{"id":10376,"date":"2020-07-05T20:37:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T00:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=10376"},"modified":"2020-07-10T21:24:56","modified_gmt":"2020-07-11T01:24:56","slug":"the-fourth-person-eddie-meets-in-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-fourth-person-eddie-meets-in-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Is the Fourth Person Eddie Meets in Heaven?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who is the fourth person Eddie meets in Heaven? Where does Eddie meet the fourth person in Heaven, and why? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fourth person Eddie meets in Heaven is his wife, Marguerite. She is one of the few people he meets whom he knew in his life. The fourth person Eddie meets in Heaven helps him begin to see past his regret. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Fourth Person Eddie Meets in Heaven<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The fourth person Eddie meets in Heaven is his wife, Marguerite. But where does Eddie meet the fourth person in Heaven? The changing scenery is important to their relationship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie looks around and finds himself in a circular room with plain brown walls, a wooden stool, and a mirror. But when he looks into the mirror he doesn\u2019t see himself. Instead, he sees a row of doors behind him. He turns around to face them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie is startled when he coughs a deep, rattling cough. Then he notices that his skin is thin and dry, his stomach is soft with age, and his knee is stiff. He\u2019s frustrated to realize that he is deteriorating with each new stage in heaven. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, Eddie starts to open the doors. Each one opens into a different wedding reception, seemingly in a different country. The first wedding might have been German or Swedish. The next door takes him to a Spanish wedding. He sees weddings in what he guesses to be Africa, China, and France. Each of these celebrations has different music and different customs. But to Eddie, they\u2019re all pretty much the same. Who is the fourth person Eddie meets in Heaven? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie avoided wedding receptions in life. He found them embarrassing. He didn\u2019t want to dance or participate. If he had to go, he chose to stand in the parking lot smoking a cigarette. Now, walking through heaven in his maintenance clothes, he visits each of these weddings and wonders how this has to do with him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final wedding he sees seems to be in Italy. The scenes are confusion. Where does Eddie meet the fourth person in Heaven? He looks around the crowd and sees a beautiful young woman passing out candied almonds asking \u201cPer l\u2019amaro e il dolce?\u201d <\/em>or \u201cFor the bitter and the sweet?\u201d <\/em>The woman\u2019s voice is almost too much for Eddie to handle. He drops to the floor and whispers \u201cMarguerite.\u201d She responds, \u201cFor the bitter and the sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie\u2019s Thirty-Eighth Birthday<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe is sitting in Eddie\u2019s maintenance shop showing him a new battery-operated drill. Joe is a hardware salesman now, and makes three times as much money as Eddie does. Eddie has taken the promotion to head of maintenance at Ruby Pier<\/a>, his dad\u2019s old job. Eddie resents it and wishes he could switch places with Joe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marguerite comes to the door of the shop wearing her Ruby Pier uniform. Seeing her in the red vest and beret makes Eddie embarrassed in front of Joe. But Marguerite smiles and asks Eddie to step outside with her. When he does, there is a group of children waiting to shout happy birthday to him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie is touched. He loves seeing Marguerite around children. He knows it\u2019s a shame that she can\u2019t bear any of her own. She\u2019s been asking him to consider adoption, but he feels they\u2019re too old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marguerite and the kids light 38 candles on top of the messy cake. A child pokes Eddie and tells him to blow them all out and once. He looks at his wife and says \u201cI will.\u201d Marguerite takes a Polaroid photo of the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie stares at Marguerite and cannot believe that it\u2019s really her. She holds his hand and assures Eddie that it is<\/em> really her, and he cries on her shoulder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every man and woman has a certain kind <\/em>of love, one of love\u2019s many forms<\/strong>. Eddie\u2019s love for Marguerite was grateful and deep, but also quiet. After he lost her, the rest of his days were dull. Now, Eddie is standing in front of his wife again. She is as young and beautiful as on their wedding day, not old and suffering like she was toward the end of her life. She asks him to take a walk and lifts him effortlessly off of his injured knee. Eddie is tongue-tied. The fourth person Eddie meets in Heaven is the only one he wanted to see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marguerite motions around the Italian village they walk through. She says that she wanted a heaven with weddings behind every door because she loves to see the look of wonder in the eyes of the bride and groom. She asks if Eddie believes they had that same sense of possibility.
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