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This week's episode is sponsored by Android Poems by Elliott Parker (my poetry pen name!) National Poetry Month continues.

An innovative poetry collection set in the 24th century, filled with androids, technology, and what it means to be human. Explore a rich futuristic world that could one day be our own.

Link: http://www.books2read.com/androidpoems

SHOW NOTES

Quick overview of this week's show:

How I had some car trouble in the middle of Iowa
A kind act from a stranger that I will never forget

TRANSCRIPT

[Cue Car trouble sounds] Have you ever had car trouble? Imagine that you're stuck on the side of the road with your hood up. It's a blazing hot summer day and you're dripping in sweat as you listen to your engine sputter. You smell like exhaust and oil, and you're frustrated at how much money this is all going to cost.

You feel despair as you glance at the street, watching car after car after car go by, wishing you could get some help. If only your car was one of those cars, if only you weren't the one sitting on the hot asphalt!

This happened to me and a friend back in 2011 when we had some car trouble. Fortunately, we weren't stuck on the road forever. Fortunately, someone did stop.

The gentleman who helped us out is the subject of my sketchbook today.

***

Hello, and welcome to episode 6 of the podcast.

As I mentioned in the intro, this week’s sketch is from all the way back in 2011.

It's funny how time blurs out little details, because I don't remember the specifics of this day other than that we had some car trouble.

Here's what I remember: a friend of mine and I were on the way to a place called Wesley Woods, which is a camp where a lot of college students work summer jobs. My friend worked there.

We stopped for snacks at a gas station on a county road, and when we turned the car back on, it didn't start.

We were stuck in the parking lot of this random gas station in the middle of rural Iowa with no idea what to do.

We were in our twenties, so in other words, pretty naive. We never thought to call roadside assistance or the insurance company, and we didn't have smartphones back then.

So we called a tow, and waited.

We watched a lot of cars pass by. In fact, there must have been hundreds, and the drivers all stared at us.

We were already late and off schedule. This didn't help. And, I should add that there we were of color. Imagine a black guy, a Filipina, and a Latina standing around in a gas station parking lot in the middle of nowhere. Not something you see in Iowa very much.

Just when all was lost, a red car pulled into the parking lot and saved the day.

***

We’re standing around, trying to figure out how we’re going to fix my friend’s car trouble when we hear tires crunch over a pothole.

A 90s red Lincoln Continental slides into the parking lot and curves around the pumps real smooth. The way it moves reminds me of a pimp rounding a corner in the hood. The car stops, then reverses into the parking spot next to us. The trunk pops open.

Red 1993 Lincoln Continental

Out of the driver’s door comes a skinny black guy with a goatee. He's wearing a long white tank top and blue basketball shorts.

“Y’all need some help?” he asks.

We nod desperately.

He pulls a jumper cable from the trunk and goes to work. Within minutes the car is running.

“Could be the alternator,” he says. “But your real problem is your battery fluid. It's too low.”

We make small talk, try to pay him, buy him a bottle of soda, but he refuses.

He tells us he's a mechanic at a shop nearby. Only black guy in a county full of white people. He said he saw us and knew he had to stop. It's not every day that you see some pigment around here. He had just gotten some gas and was on the way to a Corvette show in the next county.

His name was Wesley.

And funny coincidence, we were going to Wesley Woods that day.

What I remember the most is just how many cars passed us by that day, and how he was the only one who stopped.

***

Quote of the week: “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

Melody Beattie