1、The Five People You Meet in HeavenMitch AlbomALSO BY MITCH ALBOMTuesdays with MorrieFab FiveBoLive AlbomLive Albom IILive Albom IIILive Albom IVThe Five People You Meet in HeavenMitch AlbomNEW YORKYOU MADE ME LOVE YOUCopyright 1913 (Renewed) Broadway Music Corp, Edwin H. Morris Co., Redwood Music Lt
2、d. All rights on behalf of Broadway Music Corp administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, 8 Music Square, Nashville, TN 37203. All rights reserved. Used by permission.Copyright 2003 Mitch AlbomAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the wr
3、itten permission of the Publisher. Printed in the United States of America. For information address: Hyperion, 77 West 66th Street, New York, New York 10023-6298.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataAlbom, Mitch.The five people you meet in heaven / Mitch Albom.p. cm.ISBN 0-7868-6871-6 (
4、alk. paper)1. Accident victimsFiction. 2. Amusement parksFiction. 3. Amusement ridesFiction. 4. Future lifeFiction. 5. Aged menFiction. 6. Heaven-Fiction. 7. DeathFiction. I. Title. PS3601.L335F59 2003 813.6-dc212003047888Hyperion books are available for special promotions and premiums. For details
5、contact Michael Rentas, Manager, Inventory and Premium Sales, Hyperion, 77 West 66th Street, 11th floor, New York, New York 10023-6298, or call 212-456-0133.FIRST EDITIONThis book is dedicated to Edward Beitchman, my beloved uncle, who gave me my first concept of heaven. Every year, around the Thank
6、sgiving table, he spoke of a night in the hospital when he awoke to see the souls of his departed loved ones sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for him. I never forgot that story. And I never forgot him.Everyone has an idea of heaven, as do most religions, and they should all be respected. The
7、version represented here is only a guess, a wish, in some ways, that my uncle, and others like himpeople who felt unimportant here on earthrealize, finally, how much they mattered and how they were loved.The Five People You Meet in HeavenThe EndTHIS IS A STORY ABOUT A MAN named Eddie and it begins a
8、t 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 dont know it at the time.THE LAST HOUR of Eddies life was spent, like most of the others, at Ruby Pier, an amusement park by a great gray ocean. The park had th
9、e 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 clowns mouth. It also had a big new ride called Freddys Free Fall, and this would be where Eddie would be killed, in an accident that would make
10、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
11、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 rubber-soled shoes. He wore an old linen cap. Hi
12、s pale brown uniform suggested a workingman, and a workingman he was.EDDIES 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,
13、 worn-out steel. Sometimes he would stop, his eyes glazing over, and people walking past thought something was wrong. But he was listening, thats 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 t
14、ook 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 tha
15、t 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 Eddies birthday, his 83rd. A doctor, last week, had told him he had shingles. Shingles? Eddie didnt even know what they were. Once, he
16、 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 a
17、nd steering were solid. Today was coaster daythe “Ghoster Coaster“ they called this oneand the kids who knew Eddie yelled to get in the cart with him.Children liked Eddie. Not teenagers. Teenagers gave him headaches. Over the years, Eddie figured hed seen every sort of do-nothing, snarl-at-you teena
18、ger there was. But children were different. Children looked at Eddiewho, with his protruding lower jaw, always seemed to be grinning, like a dolphinand they trusted him. They drew in like cold hands to a fire. They hugged his leg. They played with his keys. Eddie mostly grunted, never saying much. H
19、e figured it was because he didnt say much that they liked him.THIRTY MINUTES LEFT.“Hey, happy birthday, I hear,“ Dominguez said.Eddie grunted.“No party or nothing?“Eddie looked at him as if he were crazy. For a moment he thought how strange it was to be growing old in a place that smelled of cotton
20、 candy.“Well, remember, Eddie, Im off next week, starting Monday. Going to Mexico.“Eddie nodded, and Dominguez did a little dance.“Me and Theresa. Gonna see the whole family. Par-r-r-ty.“He stopped dancing when he noticed Eddie staring.“You ever been?“ Dominguez said.“Been?“To Mexico?“Eddie exhaled
21、through his nose. “Kid, I never been anywhere I wasnt shipped to with a rifle.“He watched Dominguez return to the sink. He thought for a moment. Then he took a small wad of bills from his pocket and removed the only twenties he had, two of them. He held them out.“Get your wife something nice,“ Eddie
22、 said.Dominguez regarded the money, broke into a huge smile, and said, “Cmon, man. You sure?“Eddie pushed the money into Dominguezs palm. Then he walked out back to the storage area. A small “fishing hole“ had been cut into the boardwalk planks years ago, and Eddie lifted the plastic cap. He tugged
23、on a nylon line that dropped 80 feet to the sea. A piece of bologna was still attached.“We catch anything?“ Dominguez yelled. “Tell me we caught something!“Eddie wondered how the guy could be so optimistic. There was never anything on that line.“One day,“ Dominguez yelled, “were gonna get a halibut!
24、“Yep,“ Eddie mumbled, although he knew you could never pull a fish that big through a hole that small.TWENTY-SIX MINUTES to live. Eddie crossed the boardwalk to the south end. Business was slow. The girl behind the taffy counter was leaning on her elbows, popping her gum.Once, Ruby Pier was the plac
25、e to go in the summer. It had elephants and fireworks and marathon dance contests. But people didnt go to ocean piers much anymore; they went to theme parks where you paid $75 a ticket and had your photo taken with a giant furry character.Eddie limped past the bumper cars and fixed his eyes on a gro
26、up of teenagers leaning over the railing. Great, he told himself. Just what I need.“Off,“ Eddie said, tapping the railing with his cane. Cmon. It s not safe.Whrrrssssh, A wave broke on the beach. Eddie coughed up something he did not want to see. He spat it away.Whrrssssssh. He used to think a lot a
27、bout Marguerite. Not so much now. She was like a wound beneath an old bandage, and he had grown more used to the bandage.Whrrssssssh.What was shingles?Whrrsssssh.Sixteen minutes to live.NO STORY SITS by itself. Sometimes stories meet at corners and sometimes they cover one another completely, like s
28、tones beneath a river.The end of Eddies story was touched by another seemingly innocent story, months earliera cloudy night when a young man arrived at Ruby Pier with three of his friends.The young man, whose name was Nicky, had just begun driving and was still not comfortable carrying a key chain.
29、So he removed the single car key and put it in his jacket pocket, then tied the jacket around his waist.For the next few hours, he and his friends rode all the fastest rides: the Flying Falcon, the Splashdown, Freddys Free Fall, the Ghoster Coaster.“Hands in the air!“ one of them yelled.They threw t
30、heir hands in the air.Later, when it was dark, they returned to the car lot, exhausted and laughing, drinking beer from brown paper bags. Nicky reached into his jacket pocket. He fished around. He cursed.The key was gone.FOURTEEN MINUTES UNTIL his death. Eddie wiped his brow with a handkerchief. Out
31、 on the ocean, diamonds of sunlight danced on the water, and Eddie stared at their nimble movement. He had not been right on his feet since the war.But back at the Stardust Band Shell with Margueritethere Eddie had still been graceful. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to summon the song that b
32、rought them together, the one Judy Garland sang in that movie. It mixed in his head now with the cacophony of the crashing waves and children screaming on the rides.“You made me love you“Whsssshhhh.“do it, I didnt want to do i“Spllllldddaashhhhhhh.“me love you“Eeeeeeee!“time you knew it, and all the
33、“Chhhhewisshhhh.“knew it . . .“Eddie felt her hands on his shoulders. He squeezed his eyes tightly, to bring the memory closer.TWELVE MINUTES TO live.“ Scuse me.“A young girl, maybe eight years old, stood before him, blocking his sunlight. She had blonde curls and wore flip-flops and denim cutoffsho
34、rts and a lime green T-shirt with a cartoon duck on the front. Amy, he thought her name was. Amy or Annie. Shed been here a lot this summer, although Eddie never saw a mother or father.“ Scuuuse me,“ she said again. “Eddie Maintnance?“Eddie sighed. “Just Eddie,“ he said.“Eddie?“Um hmm?“Can you make
35、me . . .“She put her hands together as if praying.“Cmon, kiddo. I dont have all day.“Can you make me an animal? Can you?“Eddie looked up, as if he had to think about it. Then he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out three yellow pipe cleaners, which he carried for just this purpose.“Yesssss!“
36、 the little girl said, slapping her hands.Eddie began twisting the pipe cleaners.“Wheres your parents?“Riding the rides.“Without you?“The girl shrugged. “My moms with her boyfriend.“Eddie looked up. Oh.He bent the pipe cleaners into several small loops, then twisted the loops around one another. His
37、 hands shook now, so it took longer than it used to, but soon the pipe cleaners resembled a head, ears, body, and tail.“A rabbit?“ the little girl said.Eddie winked.“Thaaaank you!“She spun away, lost in that place where kids dont even know their feet are moving. Eddie wiped his brow again, then clos
38、ed his eyes, slumped into the beach chair, and tried to get the old song back into his head.A seagull squawked as it flew overhead.HOW DO PEOPLE choose their final words? Do they realize their gravity? Are they fated to be wise?By his 83rd birthday, Eddie had lost nearly everyone hed cared about. So
39、me had died young, and some had been given a chance to grow old before a disease or an accident took them away. At their funerals, Eddie listened as mourners recalled their final conversations. “Its as if he knew he was going to die. . . .“ some would say.Eddie never believed that. As far as he coul
40、d tell, when your time came, it came, and that was that. You might say something smart on your way out, but you might just as easily say something stupid.For the record, Eddies final words would be “Get back!“HERE ARE THE sounds of Eddies last minutes on earth. Waves crashing. The distant thump of r
41、ock music. The whirring engine of a small biplane, dragging an ad from its tail. And this.“OH MY GOD! LOOK!“Eddie felt his eyes dart beneath his lids. Over the years, he had come to know every noise at Ruby Pier and could sleep through them all like a lullaby.This voice was not in the lullaby.“OH MY
42、 GOD! LOOK!“Eddie bolted upright. A woman with fat, dimpled arms was holding a shopping bag and pointing and screaming. A small crowd gathered around her, their eyes to the skies.Eddie saw it immediately. Atop Freddys Free Fall, the new “tower drop“ attraction, one of the carts was tilted at an angl
43、e, as if trying to dump its cargo. Four passengers, two men, two women, held only by a safety bar, were grabbing frantically at anything they could.“OH MY GOD!“ the fat woman yelled. “THOSE PEOPLE! THEYRE GONNA FALL!“A voice squawked from the radio on Eddies belt. “Eddie! Eddie!“He pressed the butto
44、n. “I see it! Get security!“People ran up from the beach, pointing as if they had practiced this drill. Look! Up in the sky! An amusement ride turned evil! Eddie grabbed his cane and clomped to safety fence around the platform base, his wad of keys jangling against his hip. His heart was racing.Fred
45、dys Free Fall was supposed to drop two carts in a stomach-churning descent, only to be halted at the last instant by a gush of hydraulic air. How did one cart come loose like that? It was tilted just afew feet below the upper platform, as if it had started downward then changed its mind.Eddie reache
46、d the gate and had to catch his breath. Dominguez came running and nearly banged into him.“Listen to me!“ Eddie said, grabbing Dominguez by the shoulders. His grip was so tight, Dominguez made a pained face. “Listen to me! Whos up there?“Willie.“OK. He mustve hit the emergency stop. Thats why the ca
47、rt is hanging. Get up the ladder and tell Willie to manually release the safety restraint so those people can get out. OK? Its on the back of the cart, so youre gonna have to hold him while he leans out there. OK? Then . . . then, the two of yasthe two of yas now, not one, you got it?the two of yas
48、get them out! One holds the other! Got it!? . . . Got it?“Dominguez nodded quickly.“Then send that damn cart down so we can figure out what happened!“Eddies head was pounding. Although his park had been free of any major accidents, he knew the horror stories of his business. Once, in Brighton, a bol
49、t unfastened on a gondola ride and two people fell to their death. Another time, in Wonderland Park, a man had tried to walk across a roller coaster track; he fell through and got stuck beneath his armpits. He was wedged in, screaming, and the cars came racing toward him and . . . well, that was the worst.Eddie pushed that from his mind. There were people all around him now, hands over their mouths, watching Dominguez climb the ladder. Eddie tried to remember the insides of Freddys Free Fall. Engine. Cylinders.
