“See that, Diesel. You’re intelligent and loyal.”

I know. Right now I am busy cleaning. Diesel licks at his dog bits.

“Before you go,” the announcer finally says, “could you give the viewers at home your most important tip to get a dog to behave?”

“Sure. The answer is easy. Exercise, exercise, and more exercise. If I don’t give Titan jobs to do, he gets bored and into mischief.”

Walkies? Walkies? Diesel asks inside my head. He has to be listening to the show a little.

“Too dangerous,” I answer out loud. We have to keep you safe.

I won’t run in the street. I know better.

“No!”

Then I will amuse myself.

Diesel latches onto Luanne’s stuffed monkey. She giggles as he growls and grins at the same time, giving the monkey a shake.

“Exercise,” I repeat as I snatch the toy away from him. “Not destruction. How can I exercise you inside?”

Throw the pillow with eyes! He jumps on the couch and tries to get the monkey back.

I tuck the monkey under one arm and pick up the remote to flip away from the canine competition, figuring Luanne and Diesel aren’t watching anyway. As I surf the channels, a scene stops me. It’s a monitor with a black background and a green line jumping up in peaks in time to a heartbeat. The beat intensifies, then stops as the green line flattens. A piercing beep sounds. I lift my thumb off the remote.

“Sajan Andrews suffered a massive heart attack and died for five minutes.” On screen a surgeon holds paddles to somebody’s chest. The heartbeat begins again. “Listen as he talks about his near-death experience.”

He has my attention. My drowning felt like a near-death experience. Maybe we’re really dead and I’m dreaming we’re alive. A hot shiver shoots up my spine.

Diesel yips. We aren’t dead.

What do you know? You’re a dog.

Dogs know plenty.

Explain it to me, then.

I have already told you. We are not dead. You are not dreaming.

But what about my drowning? The watch?

He whines. When you need me, I can save you.

Well, right now I’m concentrating on saving you. I turn to the near-death show hoping for some answers.

Sajan Andrews speaks: “There was a whooshing sound. And a force tugged me toward a huge blinding-white beam of light. Almost like a tunnel.”

Doesn’t sound anything like what happened to me, but it gives me an idea of how to exercise Diesel. I grab the emergency flashlight off the wall and shine it around the floor. Diesel immediately leaps after it.

“Rawf, rawf!” I can catch the dancing star!

Luanne squeals, slides off the couch, and toddles after him.

Sajan Andrews continues: “There was no bottom or top on the tunnel of light but the outside edges glowed. I felt at peace.”

In my drowning vision, when the waves pounded all the breath from me, there was never any tunnel of light. I can’t be dead, right?