So I met this Navajo dude in jail once

I'm half native but I'm Yaqui. It's Mexican native. So we were alike but very different.

I wasn't in there for anything serious. I was 18 & got arrested for graffiti. I was getting released the next day so when they were releasing me they put me in a cell with another dude who was getting released. We just sat there & started talking while we waited since there was nothing else to do. You meet a lot of people in jail: Some not great, some kinda weird, & some are actually good people who shouldn't have to be there.

This guy was a cool dude & I don't remember why he was there but I remember he was there for a week.
We got along & when we got released they gave us back our things of course.

When we got outside I asked him if he knew where we were (I knew what jail I was in but had no idea which direction was home. I was pretty clueless at the time).
He told me the address so that was enough to help me know where to go so I started to walk that direction. It was about to be a 10 mile walk & 105°F that day. It was HOT. But I didn't complain.

He asked if I knew where I was going & I said "yeah now I do, thanks man" so then he asked me if I had any money to catch a bus or if I had a ride.
I told him nah I didn't. I had nothing but spray paint in a backpack when I got arrested so they released me with just my empty backpack 😅

He pulled out his wallet & handed me $4. He said he would've gave me more but he only had $8. So now we both had $4 which is enough to buy a bus pass.

I didn't take it at first & kept saying "no man it's okay don't worry about it I'll be alright".
But he told me "No it's a gift. For you to refuse it would be disrespectful to me. It's too hot out here. Buy water with it if you really want to walk but just take it".

So I took it & thanked him. I guess I had to 😅 I genuinely appreciated that he took it upon himself to ask questions & make sure I was good. He even gave me half of all he had.
It wasn't much but I always remember that.

So the last time I got out of jail (sucks I gotta say that lol) I met another guy. He was an old man who seemed a little confused. I asked him if he had a way to get home & he said his friend is supposed to pick him up but his phone was dead so he had no way to call him.

One thing I learned from my stays in jails, is to turn your phone off before they put handcuffs on you. Because if you don't it'll be dead when you get out which is usually a bad situation.
So I turned my phone on & told him to call whoever he needed to.
Luckily he had his friends phone number written down in his wallet so he called him. I waited with the guy just talking about random things until his friend got there.
It was probably only like 20 minutes.

By the end, it seemed like the "friend" was more like a caretaker who looked out for the older man. But he looked similar in age so perhaps they were real friends who stuck by each other. I really don't know. But the older man told his friend that I let him use my phone & that I was really nice to him so the guy thanked me & tried to give me money but I didn't accept it.
I told him I knew what it was like to get out & have no way to get yourself home. That was all.

I was just glad I got a chance to help somebody in the same situation the Navajo man helped me in before. I guess I was just paying it forward or something like that 🤷 so now that man is the reason another person got home safe.. & he doesn't even know that.

People don't always get too see the extent of the positive impact they have.

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Incomplet · 22-25

My Dad lived on a cul-de-sac in fairly secluded neighborhood with big lots and fancy houses full of upper middle-class families. I was out of school for Summer and outsid with Dad showing off Mom's newly reworked but still empty flower beds.

A huge old Chrysler station wagon jam packed filled, (loaded up on top too), with a guy in his early 30's, his wif and 2 young kids pulled up.

The young guy gets out and walks up to Dad and I kinda timidly and asks us how to get back to highway heading West. Seemed he'd gotten lost trying to find an old friend, but it seemed that friend's house had been torn down for a new subdivision development.

This was prior to cellphones, so Dad brought him into his kitchen to call his friend. It turned out that his friend's number was disconnected and this guy was visibly distraught.

Well, ther was a new well paying job waiting for him, but was worried that wasn't enough money for gas to get himself and his family all th way in that old gas guzzler wagon. No longer hoping to borrow from that friend from 8 years ago, th embarrassed guy sheepishly asked if Dad could "loan" him $20 for gas?

Dad told me to grab my car keys, then grabbed 4 cans out of the refrigerator and went out and handed sodas to th guy, his wif and kids. They chatted as I got my car, then Dad told them to follow us down th road.

A few miles away, was a McDonald's in front of a local shopping center that also had gas station and a bank. Dad sent th family into McD's to eat lunch on him, pushing $25 into the young Mom's hand. I drov him over to the bank and Dad went in, coming out a bit later with a Bank envelop in his top pocket.

Back at McDonald's th kids finished up Happy Meals and Dad handed their Father a gas card telling him to gas up and check the tires and oil!

While th father was filling up th Mom tried to hand Dad back th chang from the $25 and was refused. Looking surprised, started crying, ”You don't hav to give us money, it's okay, I think there's enough left to mak it!”

Dad said, "Well, now there's surely enough.” and handed th Mom a Bank envelop with cash. "This will get you to your new city and help you get yourselves set up." And a bit sternly, "Do Not look at it Now, Okay?"

Th guy got back, returned th gas card and they all got back into the old stati wagon. After a short discussion with Dad, about all his help, full of "You sure!?", "Thank you!" , "You don't have to!" and more tears, they went out on their way West.

Driving back, I asked how much was in the envelop and was told, "Less than you spent on pizza and burgers this last semester and definitely less than building up flower beds your Mom wants."

When I asked him " Why?", his reply was simply, "Do you really think that they wound up still going away from th highway in th wrong direction, chose this neighborhood out of many and turned down my street and found us, just randomly?"

Befor Summer ended Dad got a letter from th Mom with a photo of th rent hous they'd gotten, showing th kids playing in th yard. She had gotten herself a cafeteria job at th neighborhood school her children were enrolled in and her husband loved his new job!

I was told finally told by my Mom, whil kneeling in her flower beds, that Dad had taken a $1000 advance on his credit card that day to Gift it to them, insisting it wasn't a loan for them to repay.

Also, it was much mor fun for her and I to both go together to pick out, buy and set out all of thos flowers ourselves than spending any extra having the nursery gardeners do it!