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5 People You Meet in Heaven

Summary:   The first person Eddie meets in the book was "The Blue Man." The blue man was a circus attraction. He came to America with his parents. When the blue man first told Eddie that Eddie was the one who killed him it was hard to believe.

The Five People You Meet In Heaven

The first person:

This book was actually a pretty decent book and I usually don't like to read. I kind of liked this one thought because it makes you think about who you would meet if it ever came to that. It also has some good life lessons in it. The first person Eddie meets in the book was "The Blue Man." The blue man was a circus attraction. He came to America with his parents. When the blue man first told Eddie that Eddie was the one who killed him it was hard to believe. I couldn't see how Eddie would kill someone when his job is to keep people safe which, he enjoys, but never admits to.

I was wondering how it would play out. The blue man tells Eddie how when he was little his father worked in a sweat shop and he had to join him to pay the bills. He then one day messed up while doing his job and his boss was looking. He, as a child was scared when the boss got mad for knocking over a stack of buttons he soiled himself. He was fired and his father sort of disowned him. His father was ashamed of his son. Then the blue man as a child started wetting the bed on a regular basis and would hide the sheets from his father. Later on he found a chemist seeking something to calm his nerves. The chemist gave him silver nitrate, which now is considered a poison since back then medicine was primitive to today's medicine. He Then began Taking large amounts of silver nitrate way more than he was supposed to take.

Everyone then noticed his skin turned to a coal sort of color, which evolved into a blue color. With this happening he ran of to the circus where he got a job as a "freak." He was called the blue man from Algeria. His boss called him his best "freak" in his stable. The blue man was proud of his title. He tells Eddie that Ruby pier was his heaven because that is where he felt accepted. His lesson he gave Eddie was that there is always another part to each story. Eddie was too young to remember what happened when he killed the blue man. He was little and playing ball with a couple of his friends when the ball went out into the street. Eddie chased after the ball, when a Model A ford swerved to miss Eddie. Eddie went back to playing happily and was safe; end of story. The driver, however has a bad heart condition and is traumatized by almost hitting Eddie.

He drives for a little bit further and ends up dying in an alley due to a heart attack. The driver was the blue man. His lesson from his is there are two sides to the story happy and sad just depends on which side you look at. Also he tells Eddie that no life is a waste and that "the only time we waste is time we spend thinking we are alone." "Deep down, the human spirit knows that all lives intersect."

The second person:

The second person that Eddie meets on his journey to heaven is his captain from the army. He ends up in a village of his nightmares. The village is diseased with small pox, typhoid, and yellow fever. He then hears a voice in the tree next to him, which is his captain. Throughout his time in the army he learned a lot from his captain. They then end up talking about their fellow troops and how Eddie's leg kept him from leaving the pier when he hurt it in the war. Eddie was captured in the war with his captain when some "crazies" got a hold of his unit.

They were fed bad meals and were growing skinny. Most of his unit was freaking out wondering if they would ever make it out. They were forced to mine for the war effort everyday. Then, one day they were mining when Rabozo, a fellow troop was shot in the head because due to sickness he could not work. Eddie was the reason that everyone had gotten out of that pit alive. When he was little he would practice juggling all day at the pier. He started juggling for the guards impressing them he then began to sing. He juggled faster while giving instructions to his fellow troops. He then threw rocks at two guards knocked them out and attacked the third. They were free at last thanks to Eddie's distraction.

They then burned down the whole village with the oil the crazies were going to use to get rid of evidence. Eddie saw a shadow of a child in one of the burning barns, which reminded him of the kids back home. He went in after it and ended up being shot in the leg, which I found out later on was the captain. The shot had badly fractured his leg and it would never heal right. The captain had shot Eddie in the leg so he wouldn't kill himself by going into the fire. Eddie was not too happy because his leg kept him at the pier. The captain then explains how sacrifice is necessary. He shot Eddie in the leg to give him life. It was either giving up full use of his leg or his life. He then tells that when his was on their way home he (the captain) died because he stepped on a live mine while trying to clear the way for his men.

He gave his life so his men could live. Eddie then feels bad because all he gave was a leg and the captain gave a life. He tells Eddie that heaven is just a chance to make since of yesterdays. Eddie wonders why the captain chose the horrible village as his heaven. The captain then explains to him that his burial ground was where he died. He Shows Eddie what he sees not a rotting village but nice untouched land that is beautiful. He said you must look beyond what you see. The lesson Eddie learned from his captain was that sometimes sacrifice IS necessary and it is for a good reason and that when you lose something you also gain something.

The third person:

The third person that Eddie meets on his journey is a lady named ruby. He was whisked away from the captain after he asked him if he had saved the girl at the pier. He ends up in the mountains next to a lake. He walks down a ridge following the flickering lights at the bottom. He ends up at a little diner with people inside. All the people inside seemed to have been from different decades due to the way they dressed. Also they all had been wounded in some way. He looked around the diner until his eyes fell upon his dad sitting in the back right corner. Eddie always wanted to impress his father anyway he could, but his dad never paid attention and was a horrible drunk.

He followed in his dad's footsteps trying to be like him and when they had to move because of the great depression his dad told him to get a job (even though Eddie had just gotten back with a injured leg). Then all the sudden an old woman approaches him and tells him that his father cannot hear him after Eddie had been yelling. The old lady said she was a working girl and worked at the seahorse café a while back. She married the man who built the amusement park Ruby pier. He then found out she was in fact Ruby. She tells him about how some of the workers one day were playing with fireworks and caught the entrance of the park on fire. Her husband who owned the park, Emile tried to save the entrance sign but was badly injured.

He ended up selling the pier to another guy who rebuilt it and kept the name. Ruby then tells Eddie she is there to tell Eddie why his dad died. Eddie's dad developed pneumonia from falling into the water drunk, which is what Eddie thought. She explains and shows Eddie that night when his dad developed pneumonia. He actually came home and Mickey was harassing Eddie's mom. So Eddie's dad fought with Mickey, which ended up leading to the water where they also fought in. He ended up hurting and saving Mickey though from drowning and barely had the strength to swim back to shore. He actually got sick from fighting/saving Mickey not from being drunk. So things may not always be the way they seem. Her lesson to him was that hatred is a poison that eats us from inside; it does not attack others, only ourselves.

Hatred has a curved blade. FORGIVE is the key. She tells him he needs to forgive his father not blame him for his life. Eddie ends up going to the diner and forgives his father, but he (Eddie's father) cannot hear him. His lesson from her is to let go of anger.