Angels and coffee

Today I was planning to write about another topic but the events of the day made me change my mind.

Almost every Monday I write some story for this nice coffee community. My routine is basically the same, I get up, have breakfast and start writing. By noon I have the publication ready.

But this morning my schedule was different, I had to attend a doctor's appointment. I thought I would get home early and write. However, the appointment was a little later than I had planned. I left after eleven in the morning.

Everything was going well, the doctor checked me out and sent me on my treatment. However, when I was parking at the pharmacy to buy the medication I had some trouble putting my car in reverse, it was as if the clutch pedal had become too loose. After several times I managed to get the reverse gear in.

I bought the medicines and set off for home, I only had about two miles to go.
Suddenly, when taking a curve on a slope the clutch stopped working, fortunately with the momentum I was carrying I was able to park in an area where I was not in danger. I stayed there for a few minutes, in great anguish, not knowing what to do.

Shortly after being there, a man about my age arrived and asked me what was wrong. I told him that I could not put any speed in my car. The man asked me for permission and sat in the driver's seat. He tried to put any gear and could not do it, it seemed that the blockage was total.

He told me that I would have to wait a while until the car cooled down, that sometimes when a pump that has the clutch is damaged these failures occur, but that when the pump cools down the gears can be reinserted. The gentleman kindly offered to accompany me while the time passed. My anguish began to fade.

As we were near a bakery I asked him if he would like to have a coffee. He said yes. Slowly we walked the couple of hundred meters that separated us from the place, ordered our coffee and sat down on some cement stairs that were near the sidewalk.

We talked for about fifteen minutes, during which time the man told me that he had been a mechanic for a good part of his life, but that now at seventy years old, the same age as mine, he was no longer a mechanic because his eyesight was not helping him. It was hard for him to see at close distances and that prevented him from being able to do the job with the reliability to which he had become accustomed. For risk of doing a bad job, I prefer not to do it, he commented with some regret.

At one point in the conversation he said to me, let's see how the patient is, referring to the car. The expression was very funny to me, as if he was talking about the car doctor.

I sat in the driver's seat and he told me to try to put the car in first gear. I was surprised that I could do it. Then he gave me another set of directions. He told me that I probably wouldn't be able to change gears once the car was in gear, to ride slowly in first until I got to my destination, that if I needed to put it in reverse, I should stop, turn the car off, and try to put it in that gear.

I thanked him, started the car with the first gear on and the clutch fully engaged.
As he had instructed me, I drove home slowly, actually I had less than 1500 meters to go, I tried to change gears but nothing. I called my wife to wait for me with the gate open. I was able to get in and after a while I managed to put the car in reverse to better accommodate the car.

This was one of those days when things don't go as planned. But things are never all bad. My car stopped working but life sent me an angel who not only accompanied me for coffee but also gave me the necessary directions to get home.

Thank you for your time.