When I Woke Up

I was working two jobs to get ahead.... sharing a car and a home with my older sister. We had a car that probably needed to be put to rest. It smoked so bad it looked like it was part of the mosquito control unit spraying everything as it went.

She had her husband and her kids.... I had jobs and a room in the back of the house. I would work all day in a lunchroom cafeteria and sleep in the evening until my third shift at a hotel a few towns over. I would do this for six days a week. Tiring but I was doing what I could to achieve all the goals I set for myself.

Each night that I went to work at the hotel... the drive was kind of scary. I had to go through three towns on my way to work. The drive would take about 45 minutes. There was this one town called Heritage and it was notorious for being a town you did not stop in.

The people are self-governing and rough cut. Drugs and violence are huge in Heritage. The people and the police share in the corruption. Every day I simply drove through and never stopped for a thing.

One summer weekend night... I was on my way to work, and I started my descent through Heritage. There is a few redlights in town that are not too big of a deal.... but the one in the center of town has two corner convenience stores where gangs freely sell drugs out front 24 hours a day.

I get to the main redlight in town and look over at all the action happening. There were several cars and about 20 people interacting with each other outside. There was a lot of yelling and a lot of laughing going on... I just watched as I waited for the light to change.

The light turned green and there is where she died. The car from hell just died at the worst spot possible. Oh my God what was I going to do? I could not go... I could not move out of the way. I was scared to death.

I immediately took a deep breath and put the car in neutral and slid over onto the side of the road. Luckily, I had enough hill to get out of the way on the side of the road safely. The car is out of the road... what do I do now?

I just sat there in the car with the doors locked tight. I could not get the car to crank again. It was completely dead. I was about a block away from the stores and I was starting to attract the attention of the people outside the stores. I began to panic a bit. I did not have a cell phone ... it was the 90's and not common to have one. My only chance at calling my sister was using one of the payphones at the very sketchy crowded store.

You could tell that the onlookers were getting really nervous about my presence... I was nervous about my own presence. I had to do something, and I had to do it soon. I took a deep breath and just got out of the car. I just figured whatever I was going to endure I had to go through because there was no other choice. I just starting walking toward the store to use the payphone.

As I was walking, I was thinking about every bad thing I went through at that moment. I was also thinking about how I can't seem to catch a break and bad stuff just keeps happening. It was like I was slowly filling up with huge amounts of tension and I had to stomach it all as if to prepare for battle.

With my own attitude not helping me I got closer to the store... people were glaring at me and making me feel uncomfortable. I got to the payphone and as if my luck could not get worse, I did not have any change and it was actually broken. I felt myself slipping into meltdown mode. I just stood there for a minute trying to hold it all together. I'm scared in a bad town surrounded by sketchy people... I was about to blow.

Holding back tears and a huge lump in my throat... a lady approaches me and says, "I work here, and it looks like you need help." Relieved as I see this short chunky country woman who clearly does not fit here either. I tell her my story as she walks me into the store. On the way to the entrance, she was kidding and joking with the people in the parking lot. I started feeling at ease and seeing that they were just different people in a different place. A few of the guys outside put their not-so legal activities aside and offered to look at the car for me.

It turned out that the car's alternator was the problem and they happened to have access to some junk cars like mine and had one to fit. The guys claimed it was junk and they needed no payment for the services or the parts. The kind little lady behind the counter let me use her phone to call work and my sister. After the guys put the alternator in... she cranked right up after they jump started the battery.

I thanked them and was so happy how everything turned out. Even if you are taught to judge certain ways and judge certain ideas, you can grow and learn from them. I stopped by that store many times to look in on my helpers and was so glad to see them.

Since then, I learned something important.... just because a situation looks one way it can totally be another. Don't prejudge people before knowing all the details and what people are really like. I think about all those people and what they were really like when I feel myself starting to judge instead of observing first.