When was the last time your life briefly, and accidentally, intersected with a stranger, possibly with life-changing consequences?

Please note the words “stranger” and “briefly.”

On Sunday Rick and I had decided to go to Ark City, about 15 miles south, for breakfast instead of eating in Winfield like we usually do. We happened to see this beautiful bug for sale and I lost my heart.

So yesterday afternoon, Monday, Rick and I went back to Ark City to meet the owner to buy it. We met at Jump Start, a convenience store at the south end of town.

About 45 minutes later, the guys were just finishing up, I was about 15 feet away looking at something, when an older lady, maybe 75, pulled up in a silver Marquee and got out. I saw her lean down and check the rear driver’s side wheel well, and I saw wisps of smoke coming out. Then she walked away to go into the store and smoke just started pouring out of the wheel well.

I ran over to my husband, who happens to be an excellent mechanic, and Bug Dude who acted like he was a mechanic, and was yanking on their shirt sleeves going, “You guys! You guys! This old lady pulled up in this car! Look!!”

They came around the corner, saw it, and Bug Dude said, “That’s not good…it’s right by the gas tank.” I started backing away, but they, of course walked right up to the wheel and started peering in and smelling the smoke. Why women live longer than men.

They decided it was her brakes, that perhaps she had been driving with her E-brake on…but it wasn’t on, so they thought it might be bearings?

So the lady comes out of the store and looks at us suspiciously ‘cause we’re all crowded around her car. I quickly introduced everyone and Bug Guy says, “You don’t want to drive that car any more! It’s dangerous!”

It also had the funky spare on it instead of the regular tire. She said she had been at a Casino in Oklahoma, about 15 miles further south, and had gotten a flat, and some guys had changed it for her. On the way home she hadn’t been able to get the car over 36 miles an hour…this would be on 70 mph stretches of narrow, crappy Oklahoma two lane highways.

When they told her she couldn’t drive it she just didn’t know what to do. She wanted to know where she could get it fixed. She’s from Wichita, 75 miles away, on her way home, and doesn’t know this area.

Rick said, “Val, you got Roger’s number?”

I did. Roger is a casual friend of ours, who may possibly be a better mechanic than Rick, and he runs Becker Tire in Ark City. Two blocks away.

He advised Rick to tell the woman to let her car cool down for at least 30 minutes, then bring it to him.

It was about 4:45 and Becker closes at 5:00 and she was concerned about that. Rick talked to Roger again and Roger said he’d wait.

Rick told her where Becker’s was, and I snapped ”YOU are driving her car there, Rick!”

He nodded meekly, and so, 30 minutes later he did, and she rode with me the two blocks to Becker’s and we introduced her to Roger.
Roger says to me, “This your Mom?”
“No. I have no idea who she is. Just found her in the parking lot of Jump Start.”
Rick said, “We’re just bringing them in off the streets for ya Rog!” :)

I hated leaving her there, but there wasn’t any more for us to do, really, and she was in good hands. Roger would have stayed till midnight for her if he’d had to.
I made Roger promise to call if she needed anything more, he said he would, and I gave her my number, then said, “By the way….what is your name?”
“Phyllis,” she said.

So we went home. About an hour later Phyllis called, said it was her brakes, and they needed to order parts that they couldn’t get until tomorrow. I was instantly ready to go back to Ark City, but then she said her son was coming from Wichita to get her. She said Roger had dropped her back off at the Jump Start to wait for him. I said something about stupid men because there are a ton of restaurants at the north end of town, that her son would be passing on his way to get her, where she could have sat and waited for him! Hell, Roger lives in Winfield and he could have brought her to our house and saved her son at least 45 minutes of the drive! Sheesh.

I just told her to please call us if she needed anything more. She said she would.

Now, if all of those things hadn’t come together, if we hadn’t gone to Ark City for breakfast the day before, if we hadn’t met the guy at Jump Start when we did, if we hadn’t intervened, no telling how far the lady might have tried to drive that dangerous car.

Just maybe we saved her life. :) :) :)