Your Fate or Mine?

This story is about fate and why sometimes it appears like it's a highway that we drive down without knowing where we're going.

We've all seen it happen before, right seat at the ball park you catch a home-run. Stand in the wrong place and maybe you get hit by lightning.

I was working one Sunday morning and was hoping for a quiet eight hours. I had come to work tired that morning. I had been out late the night before, which is okay as long as you show up awake and sober.

I got myself a large coffee and headed for a secluded alley to get away from the public eye for a few minutes. As I pulled into the alley I noticed that someone had left a car parked and running. My first thought was maybe it was stolen or a crime was being committed.

Then I saw that a person was laying on the ground with their face under the exhaust pipe of the car. I called on my portable radio as I ran to shut off the car engine. I got confirmation that rescue was on the way as I headed toward the back of the car.

I grabbed the legs of a man and as I pulled him out I could see he was barely breathing and unconscious. I noticed as I got a closer look that his skin was pink, a side effect of carbon monoxide.

I knew that he was close to dying, but I also knew that a few more minutes and he would have been gone.

The fire department arrived and prepared to transport him to the hospital. He did survive the attempt, but who knows what his state of mind was upon waking up.

You think you've pulled the plug, but instead wake up surrounded by your family. I guess you just might have to say, why or how?

And that's what I say when I think about that morning -- how did it happen and why? Nobody will ever be able to explain how I got there moments before it was too late, because it really needs no explanation at all.