The opening to this short story was very surprising to me. I was reading it and thinking, this can not be true, this does not happen in real life. As he continues and comments on how his story is a real story but like an episode from Rescue 911 I thought was a little humorous. Truth be told though, I have never seen that TV series so I I had never heard of this “event” before.

As Sullivan goes on to explain the events after the “death” of his brother, the tone of his story becomes very sad and dark. It is remembrance of the horrible accident and you could really feel the pain he felt. His story, however, shifts in tone when he starts to use notes that he had taken while he was looking after his brother. The note “quotes” add a bit of humor because as he says, his brother was acting like a drunk almost. Sullivan starts to finish by saying that even after all of this event, his brother does not remember most of it. When he wrote this I was thinking of how horrible it must be not to know what had happened but at the same time a great relief.

The closing quote and ending section brought me to tears almost. The quote is what his brother said about fictional characters being on one side of a rive. When Sullivan states that the day that his brother “died” was also the day that Mark Twain died, I honestly did not understand at first. The last sentence of “I am glad they left my brother on this side of the river” was when it finally hit me. I could physically picture the two characters standing on a river side with Sullivan’s brother on the other.  It is sad to think that his brother had been so close to death but also happy that he was able to come back to life and be with his family.