Doing a Good Deed

The office secretary and I were riding home on her motorscooter Friday after class. It was, as usual, a lovely evening. There was a cool breeze and the dark cradled us, plus we felt the relief that comes after the challenges of the day and the week have been met. After rush hour the street traffic is mostly scooters and that makes travel more relaxing as well. All of a sudden, she looked down to check something on the scooter's front. Then she stopped the scooter dead in its tracks. We had a flat front tire. We got off the scooter and started walking it; her steering and me pushing from behind. We were in the middle of a dark patch of road when a man on a scooter came up beside us and started a conversation with the secretary. I girded myself to protect her as she is young and cute. He drove alongside for some time with me wondering how all this would play out when we finally came to a tire shop that was open. Alas. The wife of the owner was in the front of the shop and told us her husband was taking a shower, so he was through for the day. We began pushing again, our new sidekick along with us when, bonanza, we came to an open shop. These owners, luckily, seemed happy to help us and immediately set to work changing the flat. Our new friend disappeared, then reappeared with a bottle of Pepsi for each of us. We skeptically thanked him. "Kawp jai." He had a chat with the shop owner who was replacing the tire and handed him 20,000k. Then he drove off. Shortly thereafter the scooter was fixed and we asked, "Tao dai?" "How much?" The smiling shop owner said the bill had already been paid. We were the cynical recipients of a lovely deed. Food for thought.