Page 56 of The Next Person You Meet in Heaven
“From what you’re doing now—blaming yourself.”
“I heard a rumor. In high school.”
“And?”
Annie hesitated.
“I pretended like it didn’t happen. I switched schools. To be honest...”
She cupped her elbows and pulled them in.
“I was glad I didn’t remember.”
She couldn’t look at Eddie. “You gave your life for me,” she whispered. “You sacrificed everything. And I couldn’t even face the truth.”
Annie dropped to the ground, her knees smacking the mud. “I’m so sorry. If only I had run the other way. Then you wouldn’t have had to save me.”
“You’re not getting it,” Eddie gently replied. “Ineededto save you. It let me make up for the life I took.
“That’s how salvation works. The wrongs we do open doors to do right.”
***
Tala took Eddie’s hand and rubbed it over her face and arms. The mottled scabs fell off. The singed skin peeled away. Her complexion was now perfect. She pushed five fingers into Eddie’s belly.
“Tala was my fifth person. You’re my next.”
“Your next?” Annie said.
“You meet five people, then you’re one of five for someone else. That’s how heaven connects everybody.”
Annie looked down. “My third person said I needed to make peace with you.”
“Who was that?”
“My mother.”
“Well, she was right about making peace,” he said. “But she didn’t mean me. You only have peace when you make it with yourself. I had to learn that the hard way.”
He glanced at Tala.
“The truth is, I spent years thinking I was doing nothing’cause I was a nobody. You spent years doing lots of things and thinking they were all mistakes.”
He exhaled. “We were both wrong.”
He leaned over and helped Annie to her feet.
“Hey, kiddo?”
She looked up.
“There’s no such thing as a nobody. And there are no mistakes.”
***
With that, the landscape melted as if running down a drain. The darkness of war faded. Tala, whose Filipino name means “star,” lifted into the firmament, becoming the illumination for a perfect blue sky around them.
Annie felt herself rising, too, then dropping softly into the seat of a steel-rimmed Ferris wheel, rotating high above the sprawl of Ruby Pier. She gazed down on its colorful tents and rides. As she descended, the ground began to spark with tiny lights. They grew exponentially, miniature beams that, as Annie lowered, revealed themselves to be the eyes of children, splashing in the Shoot-the-Chutes, spinning in the Tilt-A-Whirl, riding every carousel horse, laughing and playing. There had to be thousands of them.
