Bitter Divorced Man

   What does blood pressure medicine have to do with a white bus?  Mostly nothing on any ordinary day, but today, I traveled a few hundred miles to go to a city where I’ve been stationed during construction season.  In the latter part of my travel I realized I had forgotten my blood pressure medicine.  After going over my options I decided to forge ahead with my trip, go to my temporary place of residence, and rest for a while then return back to my hometown, sleep in my own bed, and return to my place of work, with my medicine, in early morning.  My other option was to go to the local supermarket pharmacy and have them give me some loaner pills to last me the rest of the week, for a fee of course.  It turned out that the pharmacy was able to call the pharmacy in my hometown and have my prescription transferred to them, and so it turned out that I got my pills after all.

   While I was driving to my place of stay, from a distance, I noticed a white bus coming from the opposite side, then making a left turn into an on-ramp into the highway that runs through the town.  Behind the bus there was a young man running after it.  He bolted across the street and into the on-ramp, chasing after the bus.  Passing by him, I noticed he was in good shape, with a clean white shirt and a blue pair of jeans, with long hairs.  Still ahead there was a gas station that the bus seemed to have exited from, and then my mind put the story together that bus must have made a short stop at the gas station, and the young man was left behind when it left.  I was sure he would not be able to reach the bus on time to stop it, and he’d be walking back to the gas station disappointed.

   I decided to help him.  I don’t know why.  There is something attention grabbing about a white bus, and thinking about the young man, he must have a story to tell too.  Maybe he was on his way to visit a loved one, or someone in his family had died.  There was something in his determination, or desperation that made me decide to help him.  I made a U-turn and drove back towards the on-ramp, by then he was walking back on the other side of the street, disappoint.  I yelled at him, “Did you miss your bus?”  He told me yes, that’s when I noticed a bag of chips and a can of soda in his hand.  I told him to get in, that I would take him to the bus.  When he got in I noticed he was very awkward, very nervous and shy; the way I was at his age.  I drove fast, chasing the bus that was not in sight.  He had taken an Amtrak train, got off in a city in the south and then an Amtrak bus was taking the passengers to another city too far to the north.  As I assumed the bus had made a short stop.

   As we were driving up north we noticed a white bus coming back from the opposite way in a frontage road.  I asked him if that was the bus.  He wasn’t sure.  I was driving too fast to notice any logos on the bus, and for a long distance there was no exit to get off the highway and go on the frontage road, so I drove for a while longer, till the low gas sign came on.  I asked him if he wanted to go back to the gas station.  He said yes.  I took the first exit out and drove back for a few miles till we noticed a white bus was coming from the other direction, but this time we noticed the bus was clearly marked “Amtrak”.  I made a U-turn in the grassy median and drove as fast as I could till I reached the bus.  I told him to grab the driver’s attention while I honked the horn.  The driver recognized him; he must have gone back to find him.  He point to us to take the next exit, which I did and delivered the young man to his bus.  He was so grateful, on his way to see his beloved aunt.

   Every good deed deserves a proper thank you.  My 10-year old grandson understands this concept better than any adult I know of.  He never takes anything for granted.  On his third birthday, after he blew the candles, and after he said thank you, he said, “This is the best birthday I’ve ever had!”  When I went to the pharmacy I wasn’t happy with going through the process of transferring my prescription from my pharmacy to theirs, but at the end it turned out to be cheaper and faster that way, especially since I was preparing to drive several hundred miles, and waste several hours to get my pills.  I didn’t thank them as much as I should have, but the young man did, and I hope he’d return the favor to someone else.