Narratives of the Weird
"Psst... This way..."
Ali from Michigan writes:
Several years ago, we were driving along I-40 between Tennessee and North Carolina on a scorching July day when traffic stopped due to a mudslide across the highway. We were told it would be several hours before it would be cleared, and because the highway was divided, there was no turning back. Everyone had to wait. We were nervous because we had an old dog in our car, with no water to drink or air conditioning to cool any of us. I worked at a vet clinic and knew just how quickly a pet could suffer from a heat stroke. I was getting very nervous and opened
my door to ask other cars if they had any water to spare for her.
At that point a pickup truck pulled along the shoulder and asked if we wanted to follow him thru the Smokey Mountains National Forest. The driver was a kind-looking elderly man, and he told us it would be no faster to go his way, but it was almost entirely shaded and would be a beautiful and much-cooler drive. We pulled out behind him and followed as he pulled alongside 2 other seemingly random cars to ask them along as well. We pulled onto a small dirt track next to the highway and headed into the forest. Our caravan stopped at a small gas station just inside and we all piled out. Each of our cars had needed help in various ways: I bought lots of water for our dog, a second car filled up on gas as their tank was nearly empty and the third car held an expectant mother who very badly needed to use the restroom and get something to eat. After a 3 hour drive thru very pretty and very shady wilderness, our guide led us back out to the highway at a point a few miles beyond the mudslide, which still had not been cleared, and waved us goodbye.
I wrote down the business information on the side of the pickup and wrote them a letter the next day telling them just how their employee had saved each of our vehicles from some very unpleasant circumstances. I received a letter the following week letting me know that there was no elderly man who drove a pick-up for their moving company, and their business was in fact 10 hours east of where we met our mysterious stranger. They concluded that I must have gotten my information mixed up with someone else. This confused me, as I had written the information down exactly as it had been on the side of the vehicle - how could I have gotten it mixed up?
I am convinced that this stranger was our guiding angel. If he had not come along when he did, a pregnant mother would have been suffering through the heat with no respite, a car would have been disabled along the side of the highway out of gas and my dog would probably have been stricken with a heat stroke. This man saved all of us, and I can only hope that he realizes just how grateful we were. As an end note, my dog paid his kindness forward and saved me from an armed intruder three months later. Had she not survived our summer trip, who knows what would have happened that fall?
Do you have a story? Tell us!
The Narratives of the Weird Newsletter © 2008 SkumChiken Productions
Do not republish, reprint, or transmit without permission. (just ask first! geez)
Ali from Michigan writes:
Several years ago, we were driving along I-40 between Tennessee and North Carolina on a scorching July day when traffic stopped due to a mudslide across the highway. We were told it would be several hours before it would be cleared, and because the highway was divided, there was no turning back. Everyone had to wait. We were nervous because we had an old dog in our car, with no water to drink or air conditioning to cool any of us. I worked at a vet clinic and knew just how quickly a pet could suffer from a heat stroke. I was getting very nervous and opened
my door to ask other cars if they had any water to spare for her.
At that point a pickup truck pulled along the shoulder and asked if we wanted to follow him thru the Smokey Mountains National Forest. The driver was a kind-looking elderly man, and he told us it would be no faster to go his way, but it was almost entirely shaded and would be a beautiful and much-cooler drive. We pulled out behind him and followed as he pulled alongside 2 other seemingly random cars to ask them along as well. We pulled onto a small dirt track next to the highway and headed into the forest. Our caravan stopped at a small gas station just inside and we all piled out. Each of our cars had needed help in various ways: I bought lots of water for our dog, a second car filled up on gas as their tank was nearly empty and the third car held an expectant mother who very badly needed to use the restroom and get something to eat. After a 3 hour drive thru very pretty and very shady wilderness, our guide led us back out to the highway at a point a few miles beyond the mudslide, which still had not been cleared, and waved us goodbye.
I wrote down the business information on the side of the pickup and wrote them a letter the next day telling them just how their employee had saved each of our vehicles from some very unpleasant circumstances. I received a letter the following week letting me know that there was no elderly man who drove a pick-up for their moving company, and their business was in fact 10 hours east of where we met our mysterious stranger. They concluded that I must have gotten my information mixed up with someone else. This confused me, as I had written the information down exactly as it had been on the side of the vehicle - how could I have gotten it mixed up?
I am convinced that this stranger was our guiding angel. If he had not come along when he did, a pregnant mother would have been suffering through the heat with no respite, a car would have been disabled along the side of the highway out of gas and my dog would probably have been stricken with a heat stroke. This man saved all of us, and I can only hope that he realizes just how grateful we were. As an end note, my dog paid his kindness forward and saved me from an armed intruder three months later. Had she not survived our summer trip, who knows what would have happened that fall?
Do you have a story? Tell us!
The Narratives of the Weird Newsletter © 2008 SkumChiken Productions
Do not republish, reprint, or transmit without permission. (just ask first! geez)
posted by SkumChiken at 5:50 PM
