A Second Chance

It was a dark, quiet night. There were a couple of people walking about. For the most part, everyone was at home with their families. He was walking aimlessly now, for two hours. His life had little meaning for him anymore. He knew hope once. After he had lost his job, everything else seemed to fall apart. Shortly after, his parents died, his wife left him and took the kids. He was now left with himself and his new friend, the bottle in his new home, the street. He had been drinking all night as he walked about the darkened city until he found himself, slowly descending a set of stairs. He didn’t know where the stairs went. All he knew was that they would get him off the street for the night. When he reached the bottom, he looked about until his eyes focussed. Then he realized he was in the subway station. He leaned against the wall of the subway for a long while, drinking the rest of the liquid in the bottle. He haphazardly tossed the bottle from his grip. In his ears, he could hear the echoing of breaking glass. He thought nothing of it. His vision was heavily blurred then but he could make out several figures. He paid no attention to them. He walked toward something that looked like a dark pit. Then, hearing the sound of the train coming, he remembered where he was. He huffed and stepped off the ledge and into the darkened pit. He hurt himself badly and he went unconscious for a moment until, waking, he felt hands under his arms and a sudden burst as though he had been thrown. His vision cleared a little until he realized what had happened. He had fallen onto the tracks when somebody had followed him and helped him up. Sobering a little, he turned about to see the person who had helped him struggling to get out. The train was coming. With a burst of adrenaline, as though he had not been drinking at all, he jumped up and grabbed the savior’s hands and lifted him to safety seconds before the train would have struck him. He looked about and saw that there was no one else on the platform. Slowly, this man dropped to his knees and fell asleep on the platform. When he woke, he was in a bed. The savior was a young man with short hair and big brown eyes. “Rest,” he said. “In the morning, everything will be better.” That evening, the man pondered his past life, how he had felt indestructible, how he had felt like nothing could change from the positive state he was in. Now, all he wanted was to know that somebody cared. He only wanted to know that there were good people in the world. In the morning, he woke to find his savior’s house empty. There was a note that said that he would return that evening. He was shocked at the trust this young man had almost blindly placed in him. The note ended with the words, “Sometimes, we all need second chances. All we need is love.” - From my Book Fables of Good Will.