Chapter 3: The Exchange
Act 1: The Stranger
I had watched him lose it all while desperately trying to keep hope alive.
It became clear to me—I didn’t witness this all by chance. I was part of something greater.
It was a call upon me—a stirring to give what had been given to me to him.
His now dwindling faith was fading, and I couldn’t stand by any longer.
Act 2: The Gift
I had approached him as one who was sent. The gift I carried was not mine to create but to deliver.
I didn’t fully understand its origin—I only knew the destination.
It was an answer for him, entrusted to my hands for a moment in time.
My only role was to deliver it and not explain it.
Act 3: The exchange
With quiet conviction I reached out to him, handing him what I thought he deserved to live again. Till this very moment I could tell from his eyes he was still struggling to comprehend my being and the reason for my extensive understanding of his situation.
But then I saw it: relief—subtle but undeniable.
Though he couldn’t comprehend it, he could feel the beginning of something new stirring within him.
Act 4: A second chance
I left him to ponder on the reality of what I had brought him, but my heart remained tethered to his: watching, waiting.
He held on to it—the gift—staring into it like one who could behold the past and future in that single moment. An opportunity lay before him: to build again, to start all over.
Doubt still lingered in the corner of his soul, but I saw something more powerful take root: the ability to dream again. To hope again. To believe that what was once lost could not only be regained but also multiplied.
