The Vietnamese Hitchhiker
Last night about 11pm, I suddenly got very hungry, and so I grabbed my coat and keys and headed for the nearest 7-11. I picked out a couple of unhealthy snacks, bought a lottery ticket and jumped back in the car. It was frosty, about 28 degrees, and I turned on the heat. I started for home, and suddenly I saw a little guy in the middle of the road waving for help.
And I stopped, listened to his story and I told him to hop in.
He was a Vietnamese named Pham, he looked 35 though he’s actually a year young than I. He maybe stood over 5 feel tall and probably weighed 120 pounds with stones in his pockets. Yeah he was a small guy.
Well his story was, he had locked his keys in his car, he couln’t open it. So he had to walk, and he had been walking for over 6miles when I saw and picked him up. He was shivering from the cold and his house was few more miles away.
He needed to get another set of keys, so I drove him to his home, and then we went back to where he had left his car. He told me a little of his life story, and he also said remarkable things. Pham was in the Vietnamese Army before, and was allied with the Americans and were fighting along side with each other. But when the Americans pulled out of Vietnam, Pham was put to jail by the Northern Vietnamese for treason, by helping the Americans, he was supposed to serve in jail for 17 years.
The whole time he was in jail he dreamed of America, and one day his brother came to the jail and told him they were leaving. To get him out of jail, the whole family had to leave the country.
Pham just walked from jail to home, and then the whole family walked to a boat going to Norway where they lived for a year, then an American Army Officer helped Pham and his family by sponsoring them to the U.S.
Pham is now a mechanic in a garage where he fixes American cars. His family, all 15, purchased a large home in Virginia two years ago. They all are working, and half of them work and go to college. “My family is rich,” he told me, “not billionaire rich, but compared to Vietnam, this is heaven.”
“Because in Vietnam, the people stay poor or even become poorer, and only the communists prosper.”
About 2 miles from his car he said, “I knew you were going to stop and help me. I could feel it, and as soon as you rolled down the window I could feel good energy. I could feel that, and I could fee you had no fear. I know you had no fear because someone else always rides with you.”
And he just then smiled.
After I dropped him off, he gave me his card and offered me an all time free of charge car repair in case I needed one in the future. Then I headed home.
I have been in some quite hellish situations and misfortunes in my life but I somehow have always got through them. It wasn’t the first time that someone talked about this other person riding with me thing, it’s just the first time that it happened with a total stranger.
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.