It’s comforting to think this town has produced men worthy of the name, but when they honk and holler, tsk-tsk or display a finger, it makes it easy to follow the compass of inclination and dismiss them.
Last week an old longbed 4WD Ford sputtered into our parking lot. It was 6 in the evening and we were ready to go home and do something that didn’t involve sitting, but this big, patched, silent truck blocked the driveway.
We looked at the driver who was sitting and staring. She looked at us and said, “It won’t go another inch.” She was shaken. There was a boxed pizza on the seat.
“I just got this truck fixed. It took all the money I had with just enough left for a small pizza to take home to celebrate my truck finally running.”
She had tried to get off the highway but it stopped with the back wheels in our parking lot gutter, making it impossible for two of us to push it totally out of the way.
Suddenly the woman began involuntarily clouding up and squinching her eyes. She lowered her head and wept. I told her I’d drive her home and she wept even more. Perlinda handed her the money in her pocket and that’s when the real crying started.
The thing is, we’ve both been there and really don’t know many women who haven’t. She was broke and stuck and every man who drove by made sure she knew she should get out of the way.
We texted our favorite tow truck owner who texted back that someone was on the way. Within two minutes our favorite tow truck owner’s driver showed up. He never smiles but always looks like he’s having fun.
Favorite tow truck driver, whose name we still don’t know, stopped traffic, fixed the mechanical problem and managed to untangle all the weird energy without a hint of emotion.
On Tuesday morning, the day after Labor Day, the woman showed up here with a huge box of fruit. Mangoes, oranges, kiwis, bananas, grapefruit, two kinds of apples. She looked great and said thanks for helping instead of honking.
But the thing is, the guy who made it all better? He could be a Republican. And to think we love him!