The milk of human kindness

My sister Sheba’s car broke down in the snow yesterday. She was left stranded in the middle of the road in a car that was turning into an icebox by the second.

Because she sat precariously in the middle of the road, passing cars angrily blew their horns in disbelief that her car had the audacity to get in their way. Other motorists were also slowing down while they were passing so that they could make eye contact with the idiot who was blocking their way. It seemed more important to give Sheba a dirty look and the middle finger than to ask her if she was alright and if she needed any help.

After about 45 minutes of patiently waiting for the RAC to turn up, her hands and feet were beginning to turn numb but she was too afraid to go off some place to warm up a bit just in case the RAC came and left again.

While sitting there thinking about how much she hated her car for letting her down, a man approached the car and knocked on the window. He said to Sheba I noticed that you’ve broken down, would you like a cup of tea? Sheba said this is when the tears came rolling down. For almost an hour, she sat there in the middle of a busy London street in the freezing cold while the world passed her by or made it clear that they regarded her as a nuisance. When somebody finally recognised that she needed help or a friendly face, it made her feel very emotional.

After she drank the tea, she was bursting to use the toilet so she decided to use some bravery and knock on a door where she saw that people had been going in and out. The woman who opened the door said that she just moved in that morning and there wasn’t any light in the bathroom. Her neighbour overhead the conversation and said to Sheba, you can use mine. Sheba resisted the urge to cry and used the toilet and thanked everyone concerned. As she was leaving, the woman offered Sheba a blanket to keep warm. Sheba said she developed a lump in her throat the size of a number 37 bus!

No sooner had she sat in the car with the blanket on her lap, two men approached Sheba and asked if she would like them to push her car next to the pavement. It’s strange because as soon as someone unlocked the kindness door, people started falling out like skeletons in a closet.

The man from the RAC finally arrived. He said he’d take Sheba to the nearest bus stop or tube station. For whatever reason, three hours later, Sheba was at her front door. The man from the RAC took her all the way home while stopping every now and then to help other motorists with his shovel who were stuck in the snow. Her 40 minute journey home turned into an epic road-trip!

Sheba said she learnt a lesson yesterday. She said that from now on, she’s not just going to think about being kind, she’s just going to do it. She said that yesterday was a lesson in human kindness which will change the way she behaves forever.