The Cabin
What you're about to read might seem like fiction, and it’s actually part of my upcoming book, the sequel to The Lucky One. But as you already know, all of my stories are rooted in real-life experiences—things that have truly happened to me...
He stood in front of an old log cabin in the middle of a clearing in the woods without a clue as to how he got there. Looking up through the trees the sky was cloudy like it was going to rain. Smoke curled out of the stone chimney, moss on the roof and on one side of the trees told him one direction should be south, but right then, he really didn’t care.
The cabin must have been at least a hundred years old. Looking around, the smell of pine trees was pleasant along with a whiff of wood smoke, a gentle breeze ruffled his hair, he was neither hot nor cold. He took a deep breath and thought ‘this isn’t so bad.’
Knowing he was expected, he climbed the short stairs to the creaky porch and turned the glass knob on the old wooden door. The inside was warm from the fireplace to one side of the room, the only furniture was a large wooden desk behind which sat an old man with long white hair and a matching long beard, he was wearing white robes.
“Ah, right on time, come in,” said the old man with a friendly smile.
“Why am I here?”
“Oh, didn’t they tell you? You’re dead.”
“Yeah, yeah, I figured that out at the other place. But there it was all white and foggy, what am I doing here in the woods, in this cabin?”
“Well, this is my office, and I get to have it anyway I want, don’t you like it?”
“Yeah, sure it’s great I guess, so why am I here?”
“So impatient… you have all the time in the world now, you know.”
“Right… and who are you? Are you God?”
“No, but I used to be an airline pilot.”
“Isn’t this heaven? I was expecting some pearly gates or something.”
The old man scoffed, “Heaven? No, sorry, at least not yet. You’re going to have to earn it if you want to go there.”
“Earn it? What, I can’t just be let in?”
“After the life you’ve lived? Did you really think it was going to be that easy?”
“Well, I was hoping… I wasn’t that bad, was I?”
“If you’d been ‘that bad,’ you wouldn’t have gotten this far.”
“Okay, so what do I have to do?”
“Why… you have to earn your wings of course. You have to be a full-fledged angel to get past here, we don’t just let anyone in you know.”
“And how do I do that?”
“You have to look after someone on earth and keep him out of trouble and danger… Keep him alive.”
“I have to keep someone else safe? Why didn’t I have someone doing that for me?”
His bushy eyebrows curled downward, and the friendly smile left his face, “You did! It didn’t do much good though.”
“Oh… Well… So, at least I’m not in that other place.”
“Not yet,” he said matter of factly.
“Okay… So, do I have to watch over some little kid or something?”
“If it were only that easy. We picked you specially for this assignment because you were such a problem for us.”
“I was?”
“You know you were!” There was that frown again.
Even though the room was not hot, he felt like he was starting to sweat. The crackling flames from the fireplace sounded louder than before.
“Okay, well, I’m here now, just tell me what I gotta do? Who’s my assignment?”
“It’s not an easy one, like you, he has been quite a problem, two of his apprentice angels have already quit, that’s why we chose you.”
“A problem… what is he, a serial killer or something?”
“Of course not, that would be easy, a one-way elevator ride down. No, he’s a lot like you were, motorcycles, guns, airplanes, we’ve had a hell… I mean a hard time keeping him alive.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad, but why is he special? Why go to this effort?”
“That’s not my department, but let’s just say someone upstairs has plans for him.”
“And I didn’t qualify for that?”
“Uhhh… No!”
Shaking his head, the prospective angel asked, “So, what happens if I fail?”
“Don’t.”
“But… if it doesn’t work out… you wouldn’t send me down there, would you?”
“No, worse, we’ll send you back to be reborn.”
Big sigh… “Alright, so, what’s this idiot’s name?”
“Dale Arenson.”
