On page 103, it is Eddies birthday and he is in the hospital recovering from his injuries during war. Everyone is celebrating Eddies birthday and his accomplishments during war. While everyone was praising him, his father was looking at Eddie with a look that seemed like disappointment. Everyone felt bad for Eddie because of his injuries but Eddies father viewed his injuries as a sign of weakness. These injuries changed his life forever and knowing he did not have his own fathers support took a toll on him. The author made it obvious that this made Eddie feel very bad about himself because of his ffather'sheartless reaction to seeing him in critical condition.

On page 105, it is being explained how Eddie was abused as a child and severely neglected. This shows a specific example of the one night Eddies father came home drunk while his mother was sleeping and started breaking their toys. He then made Eddie and Joe lay down and take their pants off so he could whip them with his belt. This shows how Eddies father was an alcoholic in a way that frightened and changed Eddies whole family in negative and positive ways. This also shows how Eddies mom was scared to interfere with these situation which left Eddie and Joe to stand up for themselves as young boys.

On page 108 into page 109, another situation is explained which Eddies father is trying to get him to go get a job and stop being lazy while he was suffering from depression. Eddies father tried to punch Eddie and he decided he's had enough and blocked the punch. This abuse shaped Eddie into being a cold-hearted man but is also probably the reason he loves children so much. His relationship with children is often expressed in the book which I think is because he wants to build a relationship with these children that him and his father never had. He wants to be able to fill his void by doing the things his father never did.

On page 125, Eddies father is very sick and in the hospital which no one knows when he will be released. This caused Eddie to be forced into taking over him fathers job and helping out because his father could not. This left Eddie with no choice and the only reason his life is the way it is, is because he had to look out for his father. This shows how Eddie truly does care about his father and was willing to takeover to protect him which was a big commitment. As I said before, this changed Eddies life and made him into someone he never wanted to be, a lifelong worker at Ruby Pier.

On page 187, it is revealed that Eddies 5th person he meets in heaven is the little girl Tala from the fire. Eddie and Tala are talking when she begins to tell Eddie, "You burn me" and says the word soldier. Eddie then realizes that she was the girl he saved from the fire and he wasn't just seeing things. This makes Eddie feel terrible and like he is at fault for the little girls death, although she does not seem mad at him in any way. Instead of seeing a little innocent girl when he looks into her eyes, he sees the girl whose dead which he thinks is his fault. Seeing Tala now just makes Eddie sad and feel even worse about himself.

In the epilogue, the aftermath of Eddie's death is described as a very well known, tragic incident. It is then exposed on page 196, that Nicky, the little boy whose key broke the ride that killed Eddie, has a relation to the pier. Nicky's grandmother is Ruby, the lady which the pier is named after. This is a very significant connection because in the beginning Nicky seemed random. But this ties back to the idea that everyone and everything is connected even if it may not seem like it. This also shows how Nicky has an important relevance at the Ruby Pier which means he is important to the storyline.

During Eddie's 38th birthday flashback, Margeurite continues to bring up the idea of them adopting or having children by saying you can never be too old. On page 153, children come into the room for Eddie's birthday and begin to sing to him. One of the children tells Eddie to blow out all the candles and Eddie says he will, however he wasn't looking at the child when he agreed, he was looking at Marguerite. I perceived this as Eddie agreeing to adopt children with Marguerite because Eddie was looking at her when he said I will. This seems to go way deeper than Eddie simply saying yes to blowing out candles, he was talking about adoption.

During Eddie's 39th birthday flashback, it is explained how he was out gambling. He ends up winning and calls Marguerite to tell her, however she was not excited, she was upset he's gambling away money they could potentially use for the children they want to adopt. She ended up yelling at Eddie over the phone, but immediately felt bad and wanted to make things right by driving to Eddie to apologize. While she was driving under a bridge, two drunk kids were dropping bottles off while Marguerite was driving under causing her to lose control and crash. This one bottle caused her to veer off the road and become severely injured. This situation altered her in the long run by changing her perspective into not wanting children anymore and being way less enthusiastic. They never ended up getting the child due to Marguerites injury which Eddie blames himself for considering she was driving to apologize to him.