Her

You see a girl walking down the street. She looks familiar but you’re running late so you keep walking. You notice that she’s got tears streaming down her face but you just don’t have the time to stop.

How long has she been walking? Where is she going? Why is she crying? None of these questions cross your mind because well. You’re busy.

She keeps going. It’s 30 degrees and she can no longer feel the tears coming down just the steady burn on her cheeks.

Needing to warm up and distract herself from the thoughts running wild in her mind she stops into a nearby coffee shop. Looking around there are so many people. Someone will see her ripped shirt and will ask her about her uncontrollable sobbing right? She hasn’t noticed the annoyed barista asking what she’d like to order until she looks up.

Her face is bruised and her lip is swollen. But the barista is busy and just needs your order.

Hot coffee in her cold hands feels amazing. Even though she has no idea where she is.

The minutes feel like hours as people walk in and out glancing at her. She stands to leave and bumps a stranger entering the small coffee shop. She mutters an apology and continues on her way.

The man she bumped has a very important meeting to attend, and he’s already five minutes late. Was that blood on her shirt? Is she okay?

He notices that she is not wearing anything over her ripped sweater. “Excuse me, miss. Are you alright?”. She peeks over her shoulder and apologizes for bumping him again.

She continues walking down the street. Unsure where to go. “Do you need a ride?” He asks. She panicks, why is he following her? “No, no, I’m fine. Please leave me alone.” He is now able to see that she is not okay. “Please, let me help you. I’m Adam. I’d like to give you my coat. It’s cold, and your sweater is ripped. You must be freezing.”

She can’t feel anything. “Why do you want to help me?”.

“I can see that you need help miss. Please, let me help you”. Her knees buckle and she falls to the ground. He rushes to her side, wrapping his coat around her. He calls for his driver who is still waiting in front of the coffee shop.

As the driver approaches Adam explains “This is my car and my driver, Cody. Please let me take you to a hospital.” “No, no hospital.” She insists. “I’d like to just go back to the shop, the coffee shop. I will be okay. Thank you for helping me.” He notices that the blood on her shirt is coming from a wound on her stomach. “What happened to you?”

The car is moving, and her head is spinning. “What’s your name?” Adam asks. “It’s not important. I just need to find my coat, with my keys, and my car.” The pain in her abdomen has gotten worse now that she no longer has the cold burn on her skin distracting her.

“You really should see a doctor, we’re going to go to the hospital. I can’t leave you at a coffee shop like this.” Adam nods to the driver.

She can’t go to the hospital. “Please, I don’t want to go to the hospital. If you won’t take me to the coffee shop you can take me anywhere, just not the hospital”. “I live a block away. I can take you to my place.. My sister is a doctor, I can ask her to meet us there?” Adam replies, unsure of what else to do. She agrees. Just not the hospital.

Adam makes a quick call, leaving a message for his sister to meet him at his house. She asks to stay in the car until the doctor is there. Adam explains that she works about twenty minutes away and that he has a female housekeeper that she can stay with until his sister can get there.

She notices that the bleeding has gotten worse and agrees to wait inside.

She has locked herself in the bathroom waiting for Adam’s sister to arrive. She looks at herself in the mirror and cannot believe what she sees. She lifts her sweater and sees a large gash near her belly button. She jumps when she hears a knock on the door.

A soft “Hello” echos from the other side. “I’m Doctor Mason, Adam’s sister. May I come in?” Without a word the door opens slightly. “Hi, my name is Penelope. Can you tell me your name?”

The injured girl puts her head down and says “My name doesn’t matter, but I do need your help” and points to the wound on her stomach. “Oh honey, this looks like it’s going to need stitches. Let’s take a look at you.”

A while later Penelope leaves the bathroom and explains to her brother that she has helped in every way that she could for now but he should try to talk her into going to the hospital. She adds that she has to get back to work, but to call her if he needs to.

Adam sits on the couch unsure what to do. Then she comes out of the bathroom. She sits down in a nearby chair and thanks him for his help. She starts to cry and words start pouring out.

Yesterday had been the worst day of her life. She came home from work to find her husband in bed with another woman. She left their apartment to go to a friends, but her friend wasn’t home. So she started to walk back to her car and was attacked. She tried to escape but was stabbed by her assailant. She passed out and when she came to, he was gone. Her coat with her car keys and phone in the pocket, also gone. So she walked. And walked. And walked.

She didn’t know what she was going to do, or where she was going to go. Everything she had was from her husband. Her car, her phone, her health insurance. All that she could think about was staying far away from him and everything tied to him.

“If I go to the hospital, they may call my husband and I just can’t handle him knowing any of this. I can’t bear to see him.

“Please, tell me your name” Adam asked. “Why do you want to know?” She asked. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t matter. You’ve already helped me too much, I should go. Thank you so much for helping me.” She started to get up.

“Please don’t go” Adam said pulling out a little black book. “My sister, Penelope, she has gone through a trauma similar to yours. She was in her first year of college, at a frat party and.. her life fell apart. It took her a while to find herself again. In order to put herself back together, she needed to help someone else. So together she and I started a foundation. To help.”

Before she could speak Adam continued. “We can help you. We can give you a fresh start”. She searched his face for more, confused, waiting for the catch. “What do you want in return?” She asked.

“Well, could you please tell me your name?” Adam asked with a light chuckle. “Jennifer, my name is Jennifer.” Adam writes her name in the little black book and pulls out his checkbook.

“Jennifer, I want you to let my driver take you to the hospital that my sister works at. I want you to let them help you. Insurance is not an issue. When you are done there we can go over what we can do next. But, I want you to have this.” Adam says looking Jennifer in the eyes as he hands her a piece of paper with names and phone numbers and a check.

Jennifer starts to say thank you with tears in her eyes but before she can get the words out she sees that the check is for $20,000. “I can’t accept this! You have already helped me so much. I-” Adam stops her. “Please, it’s okay.

“Why are you helping me?” Jennifer asks. “And what is that little black book for?”

Adam is still writing in the book when he looks up and smiles.

He turns the book around to show Jennifer the contents inside. She sees names, numbers, and dates written inside. “These are the people that I have personally encountered and have helped in any way. My sister and everyone else that takes part in our foundation has one. We all keep record of who we’ve helped and” he pauses to pull out another “we give a book to those we help and just ask for one thing in return. Write down the names of people you help in your journey. Any act of kindness. Write it down. On your bad days open your book and see all the good you’ve done and it’ll help put things into perspective.”

Jennifer smiled with tears running down her face. “I don’t know how to thank you enough”. Adam smiled back and said “when you can just pay it forward.”