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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