It was a dark rainy night. After working a full day in the construction field, Joe West was tired. Driving in his old beat down rusty truck with water splashing on the windshield, Joe was heading to his small home to sleep for the night. He was looking forward to laying on the couch and watching Monday night news. Working as a construction worker  was what he needed to do to keep from being late on 5 months of truck payments. While Joe was driving home, he saw the red blinking light on the dashboard indicating that he needs gas. He knows there is a local gas station about 1 mile away and hopes he would make it. With the rain pouring and lightning booming he saw the big Shell symbol. The truck was puttering as he pulled into the first gas pump with relief. 

Opening the squeaky truck door and grabbing the gas handle, he pushes it into the gas lid. While the gas is pumping, he walks inside to the rundown Shell station to pay. “Hello there” said the gas clerk as Joe walks towards the counter. “Hi, I need gas on A1” said Joe, in a grouchy tired voice. He pulls out his wallet and pays for the gas with his twenty-dollar bill. After the clerk put the twenty in the cash register, he gave Joe his five dollars in change. Joe looked down in the lottery box for a ticket with a big jackpot. He asked “Could I get one of the two million-dollar tickets? I know it is ten dollars but all I have is five.” “Only this one time”, grumbles the cashier as he hands the ticket to Joe. Joe gives him a wave when walking out of the store with his ticket in his pocket. After pulling out the gas he closes the door and sits in his car. With the sound of the rain sprinkling on the truck Joe says a prayer. In his head he says Dear God, bless all of those who have helped me in life. I am trying to pay off my truck and am asking for a little help. When I get my life back together I am going to help others who are struggling like me. Thank you for listening to me God, Amen. Joe took a deep breath and put the truck into drive. He had to drive on a long straight road for 10 miles to get home to sleep. 

As Joe is fantasizing about laying on the couch and resting for the first time today, he hears a big “BOOM”. He suddenly looks up and sees what looks like a face in the sky. Slamming on the breaks he slides on the wet rainy floor and comes to a complete stop. Turning off his lights and opening up the squeaky door, once again he slowly walks to the front of the truck to get a better view of the face in the sky. With the rain pouring down, getting his leather jacket all wet, he looks up and yells “Is that you? God can you hear me?” After a long pause he walks back to the truck and mutters to himself “What am I doing, I must just be hallucinating.” He drives home like nothing happened and opens his house door with sadness while walking to the couch. Flopping on the couch, pressing power on the remote to watch the news, Joe didn’t bother to think about what just happened. He falls asleep with a loud snore and the TV on. Joe’s alarm goes off with a loud ring at 7:30am. He slowly rubs his eyes and hits the alarm clock to turn it off. Seeing that the TV is still on he sees in big bold letters BREAKING NEWS: LOTTERY WINNER!

Not thinking much of the news, Joe still wants to see who won so he turns up the TV. Still very tired, he watches the blurry TV screen and sees the cashier from the Shell gas station. Immediately he thought to himself whoa that is cool, someone won the lottery at the same place I bought my ticket. He stands up and walks to the kitchen to look for some breakfast then suddenly stops in his tracks. Very quickly he turns around and pays attention to the TV. Scattering through his coat pocket for the lottery ticket, he finds the soggy lottery ticket. He patiently waits for the numbers to be called. The female reporter with long legs and red heels yells, “Are you guys ready? Here is the winning number for two million dollars 345-658-9904. Call in to share this amazing experience with us!”

Joe looks at his ticket and reads the number out loud 345-658-9904. His eyes open very wide as he realizes he just won the lottery! Jumping up and down he runs over to the phone and dials 858-News. Ring-Ring-Ring, he can hear the phone ringing on TV. The female reporter picks up the phone and says, “Hi there, do you have the winning lottery ticket?” Joe responds with “Yes, Yes I do, I won!” The female reporter says “Great we have found the winner! Come to the Shell gas station where you bought the ticket and receive your money. `` Joe agreed to come and told her that he would be there in 15 minutes. Shaking with excitement he threw on his jacket and ran to the truck trying to get to the gas station as fast as he could. He pulled out on to the main road where he had to drive 10 miles to the gas station. 

After driving for about five minutes he remembers the face in the sky and notices that he is right next to where it happened. Once again, he slams on the breaks and gets out of the truck. He got down on his knees, looked up, and said “Thank you, thank you, I will help others! Thank you God.” Running back to his truck, he drives as fast as he can to the gas station. As he sees the Shell logo, his face lights up with happiness. He could see the female reporter and says “I am here! I am the winner!” With happiness shown on his face he runs over to the reporter. A microphone is put near his mouth with the camera for live TV recording. Joe says “Thank you God. I made God a promise that I would help people and I will.” 

A man in a black suit pulls him to the side and says “Hi my name is George. I will be transferring the two million dollars into your bank account today for you. Congratulations for winning the money, it should be in your account by tonight. Have a great life Joe!” Joe, shaking with excitement, remembers from late last night how the clerk helped him pay for half of the lottery ticket. Right away he knew that this would be the first person he helped. 

“Ding ding '', the bells rang as Joe opens the Shell station front door. He sees that same male cashier at the desk with his usual smile across his face and runs up to him with a big hug. “Thank you Sir. I know that you helped me out with paying half of the ticket so I would like to give you half of the winnings. I am going to give you one million dollars and you are going to go with your family and have a great happy life.” With the cashier in tears, shaking with thankfulness, he says “Thank you man. You are really going to help me! My two young kids can now finally get some toys and I can buy a house to help provide for my family.” At that moment Joe felt better than he ever had before. The giving is what gave him pure happiness. He has happiness. He has changed someone's life for the better and they have changed his life in return.