THIS IS A STORY ABOUT A MAN named Eddie and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun. It might seem strange to start a story with an ending. But all endings are also beginnings. We just don\'t know it at the time.
THE LAST HOUR of Eddie\'s life was spent, like most of the others, at Ruby Pier, an amusement park by a great gray ocean. The park had the usual attractions, a boardwalk, a Ferris wheel, roller coasters, bumper cars, a taffy stand, and an arcade where you could shoot streams of water into a clown\'s mouth. It also had a big new ride called Freddy\'s Free Fall, and this would be where Eddie would be killed, in an accident that would make newspapers around the ````