18 Thoughts (My So-Called Afterlife Book 3) Read Free Page A

new doc asked, gently guiding my body into a wheelchair.
    “Oh, you know, the usual. How’s the fam doing? Did your wife like the book you bought for her birthday?” Her voice jumped, her words quick and high pitched.
    I felt movement, and I only hoped the motion was taking me far away from the weird girl in my room.
    “Yes, she loved it! Already read the whole thing, though, so I’ll have to stop by the Bookman again soon for another recommendation.”
    “Any time, Joe. Take care.”
    Her words echoed off the walls, and I could tell we were passing right by her. I tried to ignore the goose bumps appearing all over my body, the feel of my heartbeat speeding up. Weird. Suddenly, I didn’t want to leave her anymore. The desire to reach out and touch her hit me harder than the impact of Bo’s car, but I swallowed the urge.
    “You, too. See you soon,” Dr. Joe answered.
    After I heard the door shut behind us, I asked, “What happened to that girl in there? She said something about a sailboat boom knocking her in the head.”
    I kept my voice calm, uninterested, even though I desperately wanted to know more about her.
    “I don’t know if that’s any of your business.”
    I held up my hands in surrender. “Fine, but whatever happened, you might want to do a brain scan. She was acting really strange.”
    “Well, if I had to give a brain scan for every person who acted strangely, I’d be a very rich man.”
    “Aren’t you?”
    He chuckled. “Well, I guess that depends on what you define as rich.”
    “I define rich by counting all the things I have that money can’t buy.”
    The doctor snorted. “That’s a deep thought, kid.”
    I shrugged. “That’s just how I roll.”
    I’d always been a thinker. Confucius, Plato, Aristotle… those were my heroes. One day, I hoped to join the ranks of the greatest philosophers of all time.
    I heard doctors and nurses scurrying down the hall, probably with a crash cart, racing again to bring back someone from the dead. My last thought before Dr. Joe ushered me into a new room was I’m lucky to be alive, but I didn’t quite believe those words yet.

“Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.”
Sonnet 116
from William Shakespeare,
Shakespeare’s Sonnets



"The people you care about most in life
are taken from you too soon.”
—Nate’s Thoughts
    Olga
    sunk down into the chair after Dr. Joe and Nate left, sliding my glasses to my forehead so I could rub my eyes.
Pull yourself together.
    When I looked at Conner, not thinking back to two months ago proved impossible. The image of ambulance doors swooshing open into chaos, the sound of my own moaning filling my ears until I spotted Conner, still unconscious, being unloaded from the ambulance behind me, made me shudder. Nurses in scrubs had hurried toward us, and I screamed for the ER doctors to take care of Conner first. Wet, burned clothing clung to his pale skin, and the fear I’d never get to touch him again beat against my mind like the violent thunderstorm that landed us in the hospital.
    I picked up his hand now and held it between mine. Fifty-two days, that’s how long he’d been in a coma. His team of doctors agreed he’d have a difficult time making a full recovery at this point. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what his medical bills must look like, but luckily, the decision to keep him on the ventilator and feeding tube after the first month was an easy one for Conner’s parents. Just like me, they weren’t giving up. In fact, nobody was. Balloons, cards, flowers, and other gifts littered his hospital room. Conner’s Care Page had over ten thousand messages—prayers and get well wishes from everyone in our community and then some.
    My stomach rumbled. I knew I should eat