“Echo—wait, where, are we? Is this a dream?” I lifted myself off what looked like a cloud and glanced around at the endless expanses of white mist. Everything was so bright, and an unsettling thought entered my mind. “Am I dead? Where is Drew!”
Echo gave a faint, sad smile and said, “He’s not here Eden. It wasn’t his time, but more importantly, he doesn’t have a reason to be here just yet, but you do.” She reached out her hand to me and as I took it, I watched in awe as the years of youth fell from her appearance and left her looking as she would have at the age of thirty-three had she lived. She smiled and led me through a wall of soft, warm fog. It let out into a small, narrow, whitewashed room every bit as bright as the swirling white mists from before. At the other end of the room was what looked like a projection on the wall into what seemed like a paradise of perfect weather, sandy beaches, and good spirits. Off in the distance, I saw Gram’s and Papa’s smiling faces as they waved—at me, I realized. I looked up at Echo, who was actually a good two inches taller than me. She still held my hand in hers and glanced at them as she began to speak.
“Eden, you have a choice to make. What you see behind me is my vision of heaven. Heaven is different for everyone. I have been here before and was faced with the same choice you face now. I wanted to see you grow up. I wasn’t—ready to leave. If you choose to come with me, then what you see on that wall will change to whatever your perception of heaven is—but if you don’t…”
She gestured behind me, and I turned around. I had to step back to see the whole picture. I gasped as I took in what I saw. I was lying in a hospital bed unconscious. Tubes were sprouting from everywhere and machines were blinking, buzzing, and beeping. Echo pulled me into the center of the room. I continued to stare at the image on the wall. I was on life support I realized and Drew was in a chair right next to me. He was sitting up and holding my hand. My heart sang. He’d made it, he’d lived. He was going to be okay.
“Eden, this is the reality of your life. You are at a crossroads, and you need to choose, to live or die, to stay with me or say goodbye and return to your life—alone. If you choose to live, this is where we part ways. As much as it will hurt me to lose you, you are still young, I hope that you will choose to live.”
I had so many things I wanted to say to Echo, and I thought we would have more time, but the commotion on the wall of my life told me otherwise. There was no sound, but the room swarmed with doctors and nurses—all of them focused on me. Drew was being forcefully removed from the room, and the doors closed as the doctors struggled to revive me. I took one last look at Echo, and she smiled an understanding smile. I started to hurry toward the wall of my life but stopped and looked back toward Echo. She’d been my life long companion. I ran back and hugged her for all I was worth and gave her the best parting gift I could think of. “I love you, mom. I’ll see you again, I promise.”
She hugged me back, and for the first time ever, I felt like we finally saw eye to eye. I ran back to my wall, to the current chaos that was my life and by that point, they were working with paddles to get my heart started again. I’d reached a hand through the wall when Echo called me, and I glanced over my shoulder.
“When you see your father, when you see Danny, please give him a hug for me. And Eden, I love you too.”
She backed through the wall of her heaven before I could ask her how I’d pass on the message. I still didn’t know where my father was—no one did. I stepped through my life’s wall and felt a jolt so violent, so painful that it made me gasp as air rushed into my lungs, and the doctor’s stepped away. All of them had an expression of heartfelt relief on their faces. After their fussing and ensuring that my heart would continue to beat, they finally left the room and Drew was allowed back in. He scooted to my bedside once more, and I noticed he was bandaged up around his torso and still looked weak. His eyes were bloodshot as he peered at me. Drew looked pale and battered—he looked like hell.
“Eden?”
I nodded my head, and he sighed in relief.
I started crying, I don’t know what exactly flipped the switch, but my mourning decided to kick in at that very moment. It was the moment I knew for sure that I was alone in my own body. Part of me felt empty, like there was a hole where something used to live. I suppose that made perfect sense.
“What’s wrong, are you okay?
I shook my head vigorously, I didn’t want to believe it. “She’s gone, Drew.”
“I know—the police
