One Fine Day You're Gonna Die Read Online Free PDF Page A

here in a panic, but I know you’re faking. Don’t play along, Charlie D.”
    I attempt to clear the air. “Gabe, this is a high-stakes game, so I need you to tell me the truth. Are you planning to commit suicide?”
    â€œI prefer to think of it as exiting on my own terms,” he says.
    There’s a hopelessness in his voice that I recognize.
    â€œLet’s rethink this, Gabe,” I say. “I’ve been where you are, standing so close to the Gate of Hell I could read the inscription over the entrance.”
    â€œâ€˜Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.’” Gabe supplies the passage from Dante’s Inferno . “One of life’s nastier surprises is that even our suffering is not unique.”
    Dr. Harris cannot contain her impatience.
    â€œGabe, you’re an adult. Whether you choose to end your life is your decision. I’ve lost track of the number of times you’ve threatened suicide. You’re like the boy who cried wolf.”
    â€œAh, but one day, there really was a wolf, and he ate the boy. My wolf is a vial of saxi-toxin. It takes so little—there’s more than enough here for both of us. Just a pinprick from the hypodermic and, within seconds, oblivion. Would you like to say goodbye, my dark star?”
    Robin spits out her response.
    â€œTo you? I don’t think so. I’ve already said goodbye to you a hundred times. You never get the message.”
    Gabe sounds weary.
    â€œActually, I was wondering if you’d like to say goodbye to your daughter.”
    â€œWhat?” For the first time since she walked into the studio, cracks appear in Robin Harris’s facade. “What are you talking about, Gabe?”
    â€œYou never quite hear me, do you, my dark star? I simply asked if you wanted to say goodbye to Kali?”
    Robin’s eyes are wide with fear.
    â€œWhat are you talking about? You know I wouldn’t let you anywhere near my daughter.”
    â€œToo late, Robin. She’s here with me now.”
    â€œYou’re lying. I talked to Kali two hours ago. Her nanny had just given her a bath and tucked her in.”
    â€œAnd Kali was wearing her new pajamas— the ones I bought her for Halloween—but why don’t I let Kali tell you about them.”
    As she describes her new pajamas, Kali’s voice is as tuneful as a well-played flute.
    â€œ You were gone before Gabe came, Mummy. The pajamas he gave me are dark blue and they’re covered in moons and stars…and when the lights go out, the moons and stars glow in the dark.”
    Dr. Robin Harris seems to crumple before me.
    â€œThat’s her voice,” she says. “Oh my god, Gabe has my daughter.”

CHAPTER EIGHT
    F or the first seconds after she hears that her six-year-old is with Gabe, Dr. Harris looks as if she’s been sucker-punched. But she’s a champ, and she comes out swinging. She pulls her microphone closer, a rookie mistake but—given the circumstances—understandable. I reach over and adjust it.
    â€œHow did you get her, Gabe?” she asks. She makes no attempt to disguise the hostility in her voice. Both Robin’s tone and her question surprise me. I thought her first concern would be Kali’s safety. But it’s not. Dr. Harris obviously sees Gabe’s possession of her daughter as a kind of power play.
    â€œWhat did you promise Inge?” she asks. “She would never simply hand Kali over to you. She’s been my nanny since Kali was born.”
    â€œWhich means she has seen how deeply I love you both,” Gabe says quietly. “Inge and I talk all the time. She’s been concerned about this rift between you and me. I wish you could have seen her face when I told her the estrangement was over.”
    â€œShe believed you?” Robin says.
    â€œShe was ecstatic,” Gabe says. “We were all ecstatic, weren’t we, Kali? Kali and I were so happy that we