If there were to be five terrible days in my life, I would not die on this one. In her inimitable way, however, Weena has pointed out than an exemption from death this September did not rule out severed limbs, mutilation, paralysis, and brain damage. Neither could I rule out the death of someone else. Someone dear to me. My father, my mother, my grandmother… If this were to be a terrible day because one of them would suffer a painful and violent death that would haunt me for the rest of my life, then I might wish that I had been the one to die.
— Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz
