Here is the quote from Dead Beat where Malcolm and Harry talk about "death curse" that supposedly Cassius put on Harry.
page 420, Dead Beat, paperback Bolding mine.
Harry is looking down at what it says on the grave stone Bianca had given him.
He died doing the right thing," my father read.
"Maybe I should change it to,'he died alone,'I said.
My father smiled a little."Thinking of the death curse, eh?"
"Yeah. 'Die alone.'" I stared down at my open grave. "Maybe it means I'll never be with anybody. Have love. A wife. Children. No one who is really close. Really there.
"Maybe," my father said. "What do you think?"
"I think that's what he wanted to do to me. I think I'm so tired that I'm hallucinating. And that I hurt. And that I want someone to be holding my hand when it is my time. I don't want to do it alone."
"Harry," my father said, and his voice was very gentle, "can I tell you something?"
"Sure."
He walked around the grave and put his hand on my shoulder.
"Son. Everyone dies alone. that's what it is. It is a door. It's one person wide. When you go through it, you do it alone."His fingers squeezed me tight. "But it doesn't mean you've got to be alone before you go through that door. And believe me, you aren't alone on the other side."
I frowned and looked up at my father's image, searching his eyes."Really?"
He smiled and drew his finger in an X on his chest. "Cross my heart."
I looked away from him. "I did things. I made a deal I shouldn't have made. I crossed a line."
"I know," he said. "It only means what you decide it means."
I looked up at him. "What?"
"Harry, life isn't simple. There is such a thing as black and white. Right and wrong. But when you are in the thick of things it is hard to tell."
So what was Malcolm trying to tell Harry exactly? Death is a door, one one person goes through it at a time, alone... But that doesn't mean he has to be alone
before he goes through.. Does that mean when he actually dies, he has to have someone with him holding his hand? Or does it mean being loved as we go through life? Harry has had love, not just Murphy, but Susan, he is loved, he has children, he has friends, he has never been truly alone in life no matter how many loved ones he has lost. Malcolm also tells him he won't be alone on the other side as we saw in Ghost Story, indeed not.. Malcolm finally tells him the curse only means,
"what he thinks it means." In other words Harry can get all worked up and be afraid about something that really is only in his own head and not a real curse.. Yes, sad and tragic that Murphy and Susan died, but he knew their love, so is it a real curse because they died first?
I will leave you with a line from a love song from an old movie called, "The Rains Came." It talks about dying, then finishes with, "but in your heart my love has found a home, and it can never die..." In Harry's heart Murphy's love has found a home, it can never die, thus he will not die alone...
Cassius wasn't the brightest penny in the purse, he didn't think things through, he actually thought that Nic would take him back and give him another coin after he gave his up in surrender to Michael and Sanya. He was now swiftly growing old, unlike Harry, he had no loved ones in his life, he was going to die soon, and very much alone... So he cursed Harry with his own pain, the thought of dying alone. But in Harry's case, as long as he is loved, he will never truly be alone. What under scores this is what Harry says on the top of the next page.. 421 Dead Beat paper back version.
"As long as you believe you are responsible for your choices, you still are. You've got a good heart son. Listen to it.
He vanished into the night, and somewhere in the city, bells started tolling midnight.
I stared at my waiting grave, and I suddenly realized that death was not really my biggest worry.
He died doing the right thing.
God, I hope so.
