Story by Susan Stevens (Author)
My son Jeff is the Deli Manager for a grocery store in the small town of Colfax, WA, which is about 50 miles south of Spokane where he lives. His days start very early, usually leaving for work around 3:00 AM. The stretch of highway between Spokane and Colfax is rolling “Palouse”, or wheat field country, with farmhouses dotting the highway here and there.
Recently, Jeff was making the familiar trip along the empty rural highway when his dashboard lights went out. He carefully continued to his destination and began to work on fixing the problem. Once fixed he was able to put it out of his mind and carry on with his daily routine.
The next morning Jeff was again making the long trip from Spokane to Colfax when his headlights went out. He slammed on his brakes as he faced a wall of total darkness. Frustration set in as he found himself sitting in the middle of a dark highway with no lights to warn another car he was there.
Jeff tried to find out what the problem was this time, and finally resorted to frantically pushing every button on the dash. Suddenly, the flashers began to beat their steady rhythm and Jeff sighed with some relief. At least others could see that he was on the highway and an accident could be avoided.
Jeff noticed that he could see the center line with the aid of the flashers if he drove five to ten miles an hour. Since there were no other options, Jeff decided to creep toward Colfax at the snail’s pace. About that time a car’s headlights appeared in his rear view mirror.
The car went around Jeff, but after pulling back in front of him it continued up the highway a short distance then stopped and waited for Jeff to catch up. Once Jeff was behind the car, the driver put on their high beams and continued toward Colfax with Jeff able to see enough to follow.
Just at the edge of Colfax, where the street lights begin and about two blocks from Jeff’s work, the road forks to the right and goes south to Walla Walla. The driver turned off at this point. Jeff continued on to work never knowing if the driver of the other car was a man or a woman, for words were never spoken and in the darkness he couldn’t see.
After Jeff told me this story, I felt compelled to write about it. It doesn’t matter if the driver was a man or woman, young or old, earth born or Heaven sent. They were literally an angel of “light” to Jeff that morning.
Write Susan and let her know your thoughts on her story at: [email protected]
