Purgatorium (74 page)

I hear “The Light in the Piazza” song skip while playing on a record player inside the hospital room. Bright rays of light shine on my closed eyelids. I open my eyes. My blurry vision slowly tries to adjust. I see the sun’s rays shining in upon my face from the window.

I look down and see that I am in a hospital bed. Anna’s snow globe sits on the nightstand. Beside the snow globe is a portable record player with Madi’s album right beside it. I try to move, but I am stiff and weak. I try to talk but nothing comes out of my dry mouth. I look for some sort of cup of water around my area but find nothing. I try to yell once again, but even opening up my jaw brings excruciating pain. My hearing is a little off, my vision is blurry, and my brain feels completely numb.

I look at the nightstand on my right. A 2015 GQ Styles of the Year magazine hangs off the corner. I notice the front page picture, recognizing the BMW concept car is being shown off. The record player is still skipping in the inside groove, repeating the ending portion of the song over and over again, ‘the light in the piazza, my love.’ A melody with which I am now long familiar. I rest my head back on my pillow.

Out of the upper corner of my left eye, a sharp white glinting light catches my attention. I stop and turn my head. The light is blinding. Standing on a table next to the window, looking out onto the sunlit city landscape, sits a Celtic hourglass. The top chamber is full of sand. Laying my head back, I watch the hourglass flip over. The Celtic hourglass begins slowly trickling through the thin neck into the chamber below.

‘The light in the piazza…,’I sing in my head, as I tilt my head over to my right and see Madi, still comatose, just a few feet away in her bed.

I wear a devilish smirk as I continue to sing in my head once again the last line in the song, ‘...the light in the piazza….’

Silence.

“‘…
my love.’”

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my gratitude to the many people who saw me through this book; to all those who provided support, talked things over, read, wrote, offered comments, allowed me to quote their remarks and assisted in the editing, proofreading and design.

Above all I want to thank God and the rest of my family, who supported and encouraged me in spite of all the time it took me away from them.

I would like to thank Travis Unangst for helping me in the process of designing my book. Thanks to Chelsey Whild for her lyrics and musical theme to my book trailer.

Last and not least: I beg forgiveness of all those who have been with me over the course of the years and whose names I have failed to mention.”

About the Author

J.H. Carnathan is from Tennessee and lives in Birmingham, Alabama for the time being. He is a fervent fan of honor, loyalty and chivalry. He loves to create worlds where men and women are emotionally broken and how they must find their way out of that darkness.

Carnathan is the author of the novel PURGATORIUM. Originally, this book was written as a screenplay, but as the story unfolded and throughout the editing process, it became clear that it was best fitted for a novel. Ever since childhood, he has had an imagination towards story telling. That passion grew with age as he began to write short stories throughout his high school career. His degree in screenwriting from the University of Alabama gives his work a crisp, visual feel.

PURGATORIUM, his first novel, has been called “A type of Groundhog Day/It’s a Wonderful Life combination,” and

“The book is dark and brooding with bombastic angels tendering truth and violence.” Watch for the sequel in 2020.