When Mom Wants Me to Join Her in Death

"After my mom, Margaret Hale, dies of a heart attack, she starts appearing in my sister Claire Dawson's dreams.In a dream, Mom tells Claire to climb Mount Mistwood before sunrise and burn the entrance ticket for her, or the other ghosts will bully her.Claire doesn't tell me anything. She packs a bag in the middle of the night and forces herself to the summit.While she's gasping her way up that mountain, I'm asleep at home when I suddenly go into cardiac arrest. I wake up in the emergency room with doctors shouting over me.I barely survive before Mom appears in Claire's dreams again.This time, she says skydiving is her last wish. If Claire doesn't do it for her, she won't rest in peace.Claire signs up right away, ignoring everything I say. But then, her parachute refuses to open, and she plummets toward the ground. Luckily, she gets snagged in a tree and walks away without a scratch.Meanwhile, I miss a step going downstairs, tumble to the bottom, end up covered in bruises, and break five ribs.While I'm recovering in the hospital, Mom shows up in Claire's dreams again.Now, she wants Claire to go to the South Pole for her, saying she can finally move on and be reincarnated once Claire completes the trip.Claire doesn't hesitate and books a tour on the spot.While she's taking pictures with penguins, I freeze to death back home during a 104-degree heatwave.Only after I die does it finally hit me that Mom's missions for Claire always end with me on death's doorstep.What I don't understand is how Mom keeps shifting the danger meant for Claire onto me instead.The next time I open my eyes, I'm back on the morning after Mom first appeared in Claire's dream."