The Next Person You Meet in Heaven(39)
“Winds blew,” she said.
Tolbert left, never knowing another wind that had blown, one he had diverted, yanking Paulo to the side of the road on that rainy night, preventing a speeding car from striking him, a tragedy that a different version of the world had planned, a version that did not grant Annie and Paulo even one night of marriage, nor the child that would come from it. But there are so many times our lives are altered invisibly. The flip of a pencil, from written to erased.
Shortly after that visit, Annie got a map, packed a small bag, and made a journey in her car to an amusement park by a great gray ocean. Upon reaching the entrance, she stepped out and stared at the spires and minarets of Ruby Pier, the bejeweled front arch and a tower drop ride that hovered above it all.
She asked staff members if there was anyone who remembered a man named Eddie, who used to fix the rides. She was taken to a maintenance shop behind the bumper car ride, a shop with low ceilings and dim bulbs and porcelain clown heads and coffee cans full of screws and bolts. Annie was introduced to a middle-aged man named Dominguez, who wiped his hands on a rag and said yes, he used to work for Eddie, right up to his death. When Annie told him who she was, he dropped the rag and slumped back on a stool, nearly toppling over.
For a moment, he could only mumble, “Oh, man. Oh, man.”
Then he began to cry. “I’m sorry. It’s just … Eddie would be so happy if he knew you were OK.”
Annie smiled.
Later, Dominguez took her to the back and showed her a chest of Eddie’s possessions, knickknacks and birthday cards and a pair of army boots. Annie asked if she could take a box of pipe cleaners. Dominguez said if she wanted, she could have the whole chest.
“Can I ask you something personal?” he said before they parted.
Annie nodded.
“How does it feel to have your life saved? I mean, I saw what happened that day at the park. If not for Eddie, you would have died.”
Annie touched her belly. She said it was hard to explain. She said she used to feel that she’d give anything to change what had happened, but now she felt differently. Mostly, she said, she felt grateful.
Seasons came and seasons went, and when the days grew hot, the crowds returned to the seaside amusement parks, and kids rode the newest version of the tower drop ride at Ruby Pier, unaware, as children blessedly are, of previous fates that were altered in its space.
Annie, meanwhile, gave birth to a daughter, whom she cradled gently to her chest. She called her Giovanna, an Italian name for “gift from God,” because, as Paulo had suggested, Annie returned from heaven to bring her into the world.
One day, when Giovanna was four years old, Annie took her outside to look at the stars.
“They’re so high, Mommy!”
“Yes, they are.”
“Is there anything higher?”
Annie only grinned. She never spoke about her journey through the afterlife, not to anyone. But she did not intend to be silent forever.
One day, when Giovanna was old enough, Annie would tell her a story about heaven. She would tell her of the people who were already there, her Grandma and her older brother and her Daddy in a tuxedo, watching the stars. She would tell her of the secrets she had learned on her visit, how one life touches another and that life touches the next.
She would tell her that all endings are also beginnings, we just don’t know it at the time. And for the rest of her days, the child would be comforted knowing whatever her fears or losses, heaven held the answers to all her earthly questions, beginning with five people who were waiting for her, as they wait for us all, under the eyes of God and in the true meaning of that most precious word.
Home.
Acknowledgments
The author would first like to thank God for the blessings of health and creativity that allow a man to create a story about heaven in the first place.
In addition, many thanks to the following people for help and inspiration in creating this book:
First, from the research areas: Kay MacConnachie, occupational therapist and clinical manager at Motus Rehabilitation in Warren, Michigan, whose work with patients recovering from hand replantation helped paint a vivid portrait of the emotional and physical scars that followed Annie her entire life; Gordon Boring, hot air balloon pilot and president of Wicker Basket Balloon Center in Wixom, Michigan (and, readers: please know, accidents like the one described here are extraordinarily rare!); Lisa Allenspach, senior staff physician at Henry Ford Hospital and medical director of the Henry Ford Hospital Lung Transplant Program in Detroit; and Val Gokenbach, chief nursing officer at Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center–Fort Worth, in Texas. Special thanks to Jo-Ann Barnas, who did meticulous research and asked great questions. And the character of Sameer was inspired in part by the true story of the late Everett (Eddie) Knowles, whose accident as a child in 1962 led to a breakthrough in the field of limb reattachment.
In addition, the author wishes to thank David Black, an agent and friend through thick and thin; Gary Morris, Jennifer Herrera, and Matt Belford of the David Black Agency; and the great folks at HarperCollins, starting with Karen Rinaldi, my cherished editor and publisher, who gave me great insight into female protagonists; Jonathan Burnham; Brian Murray; Hannah Robinson; Doug Jones; Frank Albanese; Leah Wasielewski; Stephanie Cooper; Sarah Lambert; Tina Andreadis; Leslie Cohen; Leah Carlson-Stanisic; Michael Siebert; and Milan Bozic (who gave us another amazing cover).