The Answer

The full moon sprinkled diamonds across the inky reservoir.  The cool, crisp November air chilled a lone figure as she drank her coffee and admired the view.  A big, yellow dog soon joined her. He wagged his tail and began barking joyously.  His voice echoed across the lake and the silence of the countryside soon shattered into a million pieces.  Pink hues appeared on the eastern horizon. Like the Biblical camel, the sun’s rays snuck their nose under the night’s tent.

A new day was here.

Vapors from her cup of coffee danced a mystical dance into the sky.  Piper McDaniel took a sip and looked down at her dog Lincoln.  “Lincoln, what do you think today will bring us?”

Lincoln looked up at his master with a goofy grin.

“Joy?” then let’s make it so.

Lincoln had really thought, “Food.” But Piper’s dog language skills were as bad as Lincoln’s English.

But it would be a joyful day. Every day was joyful for Piper.  A chance decision to catch a later flight six months ago had kept her off a doomed airliner.  Three coworkers had perished in the crash of AirNorth Flight 230.  Piper hadn’t been the same since.

Gone were her procrastinating ways.  She began to live in the moment. Complaints? No more.  She never criticized either.  Positive suggestions became her style.  She spoke her mind. She was a woman of action.

Lincoln saw a rabbit and took off across the field.  Piper took another sip.  “Why am I still alive?”

Every morning she came here and asked the same question. And every morning the sun and moon exchanged positions without giving her an answer.

Moses had it easy. He at least had a burning bush.

Piper took the last sip off coffee and called Lincoln. She had to get to work.

“Good morning, Piper.”  Her boss smiled as he passed her cubicle in the giant office building downtown.

“Morning, Steve. I’ll have that project on your desk later today.”

“I didn’t need it until tomorrow.”

“That’s OK. You know me, I don’t like to procrastinate.”

Steve looked into Piper’s eyes and noticed them tear up.  It had been six months since the plane crash.  He knew that she was still walking on emotional eggs.  “I know it will be excellent as usual.”

Steve walked down the hall and into a conference room. The 9 a.m. meeting had begun.

Layoffs had left the building empty. The once powerful company was like a museum battleship — There were hints of its former glory, but they were few and far between.  Piper headed around the corner heard what sounded like a loud firecracker.  And then what followed made her blood chill

She heard a scream.

She rushed back toward her desk and ducked down.  There, standing 25 feet from her was a middle-aged man with a gun.  On the ground was an administrative assistant in a pool of crimson blood.  Piper grabbed her cellphone and texted her friend, “Call 911. We have a shooter in the building.”

The shooter was roaming around the roam like a pacing cat.  He’d spot someone under a desk and open fire.  Another shot. Another scream.  Piper felt the terror paralyze her.  But then she realized that she was in a part of the building where she could not be seen.

“OK,” she thought. “I am safe.”

But safe wasn’t good enough for Piper McDaniel.  She looked around the office for something to stop the crazed man.   A red sign hanging from the ceiling gave her the best option.

The gunman began ranting about her boss.  Piper recognized his face as a man who had been laid off last year.  The Great Recession has destroyed so many lives. And now this man was taking it out on the wrong people.  “I hope Steve keeps his head down,” she thought as she opened up the door.  She could hear the gunman’s breathing and footsteps as he approached.  He began to chant, “Stevie! Come out and play Stevie!  I’ve got a surprise for you….”

Three. Two. One.

As the gunman walked around the corner, the fire extinguisher’s chemical spray hit him squarely in the face. In an effort to protect it, the gunman threw his hands up — and dropped his gun.  Piper ran and kicked it as hard as she could. It slid across the room as the gunman tackled her.   He started hitting her face as hard as he could with his fists.  She began to blackout from the pain when she heard one more gunshot.

The gunman fell to the ground in pain.

Standing above her was her boss, holding the gun.

“You’re my hero,” he said with a grin.  As blood flowed out of Piper’s nose, she began to cry.

The next morning, the full moon once again sprinkled diamonds across the reservoir. Lincoln ran up to her as she read the local paper.

“HERO STOPS OFFICE SHOOTING. SAVES DOZENS OF LIVES.”

There was a picture of her on the front page, black eyes, broken nose and all.

Piper McDaniel watched as the eastern sky began to glow.  She took another sip of her coffee and asked one last time: “Why am I here?”

She looked down at the paper and finally got her answer.