An (Un)fortunate U-Turn

Today was one of those days that would have vanished into lost memories were it not for a single event that happened to fall right before my head hit the pillow to end the day. You see, today, I happened to do something that most readers of this blog will have a hard time believing. It's not because what happened is improbable, or that you wouldn't have done the same thing. No, it's the fact that I, James R. Mitchener, did what I did. Today, I saved a man's life.

It was 02:00 in the morning, and I was driving my friend back to his apartment so that he could crash for the night. It's not a long drive, no more than three minutes from point A to B. Well, after I made the only turn in the entire journey, something happened that you don't usually expect in the wee hours of the morning: A guy stumbled out into the road and into my peripheral vision. Thankfully, he was on the other side of the road, but as I glanced into my mirror, I saw him try to regain his footing, and then stumble right back into the usually busy street. Sighing deeply, I was overcome with this awkward sensation that I can only describe as "wanting to do the right thing."

Now, for those of you familiar with this feeling, I have a question. How do you deal with it? It's this awkward sensation, almost like a child screaming "I don't wanna!" while he does exactly what he was told to do. It's terrible. Regardless, I was overwhelmed. I pulled a quick U-Turn, drove up next to this guy, and rolled down my window. And there he was, acting like that very child, clutching hard to the guardrail on the side of the road and balling his eyes out wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. That's right. Nothing else. No shirt, no shoes, no socks. He was standing outside in 52F weather crying and shaking. 

My friend, who I hadn't yet dropped off, called the crying stranger over to the car and asked where he was headed. Ironically, it was the very apartment complex we had just come from. With a direct order to be seated, the guy got into the car and immediately stopped crying. He told me what apartment he lived in, and I drove back and dropped him off. He stumbled out the car, muttering quietly "I have my keys... thanks for the ride..." and disappeared up into his room.

Then, I drove my friend home.

Clearly, this guy was tripping on something. I mean, I'm not stupid. If you're outside in just your shorts in 53 degree heat and stumbling into a busy road, you're definitely far beyond being just drunk. No, he was tripping hard, and I'm very confident that if it weren't for me, he'd be under the tire of some car right now instead of crying uncontrollably into the pillow of his bed.

The thing that really eats away at me? Did I really do a good thing here? I mean, I just saved the life of the very type of person that I've been bitching about for years. I just saved the epitome of stupid, the type of guy who wants to waste away his life on drugs while having other people spend all their money to educate him. 

I just saved what I hate, and honestly, I think my soul has died a little more because of it.