Driving the Heart by Jason Brown

I just love the tempo of this story. Mr Brown combines narrative with little dialogue to, in great detail, encompass the organ donor's delivery person's job. Not only are some of the little known facts of what the job entails but there are also the deeper, more powerfully moving aspects of the job that the narrator is trying to teach his young trainee.

"We're the only choice they have for reaching a small town in an out-of-the-way place. Cellular phone service is out and in many places the power is out, but most of the regular pay phones still work. We stop every hour at designated places and call the hospital to make sure the patient in Lebanon is still alive . . . This heart, however, is getting old . . . Hearts are packed in ice. But even a frozen heart will last for only twenty-four hours on the outside, unofficially."

The ending to this story is bitter sweet...