The Hug

by Kay Heitsch

The phone rang, it was Bea, my 86 year old friend calling. Bea was wondering if I could take her to Flint to see the eye doctor. I assured her I could, so I drove over to her home on the date of the appointment to pick her up.

Bea's eyesight was failing, so she wasn't able to drive her car anymore. However, she still kept her old white Cadillac and insisted that I drive it whenever we went anywhere.

Bea's appointment went well, and we were on our way to get a bite to eat. It was a cloudy day, but we didn't have any rain or snow. The traffic was stopped and go as we were in an area by the mall. We were at a complete stop when someone hit us from behind. Bea was furious, to put it mildly. She started to call this person a few choice names. I could tell this situation could get very ugly.

Flint is a town that, on occasions, has been listed as #1 in murders/crime/arson for its size in the USA. Detroit has a slogan about being bad, but at least not as bad as Flint.

There really wasn't any reason why someone should rear-end the car, so I wasn't sure what was going on when I pulled over. I was feeling a little tense when I got out of the vehicle. As I walked around the car, a young black woman got out of the car with an attitude! I could see all the other doors on her car starting to open. For some reason, I walked over to this young woman, put my arms around her, and gave her a hug. When I gave her a hug, all the other doors shut!

Bea got out, and when she saw me hugging this girl, she calmed down. I called the police, and they came out and took a report.

I really don't know what was actually going on that day. I believe the Lord put the thought to hug this girl in my mind. I also believe the hug saved us all from what could have been a very uncomfortable scene.