One day a man saw an old lady,
stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could
see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His
Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her.
Even with the smile on his face,
she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he
going to hurt her? He didn’t look safe; he looked poor and hungry. He could see
that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt.
It was those chills which only fear can put in you. He said, “I’m here to help
you, ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s warm? By the way, my name
is Bryan Anderson.”
Well, all she had was a flat
tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled under the car
looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon
he was able to change the tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt. As
he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to talk
to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing
through. She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to her aid.
Bryan just smiled as he closed
her trunk. The lady asked how much she owed him. Any amount would have been all
right with her. She already imagined all the awful things that could have
happened had he not stopped. Bryan never thought twice about being paid. This
was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and God knows there
were plenty, who had given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life
that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way. He told her that
if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed
help, she could give that person the assistance they needed, and Bryan added,
“And think of me.”
He waited until she started her
car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as
he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight. A few miles down the road
the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take the
chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy looking
restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to
her. The waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She
had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn’t
erase. The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she
never let the strain and aches change her attitude. The old lady wondered how
someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered
Bryan.
After the lady finished her
meal, she paid with a hundred dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get
change for her hundred dollar bill, but the old lady had slipped right out the
door. She was gone by the time the waitress came back. The waitress wondered
where the lady could be. Then she noticed something written on the napkin.
There were tears in her eyes
when she read what the lady wrote: “You don’t owe me anything. I have been
there too. Somebody once helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really
want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end
with you.” Under the napkin were four more $100 bills.
Well, there were tables to
clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it
through another day. That night when she got home from work and climbed into
bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had written. How could
the lady have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due
next month, it was going to be hard…. She knew how worried her husband was, and
as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and
low, “Everything’s going to be all right. I love you, Bryan Anderson.”
There is an old saying “What goes around comes around.”
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