As his world crumbled around him, Gary Brandon couldn’t help but notice the taste of gun oil. He sat alone in his one-room apartment twitching the .38’s trigger. One pull. That’s all it would take to end his pain. One pull. Just one pull. He felt the muscles in his finger tighten on the steel. One pull.
But something stopped him.
Gary exhaled and thought about everything that had led him here. His wife had left him. She had cheated on him but the courts gave her the kids anyway. That had left him broke. Then he lost his job. Insult always follows injury.
How had he fallen so fast? Just a year ago, he was the top television meteorologist in town. Now he was broke and licking a gun barrel.
“Go ahead and pull the trigger. I always knew you were weak.”
Gary’s head swiveled around. Nothing. No one. Where had the voice come from?
“C’mon, you puss. Pull it. Put you out of my misery.”
Gary had heard the voice before. He searched his memory and uttered, “Naw. Couldn’t be.”
But it was. A ghostly specter came limping out of the darkness.
“Yep. I’m your guarding angel. #$%#$ imagine that.”
” But I thought you were in Hell.” Gary spat. He immediately recognized the wrinkled face. It was his high school offensive coordinator.
“What? No hug?”
“You’re dead. You died of a heart attack years ago.”
Gary’s old coach, sighed, “And for some reason, I’m now standing here. So you going to do it? You going to quit?”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You tried to make me quit before.”
“And you did.”
Gary put the gun down and screamed, “BULL@#$!!. I stuck with your abuse.”
“But you stopped giving your full effort. You felt sorry for yourself. Just like you’re doing now.”
“I’M IN PAIN!!!!” Gary screamed.
The old coach spit and looked at his former star quarterback. “So you’re going to give that pain to your kids?”
Gary’s mouth opened. No sound came out.
“It wasn’t personal with you kid. I was getting back at your dad. Yeah. There it is. I’ll admit it, now.”
“You jerk.” Gary said.
The coach smiled, “Yeah. But it was fun watching him suffer when I benched you. So, you going to quit again? Or you going to fight this?”
“Why are you here? If I was going to get a guardian angel, why not someone who gives a damn about me?”
“Because the Boss knew you’d respond to me. And I’ll be honest, I’ve watched you grow up. You’ve kicked butt several times when faced with challenges. I am a little reluctant to say this, but I even have a little bit of respect for you. Didn’t see that coming.
But if you pull that trigger, you’ll be the quitter I always thought you were.”
Gary looked at the gun and then at his old coach.
“Kid, you still have fight in you. You’re still in the game. Breathe. In and out. Take a step and then another one. You have the rest of eternity to be where I am.”
Gary emptied the bullets out the gun and threw it across the room.
He then looked at the old coach and something amazing happened. His gray complexion began to glow. And as the room lit with a blazing white light, he changed into a ten-foot angel.
“You are a blessed man, Gary Brandon. Never forget that. I’ll always be your coach.”
Then the room went dark and Gary was alone.