The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom EPUB & PDF – eBook Details
- Novel Title: The Five People You Meet in Heaven
- Author: Mitch Albom
- Genre: Metaphysical & Visionary Fiction, Contemporary Literature & Fiction, Reference
- Publish Date: 7 April 2003
- Size: 1 MB
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Status: Avail for Download
- Price: Free
THIS IS A STORY ABOUT A MAN named Eddie and it begins at the end,
with Eddie dying in the sun. It might seem strange to start a story with an
ending. But all endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.
THE LAST HOUR of Eddie’s life was spent, like most of the others, at Ruby
Pier, an amusement park by a great gray ocean. The park had the usual
attractions, a boardwalk, a Ferris wheel, roller coasters, bumper cars, a taffy
stand, and an arcade where you could shoot streams of water into a clown’s
mouth. It also had a big new ride called Freddy’s Free Fall, and this would be
where Eddie would be killed, in an accident that would make newspapers
around the state.
AT THE TIME of his death, Eddie was a squat, white-haired old man, with a
short neck, a barrel chest, thick forearms, and a faded army tattoo on his right
shoulder. His legs were thin and veined now, and his left knee, wounded in
the war, was ruined by arthritis. He used a cane to get around. His face was
broad and craggy from the sun, with salty whiskers and a lower jaw that
protruded slightly, making him look prouder than he felt. He kept a cigarette
behind his left ear and a ring of keys hooked to his belt. He wore rubbersoled shoes. He wore an old linen cap. His pale brown uniform suggested a
workingman, and a workingman he was.
EDDIE’S JOB WAS “maintaining” the rides, which really meant keeping
them safe. Every afternoon, he walked the park, checking on each attraction,
from the Tilt-A-Whirl to the Pipeline Plunge. He looked for broken boards,
loose bolts, worn-out steel. Sometimes he would stop, his eyes glazing over,
and people walking past thought something was wrong. But he was listening,
that’s all. After all these years he could hear trouble, he said, in the spits and
stutters and thrumming of the equipment.
WITH 50 MINUTES left on earth, Eddie took his last walk along Ruby Pier.
He passed an elderly couple.
“Folks,” he mumbled, touching his cap.
They nodded politely. Customers knew Eddie. At least the regular ones did.
They saw him summer after summer, one of those faces you associate with a
place. His work shirt had a patch on the chest that read EDDIE above the
word MAINTENANCE, and sometimes they would say, “Hiya, Eddie
Maintenance,” although he never thought that was funny.
Today, it so happened, was Eddie’s birthday, his 83rd. A doctor, last week,
had told him he had shingles. Shingles? Eddie didn’t even know what they
were. Once, he had been strong enough to lift a carousel horse in each arm.
That was a long time ago.
“EDDIE!” . . . “TAKE ME, Eddie!” . . . “Take me!”
Forty minutes until his death. Eddie made his way to the front of the roller
coaster line. He rode every attraction at least once a week, to be certain the
brakes and steering were solid. Today was coaster day—the
“Ghoster Coaster” they called this one—and the kids who knew Eddie yelled
to get in the cart with him.
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