A Giant Bottle of Water
Ever get the feeling that certain things were just meant to happen?
Tonight we drove down to Carson Valley to eat dinner. At some point along the way, my husband noticed a hitchhiker, so when we headed back after dinner, he stopped to get gas and told me to go in and buy a bottle of water (it's super hot and dry down there this week) in case we see the hitchhiker again.
So I buy the biggest bottle I find and we head towards Wal-Mart to get groceries before we head home. We don't see the hitchhiker again, and we stop and buy our list of items at the store, then continue up the mountain towards home.
By this time, it's well past sunset and getting pretty dark. We see a car with its hood open at a pullout along Hwy 28, about halfway home. My husband says he wants to see if they need a jump, so we turn around and head back to the incapacitated car.
The driver is Hispanic with pretty broken English, a little difficult to understand, but my husband quickly realizes that the car had, instead, overheated and the driver was looking for the now missing radiator cap.
My husband returns to our car and retrieves the Costco flashlight from his toolbox in the back and offers it to the driver. They spend a few minutes inspecting things and the driver eventually spots the cap and carefully reaches in to grab it.
At this point, my husband asks the driver if he wants some water to refill his radiator to at least help him get home. The driver says with some disbelief, "Yes? You have water?" I smiled to myself and handed Jason the giant bottle of water originally intended for a thirsty hitchhiker.
They dump it all in, but it doesn't fill up completely, so I offer the remaining water from the stainless steel bottle I brought with me for the car ride. (It happened to be a recent birthday gift from my parents, who bought it in my hometown.) And sure enough, that was enough water to fill it back up and (hopefully) get him home.
The driver thanked my husband and then lowered his head and peered through our car window and said to me, plain as day, "Thank you, lady."
