A Path

On the corner of a forgotten street a man began to pray, his prayers, in the silence, echoed, reaching every corner of the whole neighborhood. Yet it seemed his prayers went unheard. "Dear Lord," he cried into the night, "be you God or his son, listen to me, I beg, for I have fallen on hard times and those around me have deaf ears." Shaking he continued, "Here on my knees, I pray to the, in hopes my voice will not go unheard. I am no special child, but I beg for a savior." Tears began to stream down his face, " My child," he began with a shaky voice." My child has been taken, and with him his mother. My house has been burned to ashes, with it every memory of them. For days I have wandered the empty streets for every friend I had made has turned his back on me. In the truest sense I am alone."

As he finished his last word, it seemed to ring in the darkness, reinforcing his last thought. Succuming to his situation, he falls forward falling on his face. He closes his eyes wishing for death.

A man passing by strops at his feet and nudges the crumbled heap of a body on the ground. "Young sir," his old voice wheezes out, "have you lost your way?"

The man on the ground not wishing to be disturbed from his self pity does not answer. "Ah," says the old man, "I should have thought as much." He slowly takes a seat next to the fallen figure. "See, I heard you praying, and I couldn't help but come this way."

The thought of his voice being heard by someone stirs the now faithless man.

"Would you believe," begins the old man, "that I myself have gone to heaven, that I have seen those golden gates bathed in the purest light as well as what lies beyond." The question was rhetorical, he did not want an answer nor wait for one. "I was a young fellow like you, down to my last leg and searching for the truth. Well one day, as I sat in the back of a bus contemplating the ethics of life and what's beyond," he pauses for a slight moment, allowing his memory to settle back, as if it were the present. "I found the truth."

"We crashed, crashed right into another car; had a family of eight in it, don't know whose fault it was either. But we crashed, and they died. We all died." He stopped here for a moment to reflect on his next sentence, "That's how I know what it look like, and I know what's beyond."

The younger man begins to regain some of his composure, picking himself up off the cold cement of the curb. "Did you meet God?"

The old man wheezes out a small chuckle, "As if his holiness had time to see me, no I didn't meet him, but I met his angels. Nice folk, very fond of board games."

This set the young man aback and his eyes narrowed at the old man, "Are you making fun of me?"

At this the elder gentleman could not help but laugh, "Oh no. Ooh no, it's simply what my heaven was like."

At this the younger man's curiosity grew, "Your heaven?"

"Oh yes, yes. Mine. It's a funny thought, but it's true. It was my heaven, and I was told it was not my time for it yet." The old man slaps his lap lightly, "would you believe they sent me back! I woke up in a hospital bed surrounded by nurses, I was supposed to be dead."

"So this is how you know God is real?" The elder gentleman looks the younger man in the eyes, "Son I don't know if he is real, but I know there are angels and there are demons, and those angels, they think he is real. God, if there is a God, is sleeping. He left us to our own paths with a few bumps along the way. We chose our paths in the darkness, and in the end, it is up to us to see the light."

With this the older man stands and continues on his path.