A long time ago there was a very good guy driving on a mountain road. Now this good guy was a very very good guy. He was driving home from a charity dinner where he had been the keynote speaker. He had been talking about some of his latest ventures including but not limited to opening schools in the middle east for girls to receive an education and hopefully shape the world into a better place, providing clean drinking water to African villages as well as medication and medical training to the inhabitants to eradicate diseases and raise the quality of life, teaching farmers in South America new irrigation techniques as well as helping to provide them with the latest in farming technology so that they could produce more, and rebuilding Detroit by providing new educational avenues for the children of Detroit. He was on his way to the airport where he was going to fly to Washington DC to attend a conference on education where he was going to announce his newest plans to revitalize American education and bring equality to all through education.
Driving in the opposite direction on this mountain road was a bad guy. Now this bad guy was a very bad guy. He was running away from the police because he was wanted for a bank robbery where he had stolen over a million dollars from the vault. He had stolen the car he was in by forcing a family with a small child out of the car at gun point. During the robbery he had shot at least one person in the bank. He was working on several scams stealing money from retired and disabled people. He also had stolen the identities of several people and taken all their money bankrupting them. He pretended to be an investor and had stolen the retirement of many many people. And had also set up a fake charity and funneled the money donated by good hearted people to a secret account in the Cayman Islands.
Now this road they were driving on was a winding road as it went up and down the mountain. It was also very narrow with only one lane in each direction. On one side was the rough mountain rock and on the other side was a huge drop. To make this road even more dangerous it was a very dark and rainy night. Now normally on this road you couldn't see very far in front of you. With the heavy rain visibility was even worse. On this particular night you could hardly see the front of the car.
Now the good guy, who was also well known for his work bringing urban gardening to poor neighborhoods, was driving very carefully down the mountain. He had on his fog lights to help provide more light and had his hazard lights blinking to warn travelers behind and in front of him. He had lowered his speed to account for the weather and hazardous condition. The bad guy, who was suspected in a number of robberies of small businesses, was speeding up the mountain crossing in and out of his lane as he made the sharp turns.
As the good guy, who had once saved 15 people from a burning building by running in and leading them to safety with no thought of himself, came to a sharp turn he honked his horn as a warning before proceeding slowly forward. The bad guy, who committed numerous counts of insurance fraud, raised around the same curve crossing into the good guy's lane and the two cars crashed.
A few moments later the bad guy slowly opened his eyes. At first he felt shocked that he had survived the crash. But then he saw a golden stair case descending from the sky right to the good guy's wrecked car. An angel walked down the steps and when she reached the good guy she said "Here is the pass to Heaven. Take this up the steps and give it to St. Peter and he will open the gate for you."
The good guy took the pass and thanked the angel and then started up the steps. He looked back and saw the angel had vanished and then continued. The bad guy walked over to the steps and watched the good guy climbing up. He paused for a moment before looking back up the steps. The angel didn't give him a pass to Heaven and there was no way he was going to settle for Hell. So he jogged up the steps after the good guy.
"Hey wait." Said the bad guy as he walked up next to the good guy. "Look I saw the angel give you a pass but the angel didn't give me one. Look all I'm asking for is a second chance. I'm not a bad guy. I am just misunderstood, my entire life has been that way. My father was never around and my mother was busy with my 15 other siblings. I basically raised myself. And so it's not that I was bad I just didn't know any better. I was always picked on in school and was bullied. But when I tried to stand up for myself I got suspended for fighting and then from then on I always got in trouble even when I didn't do anything because I had a record."
The good guy listened and being a good guy he believed in giving people second chances so he ripped off a piece of the pass. "I don't know if this will help you but here is a piece of the pass." Then he continued on his way.
The bad guy looked at the piece of the pass in his hand and then looked back at the good guy going up the stairs. He was worried that just the bit he had wouldn't be enough so he jogged to the good guy again.
"Hey, I mean no one has ever ever tried to help me before. I have always felt looked down on like people thought they were better than me. People would see me and walk away or go inside. My teachers and bosses were always nasty to me and talked down to me like I was an idiot. I got framed for a crime I didn't commit and my lawyer was in on it. Then I always got harassed because of my criminal record and all I ever wanted was a friend, someone I could trust who would help me when I needed it."
The good guy listened carefully to the story and then looked down at the pass in his hand. He ripped off another piece of the pass and handed it to the bad guy. "I hope this is what you need." Said the good guy.
The bad guy looked at the 2/3 of the pass he was holding and the 1/3 the good guy had in his hand. "Later idiot." Called the bad guy as he jogged up the steps to the Golden Gate.
"Hey. you're Peter, right? Here is my pass." Said the bad guy as he held up the pieces of pass. St. Peter looked at it.
"Well that says you can't enter." Said St. Peter. Then the good guy walked up and showed St. Peter the remaining piece of pass.
"Thank you very much." Said St. Peter as the gate opened. "Please enter heaven." The good guy smiled and went through the gate which closed behind him. The bad guy stared in disbelief.
"Wait that isn't fair. I had more of the pass than he did. Why didn't you let me in?"
"It's not up to me." Said St. Peter "I just do as the pass directs. Let me show you." Then he began to open the bad guy's pass.
"And just in case you have anymore questions let me also show you the other pass."
"Which clearly says he goes right in."
THE END
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