A New Day Dawns

My realization has yet to make itself known to me so I'm just gonna switch gears for awhile and tell a story. It all started on a dark, dark night on a dark, dark road in the middle of nowhere. I shit you not. It harkened back to the stories of youth about the couple stranded in their car in the middle of the woods when they heard this scraping noise. Skrreek, Skrreek, on the roof. Only I was a single white female, all alone on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere, and the only sound around was the voice of my car refusing to start. It had all begun only moments earlier, when, as if trapped in my own X-Files episode, my car decided that it was time to take a nap. At 45 miles an hour Bessie, that's her name, was overcome with sleep like a narcoleptic at an Enya concert. Try as I may, I could not rumble her from her slumber. With a dead cell phone and nary a house nor car around, I decided after about 20 minutes of wishing Bessie back to consciousness that it was, indeed, not going to happen. She was lost to me, exploring dreamland as deeply as Stella, my pooch, does when she's chasing moles and squirrels in her slumber. I made the decision: I was going to walk for it. There was a gas station that I knew of not too far away. All that rested between me and the saving graces of a pay phone was about 3 miles of sheer woodsey darkness, full of shadows and bobcats and whatever human predator that may happen to find his or her way to my particular location. I found myself wondering if I should wish for a car to come and offer help or if I might be better off on my own. It was an odd feeling, being simultaneously elated and struck with potential dread when I saw lights around the bend after about 15 minutes of walking. I had nothing to fear from this driver other than avoidance, however, because even though they saw a lone female walking down the side of road in the middle of nowhere, their feeling of threat was obviously more heightened than my own. I can think of no other reason why one would speed past the sight of someone in obvious need of help. I know I was seen, because the car could not have gotten any closer to the opposite side of the road. I was the potential bully in the alley, apparently. Four more cars passed with the same result. I found myself wondering about what kind of world we lived in that we couldn't help one another anymore, or ask for help, without fear of negative results. An awkwardness invaded me, did I want someone to stop or did I want them to keep going? Will I know a good samaritan when I see one, or will I fall for the wolf in do-gooder accessories? The spell of my ponderings was broken by a steady "beep, beep, beep, beep." While I was lost in my head examining the possibility of walking on this road for the next hour or so, a large white truck had passed right by me from behind. As the truck approached I had the uncanny urge to run for the woods. I had heard too many stories that started like this. Hell, the news loves them. I thought perhaps I'd leave my shoe on the road before I darted just to give them that news-at -five lone-shoe-on-the-pavement shot. A modern take on the Cinderella story. Anyway, I quickly dismissed that scenario out of sheer desperation. I just wanted to get home. I decided to throw my fate to the gods. Hopefully this person was sent by the right one. The first thing I learned from this stranger is that there is, indeed, an etiquette to being a good samaritan that is picking up a strange woman on a dark and semi-deserted boondocks road. Step one: the minute you reach your damsel in distress, have your window down and your lights on in your cab. Step two: Make no sudden moves for the door and make sure that your entire face can be seen. Perhaps I should discuss it no more, I wouldn't want to give any ne'er-do-wells the recipe for gaining trust. Back to the story. I found myself staring into a jolly smiling face, a chocolate Santa Claus had come to my rescue. I immediately felt safe. Then, of course, I wondered about the sense in that. Discussing my car breakdown for a minute, I discovered that Toby, that was his name, was a mechanic on his way home from work. He lived one street over. He would be glad to look at my car for me, if I wanted. The look on my face must have told him everything he needed to know. "You ready to get off this dark road and out of the woods?" he asked. I didn't realize how true that statement was until he said it. Now, normally I love the woods and anything nature, but I like it by choice. I clambered into the huge white truck and we set a plan for the gas station, where I would call home and get a ride. Toby immediately handed me his cell phone, and I fell in like with him even more when the numbers appeared as if written by magic quill and ink. "I let my daughter program it," he said. But it was too late, I already knew that here was a man with a kind heart and a good imagination. It only took me a cab flooded with light and a cell phone with Harry Potter capacity to realize that there are good samaritans out there. Sad to know that, in this day and age, we can't consider that a given. Strangers are potential friends, but to ignore the fact that they are potential enemies makes us easy prey. Luck had found it's way to me in a timely and faith-building way. This all occurred two days after the election of our new President. The first man of African heritage to make it to the White House. The new most powerful man in the world. And here I was, a white female in a black man's truck, in the middle of nowhere, late at night, in an area that's not known for positive racial interactions. The significance of the moment did not escape me. It didn't escape either one of us. It's just as hard to offer help nowadays as it is to accept it. Somehow, the two of us both managed to be in the right place at the right moment for something miraculous to occur. At the gas station, after thanking Toby profusely and wishing him good karma in the future, I realized that in many ways change has come. And that in the most important ways, it is the small actions we perform every day that will make sure that change continues to happen.