After she dies and arrives in Heaven, Catherine discovers that life is still a mystery and full of hidden surprises. Catherine, a florist in San Francisco, and David, a doctor from New York City, both die of a heart attack on the same day in the same hospital. They meet in Heaven, and together befriend an angel named Oliver who occasionally allows them to observe certain events on Earth. Catherine is particularly worried about her daughter, Sarah, a wedding planner who seems to have lost her way. She asks Oliver to let her speak to Sarah in her dreams, hoping that the dreams will end Sarah's mourning. Her new friend, David, has his own concerns about his son, Dan. After learning more about Dan, Catherine is convinced that she has found a perfect match for Sarah. Dan lives in New York City and is trying to extricate himself from a broken marriage, but Rachel, his actress wife, won't give him a divorce. Catherine and David convince Oliver to arrange for their children to meet. After two failed attempts, Oliver finally succeeds and Sarah and Dan fall in love-but their road to happiness holds many obstacles yet. A secret revealed to Catherine shatters her new world in Heaven. Only time will reveal whether there will be a happy ending for Catherine and Sarah.

Auszug. � Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Two Weddings

By Farin Powell

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright � 2011 Farin Powell
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-3101-6

Chapter One

When she was alive, Catherine O'Keefe never imagined that one day she could watch her own funeral. She was strolling by the lake when she noticed Oliver sitting on the stone bench near the Magic Tree. She had chosen that name for the large magnolia shortly after arriving in Heaven, when Oliver had pushed back some branches and let her watch what was happening on earth. He had done it a few times since, but only let her see events he chose.

"What are you watching?" she asked as she approached him.

"Nothing." He let go of the tree branch, and it snapped back into place with a shudder of shiny dark-green leaves.

Catherine had been quick, though, and caught a glimpse. "Oh my gosh, those are my kids! You're watching my funeral? Oh, Oliver, you have to let me watch."

"Actually," he said, "I'm watching two funerals."

"Whose is the second one?"

"His name is David. You'll meet him soon. He died on the same day you did. And in the same hospital, as a matter of fact."

"Good. Now that we're all friends, you can let me watch." She sat on the bench beside Oliver, playfully bumping him with her hip to nudge him over. She needed a better view of this one.

Oliver moved over and slowly pulled back one of the branches. Catherine craned her neck to get the first glimpse. This was her funeral, for crying out loud.

She saw a group of about twenty friends and family members gathered around her casket, and noticed immediately there wasn't a dry eye among them. This made her smile.

"What're you smiling about?" Oliver asked.

She glanced at him and with feigned haughtiness replied, "I knew they'd miss me."

She turned back to the funeral and watched as Father O'Connor performed his usual graveside sermon. She scanned the crowd once more and then rested her gaze on her children. Her heart ached when she saw the pain on their faces. Her son Paul, her youngest daughter Karen, and her granddaughter Emily all stood with their heads bowed. But seeing her eldest, Sarah, sent a bolt of electricity through her, just as the defibrillator paddles had a few days earlier. While everyone around her appeared to be mourning the death of a beloved, Sarah stood eerily still, emotionless. Her eyes seemed to look straight through whatever they were focused on. Her body might be present, but the rest of her was miles away. Staring at her daughter, Catherine felt not sorrow but fear.

On earth, Catherine had cared for her children's every hurt and need. She had spent much of her life bandaging scraped knees, orchestrating after-school activities, and comforting broken hearts. Seeing her children now reminded her she could no longer comfort them through anything. The certainty of this overwhelmed her, and she had to turn away. When she looked back, she turned her attention to the second funeral taking place just beyond her own.

This other funeral had been out of focus, but now, as she looked directly at it, it not only became clear, it also became larger, as if she had zoomed in on it with a camera lens. Her own funeral was pushed to the edge of the small window the Magic Tree provided.

In contrast to her funeral, this one had only three people gathered at the gravesite. She found herself feeling sorry for the man Oliver called David.

She studied the few attendees and tried to guess their relation to David. Once that grew old, she tried to name in Latin each of the flowers in the arrangements standing around the casket. She wanted to fill her mind with anything but what was taking place in the bottom left-hand corner of her viewing window. Anything but the image of her daughter staring blankly into the distance. Soon, no longer able to resist, she refocused on her children.

"Oliver, you've got to help me reveal myself to Sarah. She's hurting, and I just can't sit up here doing nothing for her."

"Catherine, do you realize you've been here only three days, and every day you have had a new demand? I've already helped you appear in your children's dreams, which is more than I should have done."

"Yes, but this is different. Then I just wanted them to know I was all right. But now ... Well, didn't you see Sarah? She's not well. I know her and I can tell you, she is not well." Catherine emphasized the last two words by pounding her fist on her knee.

"Of course she's not. She's just lost her mother. You have to let her mourn in her own way. If it's too hard for you to see them, maybe I shouldn't show you anymore." He started to close the gap in the branches.

"No! No, don't do that. I'll be okay. But you have got to let me go to her. I should be able to do something to help her. I'm a mother; I have to try. I'm also a woman, which means I won't stop bothering you until you let me. And you know I'm telling the truth," she finished with a satisfied nod.

"Yes, I learned that pretty well with dreams one, two, and three, didn't I? But I don't know." Oliver took his cap, and scratched his head—his forehead wrinkled in contemplation. "You're not the only one who misses someone they left behind, you know."

"Please, Oliver!" She put her hands together in front of her chest, as if praying. Leaning forward, she tilted her head to the side so that she was looking pitifully into Oliver's eyes.

"Ugh! All right. You're not going to leave me alone till I say yes, so I might as well save myself the trouble."

"Oh, thank you, Oliver. Thank you so much. So when can we do it?"

"Man, you just don't quit, do you? Not right now, but stick around while I finish my review. I have to write a report on these two funerals."

"I died, David died. What's so special about our deaths that needs a report?"

"We have to follow up with those who are left behind."

And with that, Oliver turned his attention back to the Magic Tree.

* * *

Father O'Connor performed her mother's burial rites, but Sarah didn't hear a bit of it. Instead, one word kept repeating in her head: Why?

She'd spent the last hour watching a disturbing film play over and over on a screen in her mind. In the film, an elephant kept stomping on a little ant. At the bottom of the screen, a candle flickered, its flame slowly going out. It died completely when the elephant's foot came down mercilessly on the ant for the last time. A trail of smoke rose from the snuffed candle, and for a moment, the elephant stood back and looked down at the poor dead ant, apparently uninterested in stomping on what was already dead. Then the film started all over again. Sarah's mother had read to her a story about an elephant and the ant when she was five years old. Sarah didn't remember how the story began or how it ended. But she felt as powerless as the dead ant in the film.

She gazed up at the sky as she considered her mother's life. Her mother hadn't been famous; her story had never been told. She'd never been on the cover of any magazine, but she had been an unsung hero—Sarah's hero.

Three days earlier, when Catherine died, the sky had cried. Today the sun shone brightly, and the velvety-blue sky reminded Sarah of a warm blanket. She felt a soft squeeze on her arm and turned to see her brother Paul looking at her.

"We have to go, Sarah."

"I need to stay with Mom a little longer."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I am. Please take everyone home. The food and everything else is...

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