monday's mulling: little bumps in life

Last Thursday, I was heading to the farm for my morning shift. I had left the house five minutes later than usual, and what a difference those five minutes made. Traffic was heavier, especially where the road narrows to one lane in each direction about a quarter mile before the farm.

A few cars ahead of me was a driver causing a frustrating chain reaction: slow down, stop; slow down, stop. Then the car directly in front of me slammed on its brakes. I did the same.

BAM.

The driver behind me didn't.

We pulled off into the grass. I got out of my car and a young man stepped out of his. "Are you OK? Are you OK?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

He was clearly distraught, first because of the collision and second, he was in the middle of an Uber Eats delivery.

We exchanged phone numbers. His hand was shaking as he wrote and he told me he would send his insurance information as soon as possible. I trusted him. He seemed genuinely shaken and at the time I didn't feel it was necessary to call the police.

After about fifteen minutes we got back in our cars and continued on to our jobs.

I arrived at work five minutes late and told my co-worker what had happened.

The first thing she asked was, "Did you call the police?"

"No."

She gave me a look.

A little while later my boss arrived. I told her about the morning mishap.

"Did you call the police?"

"No."

She gave me a look, too.

That's when I started to worry. What if he won’t send the insurance information? What if the phone number was fake? What if the name he gave me wasn't real? He had seemed sincere.

Still, I believed he had given me genuine information. I chose to trust that he was a good person.

Two hours later my phone chimed. He had sent his insurance information. Shortly afterward his insurance company called. “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.”

Today I'm taking my car in to have the damage assessed. It's an older vehicle so I'm hoping replacement parts won't be too difficult to find.

But I suppose the moral of this story is that there are still good people in the world and every now and then a stranger may literally bump into you and remind you of that. (Dammit).