Perfect Trusting Strangers

I thought tonight was going be a rather dull and ordinary evening of me watching t.v. in bed all night, but I was dead wrong. I got a tweet from a friend asking if I could bring her coffee to her work. She works in the pharmacy at a drug store and told me to come to the drive thru window so she could give me a gift card to use at Starbucks. We laughed at how awkward and random the situation was of talking to one another through a microphone. Starbucks was in the same plaza, just a couple hundred feet away from the drug store. Before I pulled out of the drive thru to head over to Starbucks, I waited for a woman to cross. She looked at me as if she knew me, but I had never seen her in my life. She came over to my window and asked for a ride.

"Oh, I'm just going to Starbucks for a friend," I explain to her. She squinted her eyes behind those gray thick framed glasses from 1989, giving a tired look.

"Well, can you give me a ride?" she asked.

"To Starbucks?" I asked, confused.

"Yeah."

"It's right there," as I pointed, she looked over and squinted to the building just across the way. She seemed lost and confused.

"Oh, well I'm not from around here. I'm trying to find my friend and I need to get to the mall. Please, could you give me a ride there?"

"The mall?" I asked, knowing the closet mall was about twenty minutes away.

"Yeah, you know where Target and Wegmans is?"

"Oh! Yeah, but I'm really just getting coffee for my friend," I told her (Target and Wegmans were only ten minutes driving down the road).

"Oh please," she begged, "I've been standing outside of Walmart asking people for a dollar so I can get the bus down there. No one would give me a dollar. I'm cold and tired and it looks like it's going to rain."

"OK." I said with barely thinking. I moved my bag and coat off the passenger seat.

"Really?! Oh thank you so much! My name is Karen," she said while stretching her arm out to shake my hand.

"Hi, Karen. I'm Sarah," I said while shaking her hand. My friends coffee would be coming late.

"I really appreciate this. I've been standing outside for so long and you know those people had a dollar. I just want to find my friend. You see, I was just in some trouble and I just got out of trouble and I'm not looking for anymore trouble. I'm just so tired and thirsty...and hungry," she told me as I thought to myself that I must be insane.

"Well, that is a far way to walk, I've done it before. And if it was windy like this and about to rain, I'd hope someone would give me a ride too," I said to her wondering what kind of trouble she was talking about just before.

"God bless you! It's just so cold! Now let me ask you if I could borrow twenty or thirty dollars and I can pay you fifty dollars back? Or one-hundred dollars and I'll pay you back more later."

"You're asking the wrong person," I told her while laughing. I explained to her that I was just about flat broke. All the money I had in my bank account would fill my gas tank.

"Oh, well I understand. You know, it's not worth it. I've been in trouble and ain't nothing worth going back to where I was. You're not worth it. You know I could get six years for taking one-hundred dollars from you?" she asked.

"Wow. Six years for one-hundred dollars?" I asked, not so sure exactly what was happening.

"Mmmmhmmmm, six years. Listen, I'm just looking for my friend. I don't know this city. I got in some trouble here and ended up in jail and I just got out and all I'm looking for is some help."

"Oh. Does she live out this way?" I asked.

"I don't even know. I'm just so thirsty and hungry and tired. I've been drinking tap water out of store bathrooms. I haven't eaten in two days and I'm just so tired. I just need to get over there and look for her." she said while fumbling through her huge red purse. She saw me glance over.

"Well, if you're hungry I might have a couple of singles I could give you, but I'm not sure how much I have. I know it's not much."

"Bless you. Aren't you scared that I might kill you or something?" she asked me while still rummaging through her bag.

"Well, now I am!" I said to her being almost completely serious. "I wouldn't have opened my door for you though if you looked threatening."

"No, no, no. I don't mean anybody no harm. I just want to find my friend and stay out of trouble." I believed her. I might have been crazy, but I believed her. She did seem very tired, exhausted even, and very out of sorts.

"Well, believe it or not, it's not the first time I've invited strangers in my car," I said while trying to see what she had in that red bag. Sounded like a bunch of paper.

"Do you smoke, baby?"

"No, I don't. Sorry."

"Oh no, that's OK. I'll just roll a cigarette real quick," and she pulled out a bag of tobacco and rolling papers, "I shared this pack with a nice woman I met yesterday." The cigarette was rolled and resting between her two fingers by the time I looked back over at her. "Oh shoot, I can't find my lighter. You don't have a lighter do you?"

"I don't think so, no. I don't even have a lighter adapter for my car," I said, actually feeling sad.

"No? Not even one of those car lighter things?" she asked looking toward my dashboard.

"They don't make them in newer cars now. Isn't that weird?" I'm sure she cared.

"Oh wow. They don't make them anymore? What year is this car?" Or maybe she did...

"It's a '97, but it doesn't have a lighter adapter," I said while showing her the plug that would have been a cigarette lighter.

"Oh, I've never seen that before," she said and then continued to dig even deeper into that purse (she didn't care).

"So do you live around here?" I asked.

"Oh no, I'm staying at this place right before West Main Street."

"Oh," I said thinking how far that was, "did you walk all the way from there?"

She looked at my very seriously and then said, "Yes, it's a long walk. That's why I appreciate any help I can get."

"Wow, that is a long walk. I road my bike once from the city to out here," I told her. It was true. Two summers ago I road my bike from my apartment off Monroe Ave to my parent's house in Chili for no reason.

"Oh you did? That's a long way! Why would you do that?" she asked me.

"I don't know, I guess I'm impulsive," I said while laughing, "but I'll tell you that my dad gave me a ride home."

"Oh you're funny!" She laughed. She looked out the window, "I didn't realize how far this was...you can drop me off up here and I can walk."

"It's just up the road, it's really not that far. I can take you."

"Oh well I feel bad. I just need to go somewhere and get a drink, I'm so thirsty. You can drop me off up here, I don't want to trouble you anymore," she said while holding that rolled cigarette.

"I'll take you up here so you can find you're friend. I don't mind." I told her again.

"I really do appreciate this. It's hard to trust people these days and you're giving me a ride to help me and I thank you for that," she said.

"Well, like I said, I just hope someone would give me a ride if I was in your situation."

"Oh, well you can just drop me off that this gas station. I am going to run in there, get a water, find some food and find a light," she said pointing to the gas station on the right just across from Wegmans and Target.

"Alright," I said while turning into the gas station.

"I can't thank you enough for this ride. You have no idea how much you just saved me," she said to me as I pulled along side the building.

"You're welcome. Let me see if I can give you some money to help you out," I said while opening my wallet and finding only a five-dollar bill, "Here, please buy yourself something to eat," I said while handing her the money.

"God bless you! I will!"

"I want you to take care of yourself, alright?" I said.

"Oh I will. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome."

"Oh and one more thing," she turned to me before she got out of my car, "how old are you?"

"I'm twenty-six," I said.

"I'm forty-two. It was nice to meet you!" And off she went.

"Take care of yourself!" I yelled out the window as she walked into the gas station.

I drove back down the road to Starbucks and dropped off coffee to my friend. And that's how I spent my Tuesday night. Ah, to live another day.