Haley’s earthly journey was coming to an end. Soon, she would transcend the human plane, and then? She didn’t know, only that she would start anew.

She turned to her husband, who slept beside her on a queen-size bed, and sighed. How, after so many years together, could she tell him what she was, or worse, that she would soon be leaving him alone?

I’m not human, she wanted to say, except that wasn’t precisely the truth. Like her husband, she possessed a hominid nature. Th...