The Man Who Reads Obituaries Free for Three Days

Exert from The Man Who Reads Obituaries by Diane Lynn McGyer

The drone from the machinery sealed my eyelids, enticing me to linger in the weightlessness of sleep. Time passed peacefully there, with dreams that confirmed I still breathed…still lived. Urges existed in dreamland; urges to eat, urges to copulate, urges to explore…things I no longer possessed while conscious.

I missed my body’s impulse to urinate; the nurses had even denied me of that primitive need. I imagined the clear tube stretching from my limp penis to the rubber bag dangling beside the bed, and I wondered about the nurse’s reaction if I removed it to feel the urge to pee one last time.

Footsteps disrupted my thoughts, and clicking shoes entered the room. Without opening my eyes, I knew it to be young Maggie Mac…something, a young woman gifted with beauty but not tolerance for the dying. She stopped near the bed. A whiff of her perfume permeated the air as she leant forward, checking to see if the devil had claimed me yet.

Seeing no response or lack of breathing she tossed an object on the bed beside me—my morning news—then fiddled with the IV tube. She cursed under her sweet breath, removed the full bag of yellow liquid hanging on the bedrail and replaced it with another plastic urinal. After a few quick movements, more curse words and running water, she returned to the bedside.

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Between Friday July 13, 2012 (12:01am) and Sunday July 15, 2012 (11:59pm), my short story, The Man Who Reads Obituaries will be available for free on Kindle (Amazon). To take advantage of this offer, please visit Amazon .

Cover Blurb: Morris, Laurence Aiden—48, Dartmouth, has waited more than six months for this day. Still, he’s unsure if he’s ready to make the journey to Heaven…or Hell. It feels as if something is missing, but he can’t fathom what it is. While he bides his time, he reads the obituaries, hoping that by connecting with travelling souls, he’ll find what he seeks.

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