The Gift: A Novel by Evans Richard Paul

Author:Evans, Richard Paul [Evans, Richard Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2007-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER Seventeen

I returned from sunny Arizona to the gray winter inversion of Utah. It was like the opposite of The Wizard of Oz—from Technicolor to black and white.

NATHAN HURST’S JOURNAL

Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, the noted psychiatrist and scientist, defined the five stages of loss and grief in this order: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. While we usually think of these stages in terms of death, they apply to all loss. In my breakup with Addison, I was moving through the stages pretty quickly. At first I couldn’t believe we were over. We had only just begun. I fully expected to hear from her a few days later when things had calmed down. When after a week she still hadn’t called, I knew it was real, and I moved on to phase two: anger—though, in truth, I didn’t stay there long. It was difficult to stay angry with Addison when I knew why she had broken up with me.

Stage three, the bargaining phase, was nearly as short-lived as phase two. The only things I had to bargain with was my love, which she’d rejected, and privileged information about her son—something I would never divulge, no matter how desperate I was. So, in a matter of days, I just moved on to depression.

I returned from Arizona to the gray winter inversion of Utah. It seemed appropriate for my state of mind.

I’m not sure why I didn’t just jump ahead on to the last phase: acceptance. As much as I wanted our relationship to last, I had never really expected it. The milk carton thing.

Existential philosophy holds that the worst thing placed in Pandora’s box was hope. In my darker moments, I have believed that’s true of the human heart as well. But I didn’t now. I had seen a miracle in Addison’s little boy, and had been a recipient of his remarkable gift. If ever there was a time for hope in my life, it was now. I found myself wondering about Addison and how she and her family were doing.

Neither of us could have known that the course of events already set in place would soon bring us back together.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.