David stood on the wrong side of the railing along the Old East Bridge, his hands behind him gripping the cold steel, as he stared through the swirling flurry of snow at the icy water churning hundreds of feet below him.

He could lean forward, let go, and that would be it. A moment of cold and dark, and then nothing. All the pain and despair would be gone. He swallowed hard, then closed his eyes tightly, willing his fingers to unclench.

A moment later, he opened his eyes, his hands still clamped down on the railing in spite of himself.

"Can't do it, huh?" said a voice from behind him. It startled him so much he almost did let go, but he quickly steadied himself and looked back. A man in a long, dark coat leaned against the bridge beside him, regarding him with a friendly smile that didn't touch his narrow brown eyes.

"Stay back! D-don't try to stop me!" David warned, unsteadily. He'd already made up his mind, he just needed his body to catch up.

The man chuckled. "Nah! You got it all wrong, buddy. I'm not gonna try to stop ya. I'm a real believer in...whaddya call it...free will. Ya wanna shuffle yourself off the ol' mortal coil? Well, that ain't nobody's business but yours, as far as I'm concerned."

David licked his chapped lips. "Then...then no offense, but why don't you just go away? I'd rather be alone."

"Sure, sure!" the man said, easily. "It's just that, well, if you don't mind my saying, it looks like you're having a bit of trouble taking the next step. I can help with that."

"I-I don't need a push!" David said, reflexively tightening his grip on the railing.

The man in black laughed. "I ain't gonna push you, pal! I'm just here to offer a little encouragement, is all." He lifted a black-gloved hand and snapped his fingers. David stared in bewilderment, as a gigantic silvery moving screen seemed to materialize in the air above him.

"What? How did you..." he trailed off, as a film began to play on the screen. It was his childhood home, just as he remembered it. His brother, sister, mother and father were seated around the old kitchen table, talking and laughing as they had breakfast.

"Notice anything, buddy?" the man asked, genially.

"It's...it's exactly how it was...how is that possible?" he said, staring at the apparition in awe.

"Not exactly, buddy, but I'm not surprised you didn't notice; after all, no one else noticed either. You're not there," the man pointed out.

"I don't understand." David said, as he watched his happy parents and siblings.

"See, everyone wants life -- especially their life -- to have some kinda meaning." the man explains. "It's the part of you that wants that, that won't let you let go of that railing. That's why I'm here to help. Because the truth is..."

The man snapped his fingers again.

David saw his high school basketball team. They'd gone to the State Championship when he played with them, but it appeared from what the man showed him that they would have done just as well without him.

Snap.

He saw his friends from college, enjoying their wild days without him as much or more than they'd done with him.

Snap.

He saw the woman who'd later become his wife, falling in love with and marrying someone else.

Snap.

He saw everything he'd ever achieved in his professional life, being done a thousand times over by other men in other places. He stared wide-eyed, his mouth opening and closing mutely as he saw image after image illustrating his own worthlessness.

"...the truth is, life don't got no meaning. Especially not yours, buddy." the man said, softly. "Those instincts telling you to hold on? They ain't nothing but a con."

He reached out, and squeezed David's shoulder, gently. "I know it's hard to accept. The truth usually is. Most guys wish they wasn't ever born, when they learn the way things really are. Ain't nothing you can do about that, unfortunately -- nothing I can do either, to be honest. But I can help you get it over with, to skip to the punchline of the big cosmic joke, so to speak."

David's head dropped forward, and his shoulders began to shake.

"Aww. There there, buddy." the man soothed. "It'll all be over soon. All you gotta do is let go."

David's shoulders shook harder, and then all at once, he burst out laughing.

The man frowned. "What the...you lose your marbles or something, pal?"

He shook his head. "Ha....no...I just...I just..."

Abruptly, David turned, and hoisted himself over the railing, back onto the bridge.

"What are ya doing?" the man protested.

"Whoo!" David cried, laughing and spinning a circle as he looked at the falling snow.

"What the hell's gotten into ya?" the man demanded, scowling.

He whirled around to face the man, beaming. "Hope!" he cried.

"Hope? How did ya get hope outta what I just showed ya?"

David laughed, crossing his arms. "Well, I mean, you're obviously the Devil!"

The man cleared his throat. "I, uh...what makes you say that?"

"A guy with magic powers shows up out of nowhere and tries to convince me there's no hope and that I should kill myself?" David said, raising an eyebrow. "You kinda telegraphed it."

"Well, uh..so what if I am?!" the man retorted. "You're still in a hole ya ain't never gonna dig out of, your life is still pointless, and you'd still be better off on the other side of that railing!"

David snorted. "Come on. I may have been wishing I'd never been born, but I wasn't born yesterday. You're the devil! You lie! Maybe not everything you say is a lie, but anything you'd go through that much trouble to tell me has practically got to be false!"

The man in black's eyes widened, and darted from left to right, as though searching for a way out. "Er...well..."

David laughed and jabbed a finger at him. "Aha! I knew it! Which means, ipso facto, that I can infer that life definitely does have meaning and purpose, and I can further deduce that my life in particular must have some especially noble purpose to fulfill -- otherwise, why would an actual devil be going out of his way to get me to kill myself?"

"I..." the man stammered, uncertainly.

Then to the man's utter amazement, David embraced him.

"Merry Christmas, you wonderful old demon!" David cried, tears of joy glistening in his eyes as he held the man close for a long moment.

Then, without another word, David turned and ran laughing into the snowy Christmas Eve night, leaving the flabbergasted devil behind.