Houston
One day I picked up a very wealthy uptown lady and my job was to drive her to Jackson, Mississippi. I had made that trip a hundred times before, so this was old hat. The house she lived in was a magnificent mansion, rivaling any other to be found in the lovely city of New Orleans.
We hardly spoke a word. A chauffeur never initiates a conversation, and speaks only when spoken to, so this was a pretty quiet ride. We headed north from La Place, onto Interstate 55.
Shortly after we got onto that newly-constructed superhighway, a slight drizzle began. I never liked driving in the rain. It turns ordinary people into mean, hateful jerks, and the mean ones - well - they just get meaner! The crazies get crazier, too, it seems. That is why I try to get out of driving in inclement weather.
Today, there was no getting out of it. I was just getting into some light rain, and there were dark, ominous clouds straight ahead. Just my luck. No doubt about it now, I'll have a heck of a cleaning job ahead of me when I take this Lincoln back to the shop, I thought. I had a lot of time for thinking on that long drive in the middle of nowhere.
We were just nearing the Louisiana-Mississsippi State Line when all Hell broke loose. There was a wild thunderstorm, showering us with a deluge of rain so thick that I could hardly see the road in front of me. My wipers were of little help. The skies turned very dark green, except when lightning struck - which was frequently. The clouds were like a seething cauldron of fire, exploding in incandescent colors of orange and green.
I slowed down below the speed limit, put on my headlights, and made sure the car was in the right-hand lane. It was a doozy of a storm! Just ahead of my limousine was another, going about the same speed as I was. I left several carlengths between he and I. There was no other car that I could see on the road, but I had no time for counting cars: mine was being buffeted now by high crosswinds. Out on the interstates, away from buildings and trees, vehicles are practically out in the open, and thus subjected to the full brunt of Nature's fury, and today it was putting on quite a show, that was for sure!
Just then a tremendous bolt of lightning hit the median, right next to the car in front of me! There was a blinding flash and a deafening roar! The car ahead began to waver, the driver no doubt having been startled by the thunderclap. Then, unable to control his car, he began to overcompensate, turning his wheel wildly, first right, then left, then right again. He began to fishtail, eventually spinning around in a wild circle, and then careened into the ditch on the right side of the highway, turning over and landing upside-down in a few inches of water.
My passenger and I watched this terrible event unfold, and I braked. Seeing what happened, I asked the lady: "Oh, Ma'am, please, I HAVE to stop to help these people!"
I don't believe it was asking permission - it was more like more stating what must be done.
"Oh, ABSOLUTELY!" came the lady's immediate assent, to my great relief.
I jumped out into the storm and pulled first the driver, a man, out of the wreckage. Then I realized he had a passenger, a lady, who was screaming for help from the other side. I grabbed her arm and she screamed in pain. She gave me her hand, and out she came through the broken window.
The shaken man was quite worried about his wife: "She hurt, man, she hurt!"
He was right. From the looks of it, her arm was badly broken. She was screaming all the while.
I had a dilemma: I had to take this lady to the hospital right away. How will this very rich Uptown lady feel if I ask her if we could take some strange, black lady, dripping wet from the rain, to a hospital in her limo? There was only one way to find out, ASK! My fears were allayed once again, when the lady said "Of COURSE!"
Her husband preferred to stay with his vehicle until the police arrived. I told him I was heading for the hospital in Brookhaven, and the we headed north to the next exit, where I got the lady registered at the ER. It was only a broken arm, but it hurt a great deal!
I continued on my interrupted journey. taking this rich Uptown lady to her destination in an affluent neighborhood of Jackson. I offered to take the time spent with the accident off her bill, but she would hear none of it, and handed me an extra cash tip for my trouble.
This was a lesson learned: don't prejudge people. A crisis will bring out either the best in people --- or the worst. Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. People just may surprize you!
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