Invisible Sun

Jonas, bewildered, stepped out into the cold, rainy night. With no hat and no umbrella, the rain immediately soaked through his jacket and his sneakers and ran down his face. But he didn’t care. He wasn’t really there. He was lost. His heart had gone cold and the light had gone out of his soul. As he walked, his eyes numbly followed the sidewalk in front of him, and he was totally unaware of the cars hissing by. It was a busy road, one of the major thoroughfares cutting through the city, but Jonas wasn’t  aware of any of it, for he was dead inside.

Most people described Jonas as a happy, optimistic guy, who was pleasant to be around. But today all that optimism was gone, all of his plans had run their course, and he was left with nothing.

Earlier that day he had been fired from his job, and his world had ended. He was a pharmacist, and an elderly woman came in to pick up her new prescription. She was desperately poor, and didn’t have quite enough for the $100 bottle of pills that she needed to stay alive. She had no insurance and no family, and when she realized she didn’t have enough money for the pills she pleaded with Jonas.

“I’m sorry I don’t have the money for these, but without them I’m going to die.” she said.

Jonas tried to be forceful, but looking into her eyes he got all choaked up and just gave her the bottle. Because of Jonas, this old woman was going to live a while longer. Unfortunately, the company didn’t see it that way. And this wasn’t the first time he had given away medicine to people with no money. So they fired him.

This wasn’t the first job Jonas had been fired from because of his big heart either. He realized that no one was going to hire him after this, that this was probably the last straw on his career.

And that wasn’t the worst of it. Jonas and his fiancé Mia had been engaged to be married for five years. Mia was fine with getting married earlier, but Jonas wanted them to be able to buy a house before they got married. They were currently living in a cheap rental house, but they had been saving and saving, and now they were only $20,000 away from having enough to do it. With the loss of his job, all their savings would now have to be used for survival instead. He was devastated, and afraid Mia was now going to see him as a loser. Surely she would not want to marry him now. Jonas was going to lose the love of his life and all their plans together would vanish.

This was all too much for Jonas and the light inside him went out. As he walked blindly through the cold wet night there was nothing inside him. He couldn’t feel his legs, had no awareness of his hands and arms, or of his sad wet face in the cold rain. A few blocks further Jonas came to the ship canal bridge, which spanned two hills high over the canal. He walked a hundred yards to the middle of the bridge, climbed over the railing, and stood on top of a concrete support. He stared down at the blackness of the water 200 feet down and held on to a railing with one hand.

***

Gabriel was an angel, and he had been watching Jonas. He knew Jonas was a good man, that his light shown bright, and that losing him would be a tragedy. He climbed over the railing and stood with Jonas. Angels are invisible to humans, but angels can put thoughts and ideas into the minds of humans. They save people by giving hopeful feelings to those whose hearts have been taken over with sadness and doubt. Gabriel stood close to Jonas and whispered in his ear.

“Mia loves you and would happily marry you even without a house. Go home now and she will greet you with open arms. She’ll stick with you through thick and thin – she loves you.”

Jonas closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“That’s it, think about all the people you love and how much you mean to them,” Gabriel said.

But to his alarm, Jonas let go his hand and stood unsupported, wavering at the edge of the abyss. Gabriel was losing him. “Jonas, don’t give up on your dreams; you have a bright future ahead of you; there is no one like you; you are special; you are unique; and the world needs more kind-hearted people like you. Your light shines brightly on everyone in your life.” he said.

But Jonas just stood there in the darkness and rain, motionless, two inches from oblivion. Gabriel was not getting through to Jonas and he started to panic. Suddenly, he shouted the first thing to come to his mind, “There’s a bag on your front steps with twenty thousand dollars in it!”

This was a total lie, but Jonas suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed ahold of the railing, with a very puzzled look on his face.

Surprised, Gabriel continued. “Yes! And you didn’t actually lose your job either! The old woman you gave free medicine came in later with the money. So you’re not fired! Yes, not only are you not fired, your company is honoring you with a promotion and a nice big raise! Mia is so proud of you she’s thrown a party for you and all of your best friends are at your house right now waiting for you!” Gabriel couldn’t believe what he was saying, all of it was lies. But it worked!

Jonas snapped out of his fog, quickly climbed back over the railing to the safety of the sidewalk, and started walking toward home. Gabriel followed. But as Jonas’ mood lightened, Gabriel became more and more distressed. Why had he told Jonas all those lies? He’d never done that before. As soon as Jonas gets home he would see that none of it was true. What then? Gabriel was beside himself in moral agony. He walked along invisibly with Jonas and grew more and more worried with every step.

A few minutes later they approached Jonas’ house. As they got closer they could see that lights were on and there were a bunch of people inside. Gabriel stopped and stared in astonishment. Jonas walked up the steps and found a duffle bag next to the door. He opened the door and was immediately pulled into a warm embrace by Mia. Gabriel watched in awe as Jonas went inside with all of his friends. Somehow every lie he had told Jonas had come true.

It seemed that someone was looking out for Gabriel.