HAVE A STORY to tell. This is a true story.
Around 6:30 p.m. I took my son to his Cub Scout meeting. On the way, about a block from the meeting location, I slid, due to heavy rain, into a curb as I was turning. I heard a noise that sounded like heavy damage. Sure enough, half a block later, we felt the thump thump thump of a flat tire. I pulled over and parked, and yes, the impact had knocked the air out of the tire, with unknown damage to the rim or other parts.
So I figured I'd get my son to his meeting, and I would then inquire about road service. I was in no mood to try changing the tire in the darkness and rain.
Similar sentiments were apparently shared by the road service people, for the toll-free number I called could not locate a company who would commit to coming by in less than two hours. This might have been acceptable, except that the Cub Scout meeting was about to be dismissed early due to no electricity. Someone in a nearby traffic accident had knocked out a power line.
Are you starting to see that this was a "bad night?" It gets worse...
I went back to the Scout meeting, collected my son, and then went back to the pay phone to try the road service again. The ante was now upped to "three to four hours" before someone would come by.
So, we walked to a nearby gas station; we discovered earlier it had only one employee who recently had had a heart operation and absolutely no clue about changing a tire. There we called a couple of nearby road service possibilities. All but one were closed, and that one might make it in two hours.
Back to square zero. I called a cab company, who said they would be there in 30 minutes.
Shortly after the cab company's promise expired, the gas station attendant announced that he must evict us from the shelter of his building, for it was time to set the burglar alarm and close. However, he did say that if the cab did not come by the time he was ready to pull out of the lot, he would give us a ride home.
Naturally, the cab didn't come, so we took off with the gas station attendant.
Ten blocks down the road, his truck stalled. It did not start again. We were not that much closer to home, for he had decided to take a detour around the traffic accident that caused the power outage mentioned earlier.
Oh well.
I helped him push his truck off the street into a parking space, and asked him if he had someone at home who could pick him up. He said that yes, his wife would, but she had a small car with only room for the driver and one passenger. I directed his attention to a bar a block away where he could probably call his wife, and my son and I decided to walk home. My courageous young Scout, properly dressed in his uniform, and I, walked several blocks towards home, with at least 70% of the distance yet to go. The terrain became rugged and rocky. (There were no sidewalks.) He was doing OK, and so was I, although we were both tiring a bit.
A car pulled up. A young lady's voice said, "do you need a ride?" I said, "we certainly would appreciate it if you don't mind." When I opened the door, a folder fell out on the wet ground. I picked it up, then she said, "oh thanks, that must be some of my college course work." We got in, talked about why we were there, and she said, "I'm just driving around because I have nothing else to do at the moment." She took us all the way home.
I thanked her very much, and asked if I could give her something for her trouble. She said, "no, just do something good for someone else sometime when they need it." I asked her if she knew how to get back to wherever she was going, and she said, "Yes, I know."
I didn't ask any other questions; you don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Please tell me: Who WAS this person?
As for the "Fool" part, I was almost inclined to give her a lecture about picking up strange people walking along the road--evil vicious things do happen in that regard. But then, my son in the Cub Scout uniform probably offered some credibility. So I didn't lecture her.
Oh, and I might also mention, she said she had been going the other way when she saw us first, turned around, and came back to check on us.
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