The Colorado sun rose over the mountains, almost kissing the rocks. The peaceful gravel parking lot secluded in the mountains was filled with only one vehicle, a van. “What is it boy?” I rolled over and looked at my phone, 6:38 it read. Roscoe, my black lab, had awoken me. He needed to go outside to relieve himself. As I rolled over and slipped my slippers on I couldn’t help but notice that the sunrise was so extraordinary that I had to capture it. Grabbing my Nikon camera I took off the front lens cap and snapped four quick photos. What a wonderful way to wake up. The door to my 1979, lime green, VW campmobile bus creaked when I got out but it was nothing new. Roscoe took off for the quickest tree he could find, I decided to take in the view. What a wonderful life.
It had been eight years since Roscoe and I had began living in the VW. I was a wealthy stock broker in New York and had made quite a lot of money but as the saying goes, money is the root of all evil and I began to spend my money unwisely. One thing led to another and I found myself broke.  I got into drugs and even overdosed on painkillers and ended up in the hospital for some time. My ER nurse told me I shouldn’t be alive. After some time I finally got my act together and cleaned myself up. I got back into stocks but I wanted this time to be different. I invested the clean money that I earned into up and coming companies and turned a decent profit. I wanted to rid myself of all my previous temptations so I bought Roscoe and the VW bus and decided to head out and travel the United States. I had made enough money from my stock profit and I was spending so little money living in the van that a couple of years into my travels I decided to go off the grid and totally disconnect myself from the outside world. To be honest, it has been quite nice.
Roscoe and I visited everywhere we could think of, the VW bus did a nice job chugging along to get us there. For the first couple years we stayed in the backcountry of the east coast. The beauty and majesty of the Appalachian Mountains took me by surprise. It made me sit back and question how I could have been so consumed and caught up in what I did for a living. I wasn’t put on this earth just to sit at a desk and make phone calls to clients and hope that they would invest in my company’s stock. There was so much more out there and I had been blinded by my profession. That’s when I vowed to travel the United States and explore what it had to offer. I also wanted to help whoever I came across, and learn to be a down to earth and genuine person. I had wasted so much of my life on unimportant stuff but there was still a chance for me to turn things around.
Roscoe and I then trekked from the mountains of the east coast to the dusty towns of the south. I recall in West El Paso, Texas, I was filling the bus up with gas at an old gas station. When I went in to pay for the service I was met by an old and weathered man. He was hunched over the counter and seemed to be sobbing. It occurred to me that this was obviously the owner of the place so I curiously asked him what the matter was. “No one ever comes out to my gas station anymore because of the new strip mall they built twenty miles down the road. I have no customers and am not able to pay the rent this month, I’ll go broke!” he exclaimed with tears in his eyes.
“If I pay the remaining amount on your bill this month you can sell the place and move on with your life” I suggested to the old man.
“Oh thank you sir, you have answered my prayers, I do not know what I would do without you!”
The next couple years of my life repeated in a similar cycle. I would find people who needed help and I would try and assist them any way I could, and since money was no issue for me I was able to help out in multiple ways.
The view from the secluded, gravel parking lot was one of the best views I had ever come across. It was three quarters the way up a mountain and nestled among a plethora of pine trees. Suddenly a twig snapped behind me. A blinding light shone behind me and I fell to my knees. What could this be? And in the blink of an eye everything went black.
“We have been waiting for you Frank.”
“Who… who are you? Where am? What happened?”
“Do not be alarmed you are in no danger.” The voice sounded familiar, like something from a dream. It was a man’s voice, deep and soothing, it was almost as if I had known the person for my entire life. “Frank you have been good to us, I knew you had it in you. You have, with my help, single handedly changed the course of many peoples’ lives for the better.”
“I am so lost and confused, I don’t understand.” I still couldn’t see, all I could hear was the voice.
“You were chosen for a purpose, your path to destruction led you on a path of righteousness and forgiveness. You might say your life had a greater purpose than that in which you thought it was originally intended for. Frank, I am proud to know you.”
And then at that moment I understood. The night I overdosed on painkillers in the New York hospital, I was never released. I was never made well. I had died. To some extent I had become an angel, guiding people on the right path and helping others. It all made sense now. At that very moment my vision was restored and in front of me stood a man in a white robe, with all the light in universe shining behind him. “We’ll be in touch Frank.” He said with a warm smile.