Marguerite teaches Eddie that love is never lost in death; it just moves on and takes a different form. Eddie awakens to see children playing along with a riverbed. A young Filipina girl named Tala comes up to him. Tala reveals that she was the little girl from the hut that Eddie set on fire. Distraught, Eddie breaks down both cursing and asking God "why?" Tala hands him a stone and asks him to "wash" her like the other children in the river are doing to one another. Eddie is puzzled, but dips the stone in the water and starts to scrape off the injuries he had inflicted on her. Tala's wounds begin to clear until she is freed of all the scars. Eddie asks Tala if she knows if he was able to save the little girl before his death. Tala tells him he did manage to push her out of the way. In this way, Tala explains, he also managed to atone every day for her unnecessary death. In the end, it shows that Eddie's Heaven is the Stardust Band Shell, where he met Marguerite. Major Characters Eddie: The protagonist and main character around whom the story centers; at the start of the story, he is killed on his 83rd birthday. Marguerite: Eddie's wife whom he met at Ruby Pier and married after returning from World War II. Joseph Corvelzchik, The Blue Man: Joseph is the first man Eddie meets in Heaven. His skin had been turned blue when he was a boy because of the repeated ingestion of silver nitrate, thought to be an effective medication at the time. The Captain: Eddie's commanding officer at war. Ruby: A middle-aged widow for whom Ruby Pier is named by her fiancé Emile. Emile: Ruby's husband, who also created the original Ruby Pier. Mickey Shea: A family friend who worked with Eddie's father fixing rides at Ruby Pier. Tala: Tala is a young Filipina girl Eddie sees in a burning hut. Nicky: Nicky is a young man who visited Ruby Pier, and caused the effects that led to Eddie's death. He claims to be Ruby's great-grandson. Reception Janet Maslin, writing in The New York Times, gave a cynical review, calling the story "a string of reassuring verities." While she thought the story manipulative, she acknowledged its power to comfort people. Publishers Weekly's review was far more positive, comparing the book