Everything, Everything (31 page)

A few days ago, when I was communing with the orrery, I was trying so hard to find the single pivotal moment that set my life on its path. The moment that answered the question,
How did I get here?

But it’s never just one moment. It’s a series of them. And your life can branch out from each one in a thousand different ways. Maybe there’s a version of your life for all the choices you make and all the choices you don’t.

Maybe there’s a version of my life where I’m sick after all.

A version where I die in Hawaii.

Still another where my father and brother are still alive and my mother is not broken.

There’s even a version of my life without Olly in it.

But not this one.

Olly pulls his hands out of his pockets, plucks the book from the shelf and reads. He grins and bounces lightly on the balls of his feet.

I come out of hiding. I walk down the aisle, toward him.

The smile he gives me is worth living for.

“Found your book,” he says.

THE END

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

YOU ARE TRULY
a thorough reader if you’re here with me in the acknowledgments. And, as a truly thorough reader of books (and their acknowledgments), you know that books do not spring wholly formed from the addled minds of their authors.

First, I’d like to thank my mom, who has always dreamed big enough for the both of us. No, Oprah hasn’t selected me for her book club yet, Mom. But! It could happen.

When I was young and growing up in Jamaica, my dad wrote movie reviews for a local paper. I thought that it (writing) and him (my dad) were just the coolest. So. I have to thank my dad for showing me that you could write things on paper that came from your head and that those things could affect people.

I need to thank the Thursday night drinking and writing crew from Emerson College. You know who you are. You guys were my first community of writers and what a talented, crazy, supportive, mostly sober group you were. In particular, I need to thank Wendy Wunder. You are generous and funny and one of the best writers I know.

Thanks to Joelle Hobeika, Sara Shandler, Natalie Sousa, and Josh Bank at Alloy. You made the book better in every way. I especially want to thank Sara for being a mad scientist genius and Joelle (also a genius) for making me laugh and feel good even when giving me twelve pages of single-spaced, double-sided revision notes.

And then there’s Wendy Loggia. Truly, I won the lottery having you as my editor. Thank you for your vision and passion and kindness. You believed in this book from the very first words and that has meant the world to me. Thanks to you and the entire team at Delacorte for making my biggest, oldest, wildest dream come true.

Finally to my husband, David Yoon. Thank you for drawing me beautiful things at 4
A.M.
in between kisses and sips of coffee. Thank you for everything, everything. For love. For adventure. For family. For this life. I love you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

NICOLA YOON
grew up in Jamaica (the island) and Brooklyn (part of Long Island). She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA, with her husband and daughter, both of whom she loves beyond all reason.
Everything, Everything
is her first novel.

DAVID YOON
is a writer and designer. He lives with his wife Nicola Yoon (see above) in Los Angeles, CA, where they spend their days talking about stories and reading to their three-year-old daughter, Penny. David created the illustrations for
Everything, Everything
.