One for the Angels
(Season 1, Episode 2)
“Street scene: Summer. The present. Man on a sidewalk named Lew Bookman, age sixtyish. Occupation: pitchman. Lew Bookman, a fixture of the summer, a rather minor component to a hot July, a nondescript, commonplace little man whose life is a treadmill built out of sidewalks. And in just a moment, Lew Bookman will have to concern himself with survival – because as of three o’clock this hot July afternoon, he’ll be stalked by Mr. Death.”
An elderly street salesmen beloved by the local children, Lou Bookman makes a quaint living selling small gadgets and gizmos to anyone who comes his way. However, what started as a typical day greeting the local community and emptying his briefcase of trinkets, would turn into an encounter with the Grim Reaper himself, Mr. Death. When Bookman is informed he will perish of natural causes at midnight, he begs that there’s still so much he hasn’t accomplished in life. Upon deliberation, Mr. Death grants Bookman a final wish of performing a sales pitch so grand that it’d be considered “one for the angels.” Ecstatic, Bookman decides to retire from his profession immediately and ensure his own immortality. But Mr. Death is not so easily fooled, and someone else is chosen to take Bookman’s place, a little girl who had befriended the sales rep. After getting hit by a truck and sunken into a coma, Bookman begs to be taken instead, but Mr. Death mutters “It’s too late,” and notes her appointment for death is exactly at midnight. To spare the little girl’s life, Bookman decides to use his final wish as a way of keeping Mr. Death distracted.
It’s your “Human Vs Deity” story where man must triumph against a supernatural force to save another. It just so happens that instead of a sword and shield, like in the old Olympian tales, Mr. Bookman is armed with only a briefcase and his words to save a child’s life. Because Mr. Death was so moved and entranced by Bookman’s pitch into buying everything out of the salesman’s suitcase, the Grim Reaper missed his appointment to take another’s life, ensuring the little girl would survive and Bookman would go instead. It’s definitely one of the Twilight Zone’s smaller scale stories, but it becomes all the more powerful of a tale because of its simple, yet effective narrative. It’s one episode that still gives me goosebumps. -Donald Strohman
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