I have never traded money for the physical pleasures offered by a woman….that is, until yesterday.
The story involves a loan on an apartment building that I own. The lender lost billions of dollars when the housing bubble collapsed and they were among those that were considered to be “too big to fail”.
They got a bailout, and were required to divest themselves of the remainder of their commercial loans to pay back as much of the money as possible. So one day they came to me and asked me to get some other loan and use the proceeds from that new loan to pay them off. To make it worth my while, they agreed to accept WAY, WAY less than what I owed them. It was the equivalent of hitting a small lottery.
Yesterday, we closed the deal and by the mid afternoon, I owed many tens-of-thousands of dollars less than I owed when I got up in the morning.
Later in the day, I was planning on celebrating by eating a root beer Popsicle, but first I had to get some gas. All the pumps were full so I randomly pulled in behind an elderly woman…say 70ish. Her grandson, probably six or so, was in the back seat.
Nothing came easy for her. By the time she got out of her car, another lane opened and I could have moved, but something compelled me to stay there. I watched her read the instructions on her pump and try to prepay with a credit card. Her first attempt failed. So did her second.
Meanwhile another space opened up, but I stayed put.
She switched to another card and tried again…no luck. I could see the colored buttons on the key pad and watched as she tried all sorts of combinations (pay outside credit, pay inside credit, is this a debit card, etc.) but nothing worked. It was very obvious she was flustered.
I rolled down my window and politely said, “Would you like some help?”
Unfortunately, she was so shook up she misinterpreted my intentions. She snapped back in frustration, “I’ll get out of your way as soon I can.”
By that time, there were several bays open, but I was determined to see this one through. “No problem,” I said. “You have as much right to be there as I do. Just let me know if you need any help.”
Then she sensed I was sincere, “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m having trouble with my credit card.”
She turned around and repeated the same steps that failed her before. It was time to intervene.
I got out of my car, and said, “Let’s see what we can do.” We pushed the buttons again and when it was time to “insert card” I inserted mine instead. It worked perfectly, which made it obvious that the reason she was having trouble was her card was maxed out.
“No. Sir, I can’t allow you to do that,” she insisted.
I responded, “It’s okay. I’ve had a very good day and I am happy to share some of my good fortune with you.”
Well, you know how women are (I can get away with sexist statements like that because I have endured a lifetime with six sisters). The floodgates opened, and tears filled her tired eyes.
“You don’t know how much this means to me. I am having so many financial problems,” she whimpered. On and on she went. “I really needed this right now”, “Oh thank you, sir”, “you are my angel”.
“You’re sure welcome ma’am," I said. "Maybe you can do something nice for somebody else and pass it on.”
"I will. I know just what to do. I’m going to send a letter to a magazine that prints articles about things like this."
After she put the pump nozzle back, she turned and held out her arms. We hugged. She shivered as she held me close and swayed and whispered, “thank you, thank you, thank you".
When we finally released, her wrinkled cheeks were drwoning in tears from grateful reddened eyes.
A moment later, she drove off...very, very slowly.
I looked around and realized all of the bays were open. I pulled forward and thanked God for one of the best days of my life, then I went to the store to get that root beer Popsicle.
It was the best one I've ever had.
It is my hope that by reading this, you too will do something kind for a stranger. Take my word for it, it feels pretty darn good.
