"Only he isn't. He wakes up the next morning and he has a fresh new
world to work with, but he has something else, too. He has his
yesterday."
The Captain grinned. "The way I see it, that's what we're getting here,
soldier. That's what heaven is. You get to make sense of your
yesterdays."
He took out his plastic cigarette pack and tapped it with his finger.
"You followin' this? I was never all that hot at teaching."
Eddie watched the Captain closely. He had always thought of him as
so much older. But now, with some of the coal ash rubbed from his face,
Eddie noticed the scant lines on his skin and the full head of dark hair.
He must have only been in his 30s.
"You been here since you died," Eddie said, "but that's twice as long
as you lived."
The Captain nodded.
"I've been waitin' for you."
Eddie looked down.
"That's what the Blue Man said."
"Well, he was too. He was part of your life, part of why you lived and
how you lived, part of the story you needed to know, but he told you and
he's beyond here now, and in a short bit, I'm gonna be as well. So listen
up. Because here's what you need to know from me." Eddie felt his back
straighten.
SACRIFICE," THE CAPTAIN said. "You made one. I made one. We all
make them. But you were angry over yours. You kept thinking about
what you lost.
"You didn't get it. Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not
something to regret. It's something to aspire to. Little sacrifices. Big
sacrifices. A mother works so her son can go to school. A daughter
moves home to take care of her sick father.
"A man goes to war... ."
He stopped for a moment and looked off into the cloudy gray sky.
"Rabozzo didn't die for nothing, you know. He sacrificed for his
country, and his family knew it, and his kid brother went on to be a good
soldier and a great man because he was inspired by it.