The Good Samaritan

Posted on July 16, 2013 under Storytelling with one comment

The gospel story was about the Good Samaritan and I listened intently to the sermon that followed.  The priest started by making a disparaging comment about lawyers and, sitting not ten feet away, was my brother, a recently retired lawyer.  We exchanged knowing glances and a grin.  A pending defamation suit was diffused after Mass following a meeting of the aggrieved party and the pastor.

I attend church at my mother’s apartment building every Saturday at 5 PM and I have been conscripted to do the music.  My brother was in town for his annual pilgrimage to the “Little Vatican” and came to Mass on this particular day.  As is often the case in the summertime, other relatives of the buildings’ residents were also in attendance.  The air was warm but so was the vibe.

I took my leave immediately after the service to attend to family visiting our house.  My brother and my mother had been invited to supper with another sibling who lives not far away.  This was a good thing as my brother was on a very tight timetable with tickets in his pocket for a concert at 7 PM.

They approached his rental car, a bright, shiny 2013 Dodge Avenger, black in color.  The remote entry key was engaged and he could hear the familiar sound of the locks opening.  He put the key into the ignition but, surprisingly, nothing happened.  The key would not move.  My brother had tinkered with cars in his youth so he wasn’t perplexed with this turn of events.  Initially.  He tried to twist the steering wheel and fiddled with the gear shift to no avail.  He stepped on the brake.  He searched in vain for a dashboard starter.  Thinking back to Mass, he contemplated a few additional prayers.

It was a particularly warm evening and from doing battle with the car on the heels of a warm church service, sweat appeared on my brother’s brow.

 And, the clock was ticking.

Mild inconvenience slowly seeped into frustration as he dug furiously in the cubby hole to find the user’s manual.  He ripped the unopened plastic and started looking for instructions: “How to Start Your Car”. When this failed to uncover any hidden secrets he thought he might have to call the rental company.  He fished in the console for his Blackberry and came up empty.  Tired, hot, hungry and aggravated, he was running out of viable options when along came the Good Samaritan.

The owner of the building strolled up to him.  “Donnie.  What are you doing in my brother’s car”?  The owner’s brother had come to town in a rented vehicle to spend some time with his mother.  Momentarily flummoxed, my brother searched for an appropriate response when, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a 2013 Dodge Avenger, black in color, parked immediately beside the car he believed to be his.  Identical, right down to the interior.

After a hasty supper he made his way to attend the aforementioned concert.  It was about the trials and tribulations of our Scottish ancestors as they made their way on tall ships to the new world in 1801.

He left the concert and drove to his next engagement.  Only this time he was pedalling his bike.  It doesn’t require a key to get it started.

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