Peculiar People
Penny’s car sputtered and died. She had left her cell phone at home. She was exactly two miles from home and the same distance to the gas station. Turning the ignition one more time, she had enough fumes to land the car on the shoulder of the road. The traffic had stopped at the light in front of her.
“Say, would you mind if I rode with you to the corner where the station is?” she asked the young man, whose window was rolled down.
“Sorry, no passengers.”
Look at me; do I look like someone who would hurt you? I am an older woman for heaven‘s sake, I‘m wearing a jogging suit! But why get upset? She hadn’t had her morning walk, so she would make it up now. The sun was rising quickly with an early heat. The last time I ran out of gas some forty years ago, it was for want of money rather than memory.
“Miss, do you want a ride?” A woman asked.
“I’d love it, thank you so much. Just to the station at the corner would be fine.”
“How will you get back to your car?” The woman asked concerned when they arrived. “Do you want…,” her voice trailed off.
“No, no, I’m fine,” Penny said. The woman smiled lightly and drove off.
The attendant regretted she had no can to lend, but the adjoining tire store had a five gallon can. He shook his head when she asked for a ride.
He could not spare ten minutes? The road seemed suddenly much longer than she had ever imagined. She had her credit card. It takes only one gallon. One…the handle…is stuck! Oh, no, almost three gallons! How am I going to carry that? But she felt calm. She smiled to think how she would have reacted only a year ago.
The world had caved in on her then; her life had gotten progressively worse. She had been fired from a job she hated, had been ill from fear about her future, and had come to the end of herself.
As from nowhere, a younger woman had befriended her at that time, presenting a new perspective to life. She had been a missionary kid in the jungles of Peru.
“Penny, you must give yourself up to God, holding nothing back and I promise you will get well,” she had insisted. Penny felt she had nothing to lose, but living by faith was like traveling on a winding road, slow and precarious. However, she had actually begun to heal from her broken life. I am changing, it’s true, and I really do believe that God will make a way! She lifted the can and began walking back to her car.
“Let me give you a hand.” She turned and looked straight into the dark eyes of a tall man in shorts. He smiled and reached for the can. “I’ll walk with you,” he said.
The road seemed long; a continuous flow of conversation attended them.
“…people are so unhappy with their lives,” he said “It doesn’t matter, rich or poor. You have to have a grateful heart. I wake up in the mornings and my first words are, ‘Thank you God for this new day.”
Her car came in sight and when they arrived, he poured the gas into the tank. He put the can in the back seat and shook her hand smiling. “Keep looking up,” he said. Had she just met an angel?
Karin Carstens
4468-126th Dr. No.
Royal Palm Beach, FL.
34411 USA
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