The Second Chance

A recent divorced man was down on his luck, with his ex-wife threatening to take him to court for custody of the kids. Not living the best life he could, he was always behind on his rent. Occasionally late from work which ultimately led up to him getting fired one day, so upon receiving the pink slip from his job. On his way home he got a flat tire, so him yelling “Why me? Why me?” inside the car while repeatedly striking the steering wheel.

Then he got a knock on the window and it was a woman that stood on the other side of the door, so he rolled down the window and the woman asked him for some money for the bus. Even though he was going through what he was going through, still having a kind heart he reached into his pocket and pulled out his last $5. Handing it to the woman, and the woman said to him “God will bless you, just hold on a little longer”

As the woman disappeared from sight, he took a deep breath and got out the car. He changed the tire and continued on his way home, feeling a sense of failure as he reluctantly checks his messages. Just like any other time it was his ex-wife’s message to further dig the dagger of failure deeper inside him, as he erased the message… After a couple of days passed, he decided to go visit his mom. Smelling the good aroma of breakfast cooking as he entered her home, with a slight kiss on the cheek and a hug. He sat down at the kitchen table, his mom knowing he was feeling down hesitated to ask him for help.

But he insisted that she ask anyways, as she asked him to help her clean out her garage. With a box filled with stuff for goodwill and stuff for the trash can. He stumbled upon the book destine for goodwill and noticed a black book, being curious about the book feeling like he was drawn to this book. He took it not thinking his mom would mind, so after he leaves his mom’s place. He arrives back home and began reading what was written in this black book “Doing good is responsibility, doing nothing is a choice” It was something about reading those words enlightened something inside of him, so with his sense of enlightenment he decided to take a look at his life and began to see what could be changed versus what he couldn’t.

As he started doing things differently, things around him begin to change. Even though his bills were piling up, he still managed to push through holding on to the hope of what was said about this mysterious woman. Then one day realizing the mistakes in his life and taking things for granted, he decided to call his ex-wife and began to issue apologies. Ex-wife not buying into his sense of enlightenment still pushed for a court hearing, and denied him visitation for his kids. He was about to give up on everything, until he got a surprise check in the mail that would at least change the tide of things. So happy that his life was about to turn around as he cashed the check, the bank ended up getting robbed.

The bank robber trapped inside the building as police came, he talked to the robber and got the robber to confess why he was doing it. Being moved about the robber’s story, as the robber gave up and turned himself in. He decided to take his money and go help the robber, and standing in court waiting to see the judge. The judge walked in and to his surprise it was the mother of the robber, and she asked him “The money you gave to my son to help him out of his situation, you could have used that money to get you out of your situation, my question is why?” simply answering the judge “Why not? I wish I had somebody in my corner to help me, and money isn’t really going to fix my situation, it was only going to just prolong the enviable fact?” Judge asked “What’s that?” then he responded “I could have been a better father, a better husband, a better man, I treated them as if they were choices instead of responsibilities, and maybe things would be different”

The ex-wife seeing the sincerity in his voice, and she interrupted “What would you do different?” he looked at her with tears in his eyes “Love you more, laugh more, put you first, make you a priority instead of things to do on my list of chores” the judge being moved, says to the ex-wife “If you ask me I think that deserves a second chance” the ex-wife looking at him smiling “Yes he does, I do” They hugged, and without hesitation decided to get re-married… A week later on their first family outing was a trip to the goodwill store, he took the book to the manager.

An onlooker saw the book and approached them “I’ve been looking for that book forever, this book changed my life” him replying back “Yes, mines as well, so I figure somebody deserves that chance” the person responds with “Well my boss is willing to pay you the reward money for finding this book” intrigued he replied “Reward?” the person says reaching into her purse “Yes” pulling out a piece of paper with a reward for the finding of this book, and the reward was $20,000. She gave him the address, and they went to collect the money…