill me then!” Neferu demanded. “I beg for death!”

“Have you not died plenty of times already?” the blind man said.

Of course I haven’t! Neferu wanted to say, but the truth revealed itself.

Like a snake that shed its skin, Neferu had changed names and clothes and cultures through the ages. She had been a princess, a peasant, a wise woman, a painter, a dancer, a writer, a scholar, a doctor, a scientist. She had died more times than she could count.

The feverish pain throughout her body cooled, allowing Neferu to regain her strength. The blind man smiled.

“The stars are waiting for you,” he said.

That night, Neferu left the hospital and the city, heading to a place where the stars were clearest. There, she stood under the heavenly canopy, which formed a face like a constellation, smiling down upon her.

“Now you understand what it means to be immortal,” the stars said.

Neferu beamed, and she shed her flesh until she was nothing but starlight, rising into the sky to join her kind. Existence was very different as a star, but Neferu was still conscious, watching and feeling and thinking on levels beyond human comprehension. Yet her soul was no less warm than it had been on earth, her awareness and compassion boundless, and through the eyes of the universe she helped shape the world into one with less pain, war, and death.