piece's of eight

in los angeles one is rarely exposed to the kindness of strangers.

a kind word is a myth.

a kind gesture seldom seen.

sharing amongst strangers is limited for the most part to four letter words and one finger gestures.

while rudeness can be found anywhere, i find that living in la has left me jaded and expecting the worst from people.

as often happens though when you come to expect the worst a stranger will remind you that kindness does exist still in this world.

we are in garrett, indiana at the moment. our plans for the area fell through and we found ourselves with extra time on our hands.

i am not a big movie theater person but cristian was dying to see pirates so to kill some time and surprise the kid we went to the movies.

in la two tickets for a movie will run you eight dollars a piece for a matinee and ten or more for an evening show. here in indiana it was ten total for the two of us.

than the problem arose. they were having problems with my debit card. after several tries i took my card back intending to head for the nearest atm which as luck would have it was down the street inside of the wal-mart. we hit the parking lot and the skies opened up. between the rain and the time i knew we would miss the beginning of the movie if we tried for the atm. as it was the last showing of the night we scrounged all of the change we could from the car and hoped that it was enough.

by the time we reentered the lobby we were soaked to the bone. cristian had all the ones and coins clutched between his dripping fingers. the kid at the box office helped him count it out and when it was all said and done we were a dollar short.

i figured we would have to run to wal-mart and miss the first few minutes of the movie. that was before the kid selling us the ticket reached into his own wallet and pulled out a dollar bill making up the difference. all he said when we thanked him was that he would hate for us to miss the beginning of the movie.

i did not get his name.

i do know that through his unsolicited gesture he made my son's night and restored a bit of my faith in the human race.