Page 59 of The Next Person You Meet in Heaven
The Fifth Person Annie Meets in Heaven
Love comes when you least expect it. Love comes when you most need it. Love comes when you are ready to receive it or can no longer deny it. These are common expressions that hold varying truths of love. But the truth of love for Annie was that, for a long time, nearly ten years, she expected none and got none in return.
After the loss of her mother and her child, Annie withdrew from almost everyone, burying herself in her nursing routine. She dressed the same each day: blue scrubs and gray running shoes. She drove the same roads through town. She purchased the same cup of tea at the same café.
And day after day, she tended to her patients.
She kept their charts. She knew their doctors. She avoided working in pediatrics, finding the memories toodifficult. But she was quite good with the elderly; she encouraged their conversation, and they were happy to prattle on. Annie discovered listening to older patients was a form of medicine—for them and for her. It was just enough caring, but not enough to hurt her. And not being hurt was now the driving force in Annie’s life.
She took extra shifts. She let work fill her days and nights. She rarely socialized. She didn’t date. She pulled her butterscotch curls into a small black elastic and turned the light off in her heart.
Then came the morning when, walking to the hospital, her tea lukewarm and nearly finished, she glanced up and felt everything flip, because there, on a platform, was Paulo, grown-up Paulo, wearing faded blue jeans and hammering a board. A lever pulled in the basement of her soul, and Annie’s blood coursed and her nerve endings tingled.
Don’t look at me, she thought.I can still get away if you don’t—
“Hey, I know you,” he said, a grin rising. “You’re Annie!”
She slid her left hand behind her.
“That’s me, all right.”
“From school.”
“From school.”
“I’m Paulo.”
“I remember.”
“From school.”
“From school.”
“Wow. Annie.”
She felt her skin flush. She could not fathom why a boy from high school should have such an effect on her now. But when he said, “Wow. Annie,” she could not help but think the same thing:Wow. Annie. What is this?
And while she didn’t know it then, she was learning another truth about love: it comes when it comes.
Simple as that.
***
Their romance was less a courtship than a reunion. They had dinner that night and every night that week. They laughed and talked, late and long, avoiding early awkwardness thanks to their shared childhood.
Paulo told lots of stories, and when he finished one, Annie, chin in hand, would ask, “Then what?” He’d had many adventures once his family moved to Italy, withvillagers, horsemen, a traveling soccer team, a year in the mountains that turned dangerous. Annie felt as if these tales had been saved up just for her.
“What about you?” Paulo asked. “How is your mom?”
“She died.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.”
“I liked her, Annie.”
“But she chased you away.”
