Pay it forward

It was a cold night here in Houston - one of the coldest in a long time, and as we all know, our neighborhood can sometimes be a little dicey after dark.

I was driving home from yet another exciting evening with Bubby and Grandpa trying to help me tire out the Yonster. He had fallen asleep in the backseat (finally!) and, as I turned the corner at the last stoplight before my apartment complex, I saw a young man standing on the corner, right on the bayou, waiting for the bus. He was in a short sleeve red T-shirt, his work uniform. And he had some groceries and a black backpack (which I didn't see from the street). As I drove by he waved at me nonchalantly. That simple gesture made me take pause and before I had even made it through the stoplight I had made a decision.

I turned in the parking lot and came back around on the other side to get him.Then I made a slightly illegal left U-turn so I wouldn't miss the green traffic light. He was waiting for a bus to take him 10 minutes up the road. I was bundled up in my winter coat and I was still cold and here was this young man just waiting for a bus in his short-sleeved T- shirt. And I didn't notice the tell-tale school backpack until he got in the car.

It turns out that this young man was a high school junior who had just finished his shift at a local grocery store. He was a bright kid who was saving up for college at a school in Minnesota - guess the cold doesn't bother him. He yawned as he explained that he still had a five page paper to write for AP history and that the guidelines were very strict - 12 point font, 1" margins, single-spaced - no cutting corners here. In conversation on the way to his destination, it came up that he simply waved because he had nothing better to do and there were very few, if any, cars on the road that night. Upon arrival he offered me gas money (for a short trip up the road - and a high school kid at that!)

I explained to him that I wouldn't hear of it and that I stopped (and truthfully went out of my way) because I would want someone to do the same for my son if the occasion ever arose. My parting words to him were a loose translation of a saying my husband says often, Im matchilim b'mitzvah, osim otah ad ha-sof - "If you're going to do a good deed, make sure it's a great deed" It reminded me of the idea of "Pay it Forward" where one good deed breeds more good deeds. And his comment was that he should remember that one!

I hope he does.