Page 34 of The Next Person You Meet in Heaven

Annie doesn’t want to go. She doesn’t want to open the door. Paulo does it for her. She slowly ducks inside and reluctantly lets him close it.

“If you change your mind...” Paulo says.

They drive off.

“Bye!” he yells.

Annie feels her skin get hot. She had wanted nothing more than what Paulo just proposed, and her mother shot it down without a thought.

“Why did you have to be so mean to him?” Annie snaps.

“What are you talking about? I wasn’t mean.”

“Yes, you were!”

“Annie—”

“You were!”

“He’s just a boy—”

“God, Mom! Why do you have to be here all the time? I’m so sick of you! You treat me like an infant! You’re the reason I have no friends!”

Her mother squeezes her lips, as if biting back something she wants to yell. She shifts her hands on the steering wheel.

“Do your exercises,” she says.

The Third Person Annie Meets in Heaven

“Mom?” Annie whispered.

Her mother’s face laid claim to the sky. It was everywhere Annie looked. Annie realized how natural it felt saying that word,Mom, yet how long it had been since she’d felt it pass her lips.

“Hello, angel,” her mother replied, a phrase she had used when Annie was small. Her voice seemed to be pressed to Annie’s ears.

“Is it really you?”

“Yes, Annie.”

“We’re in heaven?”

“Yes, Annie.”

“Did you go through this, too? Meeting five—”

“Annie?”

“Yes?”

“Where is the rest of you?”

Annie looked at her hollow middle, visible now through the winter jacket. Her voice quivered.

“I made a mistake, Mom. There was an accident. A crash. Paulo. I was trying to save Paulo. Remember Paulo? From school? We got married. We had one night together. Then a balloon ride. It was my fault—”

Annie stopped and dropped her head, as if the weight of the story were draped on top of it.

“Look up, sweetheart,” Lorraine said.