Writercize challenge for Sunday October 9, 2011

writercize:  A man stands on a ledge in the middle of a bridge, balanced just so that he doesn't fall.  There are witnesses positioned nearby.  He has closed his eyes for a moment and raised his head slightly to the sky.

What is his story?  Who is he and why is he there?

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It's colder than he thought it would be standing here  between life an death. Jumping is the only way. Hope is gone and pain is in the future either way.  Pain from the icy cold river below since November in Michigan does not permit warmth in it's running waters, or pain from the cancer that was just diagnosed, stage three and likely to take his life in a few months or less. 

Looking down and thinking back he remembers the years of partying and laughing and never thinking far enough ahead to imagine his life coming to this choice. He remembers the one and only true love of his life. Her hair smelled like flowers when his nose brushed into it. Her eyes sparkled every time she said his name.

She was gone now. She had left him years ago when he began to think drinking with the boys was far more fun than raising a family.  A family he hardly knew. Three children had been born to them and he never took the time to know them. When she left with them, he didn't even bother to track them down.

He was alone in this world and he was not willing to linger in a hospital alone for weeks or months under pain medication just to say he was alive.  He had made many bad decisions in his lifetime and this was not one of them.

He hung his head momentarily and then raised his eyes to God and whispered, "Forgive me, for I have sinned through my whole life. I have to believe now that this final sin will be forgiven, for God, it really is my only choice. Amen"

He let go of the handrail and leaned forward.

He didn't fall.  He barely moved. His belt had caught on the loosened screw of the handrail behind him.  Just as he tried to free himself to continue his fall, another pair of hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him safely back onto the bridge.

He cried out loud and through his tears and sobs asked, "What are you doing? I don't want to live!"

He looked up then to see an illuminated face, the face of God. He then heard, "And I am not ready for you. Live. Maintain your balance for all the days of your life."

The face, the voice both gone now.  Complete and total silence. 

He began to walk and his mind began to clear. God was not ready for him and He had saved his sinner's soul. He would face whatever was ahead for him and cancer be damned, he would praise God for each breath he had left.

Jo