He Rose From Street Punk to Colonel, and Lost Me Forever
Three months after I died, Jack Carter became one of the youngest colonels in the United States Marine Corps.
At the promotion ceremony, every person in the room stood up and applauded him.
He had a war record, he had money, he had a house that looked out over the woods, and he had the kind of future everyone envied.
But only I, already dead, knew that the one person he had truly wanted his whole life was never coming back.
The year he turned eighteen, he rebuilt a beat-up old Ford and put the spare key in my hand.
He said, "After prom, come find me. I will take you to California."
I said yes.
But that night I walked down the steps on another man's arm and told him, in front of everyone, tha