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The Other Side of Me
Sidney Sheldon
For my beloved granddaughters, Lizy and Rebecca
so that they will know what a magical journey I had
‘He that has no fools, knaves nor beggars in his family was begot by a flash of lightning.’
THOMAS FULLER
Seventeenth-century English clergyman
Table of Contents
At the age of seventeen, working as a delivery boy at Afremow’s drugstore in Chicago was the perfect job, because it made it possible for me to steal enough sleeping pills to commit suicide. I was not certain exactly how many pills I would need, so I arbitrarily decided on twenty, and I was careful to pocket only a few at a time so as not to arouse the suspicion of our pharmacist. I had read that whiskey and sleeping pills were a deadly combination, and I intended to mix them, to make sure I would die.
It was Saturday—the Saturday I had been waiting for. My parents would be away for the weekend and my brother, Richard, was staying at a friend’s. Our apartment would be deserted, so there would be no one there to interfere with my plan.
At six o’clock,
