Act of kindness kills unwarranted suspicions

MEMBER COLUMN

by Jon Michaels

LW contributor

I love Palm Springs, and I’d heard about Joshua Tree national park for a while. People talk about it with such reverence, as if it’s a religious place.

So one morning, while vacationing for a couple days in Palm Desert, I decided to drive to the park and check it out.

It was a Wednesday morning, around 10 a.m., and it was summer, so it was already scorchingly hot.

Naturally, the desert’s not too popular this time of year, and I was the only one driving through the park’s entrance.

I went a couple hundred yards and decided to pull over, take in the lay of the land, get my bearings, and soak up my surroundings.

It was desolate and quiet. I strolled around and saw a turtle walking by ever so slowly. And then a fox scooted about, with his tail up in the air.

I was mostly watching my footing, though, to make sure I didn’t inadvertently step on a snake. But from what I hear, snakes are largely misunderstood. And I didn’t see any anyway.

And, of course, I saw the grande dames of the park, the thousands of Joshua trees.

They’re spindly with gnarled branches that stretch up to the heavens.

I was surprised by the size of the trees because even though they look like little shrubs from the freeway, some are actually 40 feet tall.

Then, I saw a plume of dust coming up from the road a few hundred feet away. It was obviously a car coming in my direction.

I watched it approach. And slow down. And cruise by. The driver appeared to be a tattooed young guy, kinda thuggish. I’m not sure he even saw me as he passed.

But after driving about 200 feet, he stopped his car.

And started backing up.

I looked around—and there was nobody else there!

I was all alone. And I was too far from my car to hop in and discreetly lock the doors.

Why is he backing up? Is he going to rob me? I was a sitting duck.

He then electronically opened up the passenger side window as he came up next to me.

And brace yourself. He had the unmitigated gall to ask, “Are you OK?”

I smiled and replied, “Yeah, I’m good. Thanks for stopping.”

He nodded and drove away. And I just stood there for a moment, with my tail between my legs.

Hey, Joshua was in the Bible, wasn’t he?