The wooden ladder was old and rickety, and the third rung from the top was loose. Esther had complained about the loose rung to her husband, Eddie, on at least six separate occasions, but each time her only acknowledgement had been Eddie’s characteristic grunt. So when Esther climbed the ladder to retrieve little Willie Brewer’s frisbee from the top of their trailer, she knew to tread lightly on the defective rung. However, treading lightly was not something that someone of Esther’s size could do easily, and the rung gave way. Esther landed on little Willie’s overturned tricycle, and the force of the fall sent one of the pedals through her chest cavity, killing her instantly.

Esther’s sudden demise provoked the expected outpouring from the trailer park community—there were covered dishes for the widower, and hastily organized courses on household safety: after all, the community leaders sagely agreed, most accidents happen in the home. Maybe this way they could lend meaning to Esther’s death, by preventing anyone else from meeting a similar fate. Privately, Eddie calculated the odds of Death By Tricycle, and came to the snide conclusion that yes, the safety training would probably prevent that particular mishap, but aside from that, the exercise was meaningless.

The demonstration of grief lasted a respectable two weeks, and then Eddie was left to his own devices, which were remarkably similar to what they had been before Esther died: frozen dinners, beer, and sitcoms. In short, life went on. However, this arrangement was not satisfactory to everyone. In fact, one particular person was rather perturbed by the fact that life was going on as usual, and that was Esther.

After landing unceremoniously on the tricycle, Esther had discovered one of the heretofore little known facts about dying—that it was indeed possible to die without having your spirit either ascend or descend. At first, Esther hadn’t given this rather unusual state of affairs much thought. She was preoccupied with watching the living grieve her passing. All in all, the
attention paid to her death was gratifying—Eddie seemed suitably grief-stricken, and the neighbors were all very complimentary when they came to visit. It was always, “Why did the Good Lord see fit to take Esther now?” or, “She musta been too good for this earth, and the Lord called her home.” But after two weeks, as the grieving died down and life resumed, Esther began to wonder why, indeed, the Good Lord had NOT called her home. She had simply assumed that all dead folk got to hang around to see what the living thought of them, and then an angel or a white light would appear at the appropriate time, and take them to their eternal reward.

Esther puzzled over her situation for another month or so, wandering aimlessly around the Happy Trails Trailer Home Community. Perhaps, she told herself, there was a backlog in heaven. She checked out all the local churches, just in case the white light only made scheduled stops. Finally it dawned on her that she wasn’t getting anywhere by drifting about and that she should make herself useful—after all, she had been one of the pillars of Happy Trails when she was alive. Then Esther had a revelation. Maybe the newly dead had to work their way up the heavenly ladder by doing good! Maybe she had been called to be Eddie’s guardian angel—or even the guardian angel for the whole trailer park! Didn’t angels have to earn their wings? It seemed like she’d seen an old black and white documentary on that around Christmas time one year.