Life's Golden Ticket (22 page)

Authors: Brendon Burchard

BOOK: Life's Golden Ticket

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I blinked at him, unable to move or speak.

“Go,” he said in a stronger tone. “Make the life you deserve.” He touched my shoulder and pushed me toward Mary.

My feet started toward her, but I kept looking back at the wizard. He sat down next to Todd on the bench, and they started to play together.

I looked once more toward Mary and felt myself running. I ran past the flagpole, sped beyond the ticket booths, cleared the entrance archway . . .

Flash.
A bright light.

I opened my eyes. Mary hobbled toward me on her crutches. Her right leg was in a white cast.

I walked over to her, half expecting her to vanish as she had before. I stopped just a foot away from her.

The words tumbled unbidden from my mouth. “You're not real. You were dying.”

She shook her head and hopped the last step toward me on her crutches. Letting them drop, she looked at me with tears in her eyes. “Yes,” she said, “but I didn't die.” She fell into my arms and hugged me; her warm tears dripped down my neck.

“You were dying,” I repeated, squeezing her tight to convince myself she was really in my arms. I thought for a moment that this was another trick of the park, but I could feel something was differentâI was different. I pulled back from her and eyed her cast and crutches. “How long was I gone?”

Mary petted my face. “Forty days, just like I was when I disappeared.”

I shook my head. “Noâthat can't be.”

“It's true. That's how I knew to meet you here tonight. When I was recovering in the hospital after you left, Mom told me I had been missing for forty days. I didn't believe it either. But when you disappeared, I knew it. So I got better in the hospital, went home, and waited until tonight to come here. I knew you'd keep your promise to come to the park, and the same things would happen to you . . . as happened to me.”

I heaved a sigh of disbelief at it all and squeezed her even harder. “Honey, I'm so sorry for everything.
I love you
. I've never told you how much you mean to me, I . . .”

Mary put a finger to my lips and smiled. “I know, hon.”

“Oh, thank God you're okay,” I said, my voice cracking. “It's all okay. It's all over.”

“No, honey,” she whispered into my ear, “it's just begun.”

W
e stood and embraced in the field for what felt like a blissful eternity.

I finally pulled away from her and remembered my promise. “I have something for you,” I said, and held up her envelope. “It's from Todd. He wanted you to open it.”

Mary's eyes widened and teared up again. She slowly opened the envelope and pulled out the golden ticket. She read it and looked up at me with a smile. “I didn't know this was in here,” she whispered. Then she reread the ticket and said quietly, “It's
so
true.”

She kissed me, and we rocked back and forth together for several more minutes.

Eventually, she pulled away and put the golden ticket back in the envelope. Then she pulled out the other ticket. Looking at it, she said, “I've seen this before. I remember when I got mineâthe invitation ticket.” She looked over my shoulder toward the park, then back at me. “If I had thought I could open my envelope in the hospital without ruining the miracle, I would have opened it and given you the invitation. I just didn't know if I could. So I gave you the envelope, hoping that would be invitation enough to get you in. I guess you got in okay even without it, huh?”

“Yes, I got in fine.” I thought of Henry, realizing I had a lot to explain to her. Before I did, a question popped into my mind. “You got in with the invitation ticket, right? Who gave you yours?”

Mary looked at me hesitantly, then glanced to the ground. “Someone I met a few months ago. Someone who just showed up out of nowhere and said he really cared about me.”

I thought about who had come into her life a few months ago, but drew a blank. I couldn't forget, though, that our troubles and arguments had begun to intensify at that time. She had started begging me to change even more adamantly. I suddenly felt an odd pang of jealousy and confusion.

“Who, honey? Who gave you the invitation?”

“Someone who had obviously been here and received an envelope with his own tickets. Someone who found me and said he cared about me . . . and you. Someone who had decided to choose a different life.”

Mary glanced back toward her parents' van.

The driver's side door opened. An old man I didn't recognize got out and started walking toward us.

I looked at Mary, and tears welled up in her eyes as he neared.

The man walked up and smiled at Mary, then hesitantly at me.

Then I recognized him.

“Hi, son,” he said.

A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

BRENDON BURCHARD
received life's golden ticketâhis second chanceâafter surviving a car accident. He is now one of the most watched, quoted, and followed personal development trainers in the world. Meet him and get free books and resources to improve your life at www.Brendon.com.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
hc.com
.

ALSO BY BRENDON BURCHARD

The Motivation Manifesto

The Charge

The Millionaire Messenger

The Student Leadership Guide

AN INVITATION

CREDITS

Cover design: Brendon Burchard; Cover photograph: Alicia Bock Ticket images: Siloto and Andrey Kuzmin | Shutterstock

COPYRIGHT

Life's Golden Ticket
^Â®is a trademark owned by the author.

The author's website:
www.Brendon.com

LIFE'S GOLDEN TICKET
. Copyright Â© 2008 Life's Golden Ticket Enterprises, LLC. Revised Edition Copyright Â© 2016 Experts Press, LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST HARPERCOLLINS PAPERBACK EDITION PUBLISHED IN 2008 REVISED AND UPDATED IN 2016

The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

ISBN
: 978â0â06â245647â2

EPub Edition March 2016 ISBN 9780062563439

16Â Â 17Â Â 18Â Â 19Â Â 20Â Â
RRD
(
H
)Â Â 10Â Â 9Â Â 8Â Â 7Â Â 6Â Â 5Â Â 4Â Â 3Â Â 2Â Â 1

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