Healthy Living

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After thinking about when and how he would commit suicide, Paul decided he would drive off of a cliff and into the ocean the week after he decided how to do it, just seven days from then, at night. He wrote a note and left it on his bed. Dina noticed how strangely he was behaving. He started giving her his favorite CDs and baseball cards and was obsessed with movies and books in which someone died and the subject of death in conversations. Samuel and Mallory hardly noticed Paul talking about these things, because they were too busy thinking about their jobs and what they had to do for work the next day.

One afternoon (which happened to be the afternoon of the night Paul planned to kill himself), Dina, who had been doing laundry, came into Paul's room with some folded clothes. She set them on his bed, then noticed the piece of paper on which Paul had written his suicide note. It read, "I can't take it anymore. Tonight I'm getting in my car and going over a cliff. Don't worry--Jesus is the first Person I'll see. I don't want to hurt you all, but I'm tired of this pain. Goodbye. I love you all. Love, Paul."

Tears came to Dina's eyes. How could Paul do that? Didn't he know how much he would hurt his family? He was her hero. She looked up to him more than she looked up to anyone else. He couldn't do this. How could she stop him? She thought and thought. Of course! What if she got into the car before he got there and told her he'd need to take her with him if he decided to drive over the cliff? Paul loved her so much that he'd never want to harm her. That would surely get him to change his mind! Besides, Dina would rather die trying to save her big brother than live knowing she never tried to help him.

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