The Next Person You Meet in Heaven

Three weeks after the Ruby Pier accident, Annie sits at home, bored and cut off from the world. She thinks about how her mother has treated her differently since the accident. Her mother has become increasingly miserable and isolated and has taken up smoking. There is a knock on the door and Annie goes to answer it. Several reporters are outside wanting to ask her about the accident. Annie’s mother appears and slams the door closed, then scolds Annie for answering the door. Annie apologizes profusely, and both she and her mother start crying. Annie doesn’t even remember what happened at Ruby Pier; all she knows is that the accident has changed her hand and her relationship with her mother forever.

Annie is alone in an endless desert without her body. She feels the pain of the Ruby Pier accident in a hand that isn’t there. She crawls through the sand until she comes upon a pile of her own body parts; suddenly, a pack of dogs swarms the pile and begins tearing the pieces apart. The dogs run away, chewing as they go and beckoning Annie to follow them. She wills herself to stand on nonexistent legs and breaks into a run.