The thought-provoking story of a man's death and instant awakening in another dimension, which is not at all like you might suppose. There's a lot of humor in this book and no attempt to persuade the reader to any particular viewpoint.
Chapter One
Oh my god, what’s wrong? Dizzy…dizzy… can’t see… can’t breathe…weak…weak…
I shook my head and blinked several times to clear my eyes, but it didn’t help. It seemed foggy. Inside a building? Well, maybe more like misty. I moved my hands in front of my body and some of the mist was pushed aside. I could see through what was left. There I was on the hospital bathroom floor, with people all around me. How could that be? I was watching them. There were the nurses who had brought me in here and turned on the shower. There was an older guy who was probably a doctor. Two others came through the door with a gurney and some shock apparatus. They picked me up, but I couldn’t feel it. I couldn’t feel the gurney either when they put me on it, but I saw those two nurses pushing my roommate’s bed out of the room after a doctor yelled, “Get him out of here!” They shoved the gurney into my regular room and attached the electrodes.
Someone put a stick in my mouth. All the talk by everyone else quieted enough to hear a new doctor call, “Clear.” I saw my body jump as the electricity hit it, but it fell into the same limp attitude when the current was gone. I watched them repeat the process twice more, then heard the doctor say, “I’ll call it.”
What was going on? Could I be dead? I don’t feel dead. Maybe a little woozy, but I could still think. And nothing hurt. Nothing hurt? Was that a bad sign? If I’m not dead, how could I be watching?
The stick in my mouth looked like a tongue depressor. What was that for? They straightened my body up, put my hands at my sides, and pulled a sheet up to my neck. They pushed the gurney into the corner of the room farthest from the door, then left the room and pulled the door shut behind them. They forgot to take the stick out of my mouth. Come back, dammit! Come and get this stick. I couldn’t make myself move. All I could do was watch myself lying so very still. Holy shit, maybe I’m really dead!
After a while, the door opened slowly. Maybe they had remembered the stick, but no, it was my wife and son, and that damn chaplain who had come around before. Why was he with them? Carol didn’t like him the first time she saw him. The memory of that flashed before me for an instant or two. It had been right after I’d been brought into the Critical Care Unit (or whatever they call it) after I was admitted and x-rayed. I guess the hospital sends a chaplain around to talk to the ones who end up here in case they do something dramatic—like die.
Carol had tears glistening in both eyes, but she was obviously trying hard not to cry. Jim was doing the same. The chaplain seemed to be sympathetic, but there was a bit of a gleam in his eyes like he was hoping this might be an opportunity to lead these people to Jesus. Carol took one quick glance at me. She must have seen the stick and how grey I looked. “Oh Sam,” she croaked, and then, “I don’t want to stay here. I don’t want to remember him like this. He is gone. This is just what’s left.” Jim seemed a bit surprised, but agreed with his mother and said they could go. Before they could turn away, the chaplain asked if they wouldn’t like to have some prayer first. I could imagine what Carol was thinking; we had been married for too many years for me not to know her mind. She didn’t want to hear it, she just wanted to get out of here, but because I was Catholic a long time ago, she thought that maybe I might need it for my soul. Whatever her thoughts, she turned to the chaplain and said, “All right, if you keep it short.” Of course, he said he would, and she reached for both his hand and Jim’s to join them all together in a prayer circle over my body. When he had felt her dislike that first time, he had assumed it was because he was a short, dark-black and ugly African. That’s what it usually was with white people, and they wouldn’t want to touch him. He had no way of knowing the dislike was caused by his insistence in trying to get her to commit to believing as he did. The prayer was full of beautiful phrases, and perhaps the chaplain thought it was short. It was apparently too long for Carol. As soon as she heard “Amen” she walked to the window ledge beside the bed I had been in. She looked through the basket of my possessions, picked up my watch and left the rest behind. The watch wasn’t valuable, why did she want it? Oh, of course—I wore it so much it was almost a part of me. Then they left the room and I was alone again.
Have you ever thought to yourself "what happens after you die?!" "is there a heaven or hell?" if so then you would want to read this book. This is a genre that i usually do not read but I also believe that spirits or "ghosts" can be near a person. There isn't too much to really say and describe the book so this is basically what its about.
Sam and Carol have been married for what I am assuming is quite some time (although time is not a factor in this book, because at sometimes there is no actual "time".) Sam dies, and Carol is devastated. Although weird things start to happen such as they had been trying to sell their house that had a mechanical shop attached to it for so long, and no one would bite until Sam died then out of the blue a man named Tom came to buy the property. Did Sam do this? Or is it just a coincidence? A pair of scissors and sheers go missing, and only the scissors re-appear. Did Sam move these? Or are they just gone? Gone where into another dimension? On earth Carol is learning to cope with the passing of her husband, while Sam is in another dimension trying to learn where he really is. He can see Carol, hear carol, but there is no time, and only a thought body. Is Sam in heaven, hell, is this all just a dream?
Although the book discusses religion throughout Sam's journey I would not say it is a religious book(or trying to sway you in any direction- only a brief description), he also learns the life of other people that were born at the same exact moment as him, because the soul may or may not be able to pick the family it is born into.