Forever, Interrupted: A Novel

Nine days after Elsie Porter and Ben Ross get married, the couple hangs out at their apartment in Los Angeles, California. They discuss whether or not Elsie will change her name, and she suggests combining their last names and going by Elsie Porter Ross. Suddenly, Elsie gets a craving for Fruity Pebbles cereal. Ben insists on taking his bike to CVS to pick up a box.

Thirty minutes later, Ben still hasn’t returned home, and Elsie starts to worry. He isn’t picking up his phone either. Then she hears sirens and races outside to find “two ambulances and a fire truck” in the street (5). Fruity Pebbles are lying all over the ground. A police officer informs her that a moving truck hit Ben, and both he and the driver died in the accident. The officer drives her to the hospital.

At the hospital, Elsie still can’t make sense of what happened. She tries going into the room to see Ben, momentarily convinced he’s alive. The officer informs her that he was an organ donor, and the doctors are working on him. Finally, her best friend from college, Ana Romano, arrives and gets into an altercation with a nurse, demanding that they let Elsie see Ben.