“No,” the woman replied. “You don’t understand…”
The manager growled, “I understand you just fine.” “Get out!” “You get nothing if you don’t have a car or money!”
The woman pressed her shaky fists together. “My husband and I had a car accident, and he is unconscious on the road…I only ask that you make a phone call!”
Tara made up her mind and stepped forwards. “Ma’am, I’ll call 911 for you,” she explained. She picked up the landline receiver at the service station and phoned. She grimaced and took up her cell phone before shaking her head.
“I’m sorry,” she told the woman. “But the storm probably took down the phone lines and the cell tower. Where did you crash?”
The woman’s lips were trembling. “My poor John, oh my poor John…”
Tara came around the counter and put her arm around the woman’s sopping-wet shoulders. “Come on, Ma’am, I’ll drive you to him. We’ll take him to the hospital.”
The manager became outraged. “You most certainly will not!” he yelled. “You walk out that door and you’re fired!”
Tara looked at Mr. Anderson and spoke quietly. “Go ahead and fire me.” But I will not abandon a 𝕕𝕖𝕒 𝕕 man on the highway.”
“Thank you, my dear,” the woman exclaimed. “My husband is an influential man, you won’t regret this.”
“No matter who your husband is, Ma’am, I won’t regret it,” Tara remarked as she seated the woman in her car and fastened her seat belt. “My mother always taught us to help whenever we could, no matter who it is.”
With the woman’s guidance, Tara found the scene of the accident. The car was completely destroyed, and by the side of the road and covered with a blanket was an older man.
“John,” the woman exclaimed, kneeling at his side, “I’m here, darling, I found help!” The man opened his eyes and attempted to speak, but he was clearly too weak. Tara and the woman managed to get him into the backseat of her car and drove him to the hospital in the pouring rain.
