Page 54 of The Next Person You Meet in Heaven
He motioned towards a hut and Annie saw a shadow running through the flames.
“Wait... Was that aperson?”
Eddie looked down, as if he could not watch. Slowly, from the blaze, a young girl emerged, with a cinnamon complexion and hair the color of plums. She was on fire, flames licking off her. She stepped next to Eddie and the flames sizzled out, leaving her face and skin terribly burned. She put her hand in his.
“This is Tala,” Eddie said, quietly. “She was hiding in that hut when I lit it up.”
He fixed his gaze on Annie.
“She’s in heaven,” Eddie said, “because of me.”
***
Annie stepped back. A shot of fear ran through her, as if she’d been wrong about this old man, that his aura of safety was a ruse.
“Mistakes,” Eddie declared. “That’s what I’m here to teach you about. You felt like you kept making them? You feel like maybe you made one now?”
Annie looked away.
“I used to think the same thing,” Eddie continued. “I thought my whole life was a mistake. Things kept happening to me, lousy things, until I finally gave up trying.”
He shrugged. “I never even knew the worst mistake I made.”
He turned to the little girl. He touched her hair, which hung in patches.
“Tala was hiding in that hut. I only learned that after I died. She met me in heaven. Said I burned her to death.”
He bit his lip.
“It damn near killed me all over again.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Annie asked.
Eddie walked Tala over to Annie, close enough to see the blisters on Tala’s burned skin.
“You’ve been haunted by something most of your life, right? Something you can’t remember, but it makes you feel bad about yourself?”
“How do you know that?” Annie asked, softly.
“Because my whole life, I did, too. I felt out of place. Like I was trapped at Ruby Pier and wasn’t supposed to be there. Fixing rides? Who wants a lousy job like that? It had to be a mistake to ever take it, I thought.
“Then I died. And Tala explained why I was there. To protect kids, the thing I didn’t do with her. She told me I was right where I was supposed to be.”
He put his hand on the little girl’s shoulder.
“And then she told me one more thing, something that took away my pain forever. My salvation, I guess, to use a fancy word.”
“What did she say?”
Eddie smiled.
“That I died saving you.”
***
Annie began to tremble. Eddie took her hands.
“Go on. You can see it now.”
