Following what I last wrote, Laura sent me a link to Tobias Wolff's excellent Bullet in the Brain—which, as I had forgotten, was part of the literature for my Introductory Creative Writing course during the Spring of 2007.

In short, a man named Anders is shot in the head during a bank robbery, and we see a glimpse of the life he has lived as the bullet whips through his skull. I particularly love the last paragraph.

The bullet is already in the brain; it won’t be outrun forever, or charmed to a halt. In the end it will do its work and leave the troubled skull behind, dragging its comet’s tail of memory and hope and talent and love into the marble hall of commerce. That can’t be helped. But for now Anders can still make time. Time for the shadows to lengthen on the grass, time for the tethered dog to bark at the flying ball, time for the boy in right field to smack his sweat-blackened mitt and softly chant, They is, they is, they is.