Hot Day, Warm Fuzzies

One very hot summer afternoon, I was driving south on a major interstate highway. About forty miles from home, ten miles from the intersection with another interstate, I saw a car with flashers on, and a few hundred yards beyond it was a man walking.

I pulled over to see if there was anything I could do to help.

Stranger: “I ran out of gas. I’m from [Other State], but I saw on a map that [Town] is close to where [Interstate #1] and [Interstate #2] intersect. I’m heading there to get a can of gas.”

Me: “Get in. It’s too far to be walking in this heat. I’m going that way anyway.”

I took him to a truck stop where he bought a two-gallon gas can and filled it. I sat off from the pumps to see what he was going to do next.

Just as I thought, he started off on foot with the gas.

Me: “Get in and I will take you back to your car.”

Stranger: “No. You don’t need to do that. You have helped enough already.”

Me: “You have any idea how heavy that can is going to get, shortly? And it is too hot to be walking that far. Get in.”

I took him the ten miles back to his car. Before he poured the gas into the tank, he offered to pay me for my trouble.

Me: “I won’t take your money. This is a ‘pay-it-forward’ moment. Besides, I already got paid.”

Stanger: “How is that?”

Me: “The satisfaction of helping another person.”

And with that, I waited until he got the car started before I took off home.