The Guardian

 

The Guardian

     She was three months pregnant, starving and physically exhausted with the battle of living a life that was day after day an uphill battle to keep her head above water. The credit cards bills that she had used to simply get by were enormous and she had continually robbed Peter to pay Paul. She could not figure a way out, she had no true friends to help her, no parents to bail her out and no spouse or boyfriend for moral support. To top it all off her druggie boyfriend of the past five months took all of her remaining cash and he ditched her by simply disappearing off the face of the planet. She had been evicted from her rented room because she could not pay the upcoming rent and had been living in the streets for weeks. She had tried begging for money but people avoided her in her bedraggled state. She could not bring herself to prostitute out her body in fact, she thought she’d rather die first than to degrade herself in such a manner. Now in the months to come, she would still be in the same predicament with an added person to take care of and be responsible for. Her last job had fizzled out when the business had gone under. Finding a decent job was impossible because of her lack of employment skills and no one was hiring since times were tough for everyone in this recession.

    She sat on the curb and began crying in abject despair her inner light was at its absolute dimmest. People passed her on the sidewalk, not a one of them seemed the slightest bit concerned why a nineteen year old girl would be sitting on the curb crying her eyes out as dirty water ran over her feet from the flooded streets into the sewer. She didn’t even care as she was contemplating killing herself. She pulled a box cutter knife from her back pack which contained the last of her earthly possessions and placed the point against her skin. How could she raise another human being when she wasn’t even capable of taking care of herself and she wasn’t even worthy of living herself? No one would even notice if she bled to death there on the sidewalk! She drew the knife across the flesh of wrist pressing firmly with the intent to slice open her vein. Nothing happened. The knife was so dull that it was completely useless! She could not even successfully kill herself, so she flung the knife out into the street. As she took the final steps toward the bottom of her despair she made up her mind to step out into the street in front of a car or a bus. She attempted to stand wobbling unsteadily on her feet as a wave of dizziness engulfed her. As she considered her new found focus to step in front of the next vehicle she stared down the empty street for the right opportunity to present itself to her. As soon as the light changed she would step into the front of the garbage truck that was first in line at the light. It was perfect because she was the trash that needed taken out.

     Suddenly a hand grasp her arm gently and she dropped her gaze to the ground while the owner of the hand guided her away from the street. When she raised her eyes to see who had taken her hand and guided her away from the street all she saw at first was the purest pillar of light in the place of a human being. The light made her feel safe and loved. She blinked and there before her was a bent old man with gray hair smiling at her. The old man offered to buy her breakfast and walked with her to a nearby diner. As they ate the man asked her to tell why she had been so close to taking her life. The girl explained her predicament to him as he listened carefully allowing her to feel her grief and pain while she cried. When the girl finished the old man smiled and told the girl that God had sent the girl to help him in his time of need. She was puzzled so he explained to the girl his current predicament of being alone and diagnosed with cancer. He asked the young girl to live with him if she would help with things as he grew weaker. The young girl agreed and thought it would only be a temporary fix to her problem, but at least she could carry her baby to term and give the child away for adoption so that she would not be responsible for taking another person’s life. She spent nearly a year with the man caring for him in his modest home. As time went by her despair left her and she became the young woman she was meant to be. In the months to come peace filled her heart as she focused on his care, administering his medications, fixing his meals and cleaning his house. She had her baby there during that year and the old man loved holding and watching the baby girl. She cared for the old man as he grew weaker doing all she could to make his last days on Earth those of peace and joy. The baby brought joy to his eyes every time he looked upon the child and the young woman grew to love the old man as if he had been her own father.

      One night just weeks before her year’s anniversary of being saved from her despair, the old man passed away. The young woman cried with the grief of losing a loved one. She contacted his lawyer as he had left her a note telling her that his lawyer would take care of all the funeral arrangements. She decided to stay at the house through the funeral knowing afterwards she would be in the streets. No one attended the funeral except the girl, her baby, a priest and a lawyer. After the funeral the lawyer came to her and told her she needed to hear what the man’s will said. She went with the lawyer to his office and he read the old man’s will aloud to her. She was shocked as the old man had left her the house and millions of dollars. It was more than enough money for her to live comfortably for the rest of her life, so much more that she decided to open a shelter for young people who were in a predicament similar to the one she had once been in. The shelter offered rooms, jobs, food and schooling to give the people skills to become guardians to others. The torch had been passed from one guardian to another. The girl had turned into a young woman that walked the streets with her angel child looking for other great beings of light that knew not what they were. Whenever she found them, her own light shone its brightest.