Tsmart78

So yesterday I made the colossal effort to get up and go in to work on my day off just to catch up on a few things. My goal was to get there by 830 and leave by 12.
I got in the car and noticed that per my dashboard I had about 60 miles before I ran out of gas. I thought, “That’s fine, I can make it to work and get gas when I leave.”
Trust me I had NO desire to get out and pump gas that morning because it was 29°.

Anyway, I was 22 miles away from home (about 30 miles into the journey if you count dropping off my youngesr son at school) when I got the phone call that my husband left his car keys in my glove compartment and of course I didn’t know where the spare keys were.
Sooo I turned around and drove 22 miles back to the house to take him his keys so he could go and run his errands.
Now if youre following me I’m about 52 miles into my 60. And the gas light is on and it’s STILL 29°. But now I HAVE to stop at the gas station before I go to work. Yep I was still going in on my day off after all of this. TBH I was a little ticked and started to scrap the whole plan by this time because it was after 850 and it would be 930 or 945 before I could get to the office.
I pushed on and when I left home again, I stopped at the first gas station by my house. So I was out in the COLD pumping gas with my face frowned up and fussing in my head about how this was all just inconvenient, when some guy came up to me. He wasn’t homeless looking, but he wasn’t rich looking either. Just looked like a 20-30 something less than affluent guy.
I’m frowned up and pumping and he started talking. I’m sure my frown turned into what my oldest son calls the “death stare”.(DJM - its a defense mechanism too)
The guy said something to the effect of “Ma'am I’m sorry to bother you but do you have a dollar or two to spare. I’m on the pay as you go plan with Flint and I just need 5 more dollars to keep my lights on until I get paid tomorrow.”
Now I’m sure I probably gave him the chile please face at this point because I was thinking no way buddy is gonna rob me at this gas station.
The guy kept talking about he works at Ruby Tuesday and he will have money tomorrow and he’ll show me his ID and I could come to RT tomorrow and he’d pay me back.
At this point I was thinking I’m just gonna give him a dollar or two-because I had found that amount in left over in another wallet I had used.
I told him hold on let me see if I had some change. He started saying “Oh thank you, you can come by and I’ll pay you back.”
I said “No don’t worry about it.”
So I got in my car and closed my door (I pushed the lock in too - mama didn’t raise a fool) and looked for the two dollars I had found. Now mind you I had one-10, 1-five, and 3-ones in my pocket. And I was digging for the ones and thinking, “I wonder if he’s lying” And “If it’s a scam, he must still really need it.” Then I thought, “I wasn’t even supposed to be at this gas station. I was supposed to be at work, 35 miles away by now and of all people, this guy came up to me in spite of my mean mug asking about 5 dollars.”
So I took the $5 bill out of my pocket, looked around to be sure he wasn’t waiting by my door to bash me over the head (he was at the back of the car and on the other side -acceptable distance), and got out and handed him the five.
If y'all could have seen this man’s face light up. You would have thought I gave him the winning powerball ticket. He started saying, “Oh my God! Oh my God! Thank you so much for this blessing. Ma'am, please come by Ruby Tuesday tomorrow and I’ll pay you back, you’ve blessed me so much!”
To say his response took me by surprise was an understatement.
I told him, “Don’t worry about it, it’s ok.”
And I have NO intentions of going to RT to collect 5 dollars.
For one, I wouldn’t have asked for it back anyway.
And two, apparently, I was sent there to help him.
It just goes to show that even though things might not go the way YOU planned, there may be a different plan that you’re supposed to be a part of.