Free The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom Page A

spread, covered in smooth, leathery leaves and pouches of figs.
    The Captain only glanced up, as if he'd been expecting it. Then, using his open palms, he wiped the remaining ash from his face.
    "Captain?" Eddie said.
    "Yeah?"
    "Why here? You can pick anywhere to wait, right? That's what the Blue Man said. So why this place?"
    The Captain smiled. "Because I died in battle. I was killed in these hills. I left the world having known almost nothing but war—war talk, war plans, a war family.
    "My wish was to see what the world looked like without a war. Before we started killing each other."

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    Eddie looked around. "But this is war."
    "To you. But our eyes are different," the Captain said. "What you see ain't what I see."
    He lifted a hand and the smoldering landscape transformed. The rubble melted, trees grew and spread, the ground turned from mud to lush, green grass. The murky clouds pulled apart like curtains, revealing a sapphire sky. A light, white mist fell in above the treetops, and a peach-colored sun hung brilliantly above the horizon, reflected in the sparkling oceans that now surrounded the island. It was pure, unspoiled, untouched beauty.
    Eddie looked up at his old commanding officer, whose face was clean and whose uniform was suddenly pressed.
    "This," the Captain said, raising his arms, "is what I see."
    He stood for a moment, taking it in.
    "By the way, I don't smoke anymore. That was all in your eyes, too."
    He chuckled. "Why would I smoke in heaven?"
    He began to walk off.
    "Wait," Eddie yelled. "I gotta know something. My death. At the pier.
    Did I save that girl? I felt her hands, but I can't remember—"
    The Captain turned and Eddie swallowed his words, embarrassed to even be asking, given the horrible way the Captain had died.
    "I just want to know, that's all," he mumbled.
    The Captain scratched behind his ear. He looked at Eddie sympathetically. "I can't tell you, soldier."
    Eddie dropped his head.
    "But someone can."
    He tossed the helmet and tags. "Yours."
    Eddie looked down. Inside the helmet flap was a crumpled photo of a woman that made his heart ache all over again. When he looked up, the Captain was gone.

    MONDAY, 7:30 A.M.

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    The morning after the accident, Dominguez came to the shop early, skipping his routine of picking up a bagel and a soft drink for breakfast.
    The park was closed, but he came in anyhow, and he turned on the water at the sink. He ran his hands under the flow, thinking he would clean some of the ride parts. Then he shut off the water and abandoned the idea. It seemed twice as quiet as it had a minute ago.
    "What's up?"
    Willie was at the shop door. He wore a green tank top and baggy jeans. He held a newspaper. The headline read "Amusement Park Tragedy."
    "Hard time sleeping," Dominguez said.
    "Yeah." Willie slumped onto a metal stool. "Me, too."
    He spun a half circle on the stool, looking blankly at the paper.
    "When you think they'll open us up again?"
    Dominguez shrugged. "Ask the police."
    They sat quietly for a while, shifting their postures as if taking turns.
    Dominguez sighed. Willie reached inside his shirt pocket, fishing for a stick of gum. It was Monday. It was morning. They were waiting for the old man to come in and get the workday started.

    The Third Person Eddie Meets in Heaven

    A SUDDEN WIND LIFTED EDDIE, AND HE spun like a pocket watch on the end of a chain. An explosion of smoke engulfed him, swallowing his body in a flume of colors. The sky seemed to pull in, until he could feel it touching his skin like a gathered blanket. Then it shot away and exploded into jade. Stars appeared, millions of stars, like salt sprinkled across the greenish firmament.
    Eddie blinked. He was in the mountains now, but the most remarkable mountains, a range that went on forever, with snow-capped peaks, jagged rocks, and sheer purple slopes. In a flat between two crests was a large, black lake. A moon reflected brightly in its water.

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    Down the ridge, Eddie noticed