Just Life
Page 33
McGreary returned to the National Guard barracks with his troops. There was a brief and quiet investigation into why he’d refused the order to secure the Central Park perimeter in the face of the advancing dog pack. Following the investigation, and aided by the governor’s insistence in media interviews that he had ordered the Guard to “above all, protect the welfare of the citizens of this great city,” McGreary’s actions were found to have been justified. Several months later he was promoted.
Owens was court-martialed and then dishonorably discharged for firing his weapon in a crowd of civilians during the riot. He fared better than Dr. Jacqueline Morgan, who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to fifteen years in prison and a two-million-dollar fine.
Gabriel was buried next to Channa following a hero’s funeral. Sid and Andy often met at the cemetery to discuss classical music and enjoy a bagel and coffee. They always brought Eliot and Louis with them. Eliot liked to sleep with his head resting against Gabriel’s stone.
The Riverside Church was destroyed, but the insurance covered the cost of replacement. Rebuilding was a slow process, but the entire neighborhood joined the project. The mayor, with the approval of the diocese, made Sid the honorary head of the building committee. He decided against stained glass windows.
Sam lost the shelter. The smoke damage was too extensive and the property location too lucrative for an animal shelter. Instead the city arranged to lease Morgan’s now-vacant hospital in partial payment of Morgan’s fine, and that is where Sam set up shop. The new Finally Home Medical Center and Animal Shelter provided low-cost, city-subsidized veterinary medicine for the residents of the neighborhood as well as temporary shelter for lost, abused, and abandoned animals. Greg returned as Sam’s chief of staff. He had five new employees to train. Luke also returned, but declined his salary. He didn’t need it; Luke and his Vietnam War buddies had sold the rights to a smartphone app called Empyrean. As of today it has almost three million paid subscribers.
Luke and his friends also expanded Finally Home’s presence on social media. They eventually commenced a very successful Kickstarter campaign for a sanctuary in honor of the children and animals lost to the Riverside Virus. With those funds Sam purchased an abandoned farm in upstate New York and opened the Finally Home Sanctuary for Animals and Children in Need.
Beth completed her government service and then stayed on to become the manager of the sanctuary. The rest of the dogs from the shelter went with her and never again knew the inside of a cage. The sanctuary became an award-winning animal education and child therapy center, Beth’s home, and the final resting place for over two dozen cremation tins and one pendant made of dog tags.
Tom brought his son to the opening of the medical center and animal shelter. Nick wouldn’t leave the boy’s side. The boy was fine with that. Tom and his son came back several times. Sam eventually discovered that she loved the boy and, later, the man who came with him. Now Nick sleeps on the boy’s bed.
Andy recovered quickly from his concussion. He studied hard and worked at the new medical center and shelter with the humans whom he considered his adopted family. He still spent many hours in the park with his other family. He took comfort in the fact that he’d once had no family and now had two. He never saw the one-eared dog again, but he finally finished his concerto for viola and violin in her honor.
He performed the full concerto for the first time in a hidden cave in Central Park before a small but adoring audience of stray dogs.
Also by Neil Abramson
Unsaid
Available from Center Street wherever books are sold.
Look for Neil Abramson’s other riveting novel, UNSAID.
As a veterinarian, Helena had mercifully escorted thousands of animals to the other side. Now, having died herself, she finds that it is not so easy to move on. She is terrified that her thirty-seven years of life were meaningless, error-ridden, and forgettable. So Helena haunts—and is haunted by—the life she left behind. Meanwhile David, her shattered attorney husband, struggles with grief and the demands of caring for her houseful of damaged and beloved animals. But it is her absence from her last project, Cindy—a chimpanzee who may unlock the mystery of communication and consciousness—that will have the greatest impact on all of them. When Cindy is scheduled for a research experiment that will undoubtedly take her life, David must call upon everything he has learned from Helena to save her. In the explosive courtroom drama that follows, all the threads of Helena’s life entwine and tear as Helena and David confront their mistakes, grief, and loss, and discover that the only way to save Cindy is to understand what it really means to be human.
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Epigraph
Book I: Cages Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Book II: Hands Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Book III: Between, Among, Within Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Book IV: And Thereafter
Also by Neil Abramson
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Copyright
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Neil Abramson
Cover desi
gn by Christopher Tobias
Cover photography by Liza Wallis Margulies
Cover copyright © 2016 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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Translation of “Magic Words” here used by permission of Edward Field.
ISBN 978-1-4555-9103-9
E3