My act of kindness for Day 2, was an opportunity for kindness that just sort of fell into my lap. Or more accurately… was hurled at me from a moving vehicle. That’s right. I was driving down the main street on my way home when an iPhone flew out of the car in front of me and skidded some distance, stopping in the turning lane. I quickly stopped in the middle of the road, scrambled between traffic to grab it in the turn lane where I observed that the phone was entirely unharmed, in perfect condition and IT WAS STILL PLAYING MUSIC!
I burst out laughing in the middle of the road because, for starters, the screen on my phone cracks if I so much as send a passive aggressive text message. And second, I could not believe that someone would be jammin’ out to Dire Straits on their fancy iphone 11 and yet NOT NOTICE when said fancy phone just flew away.
My maniacal laughter in the middle of the road (while clutching a thousand dollar phone in my hands) probably made me look like the worst kind of finders-keepers jerks in history. So, I quickly explained to the dog walker who witnessed my behavior that I fully intended to chase the car down and return it at the next stoplight. I jumped back in my car and floored it.
Apparently, the kind of person who throws a phone out the window willy nilly and without pause, is also the type of person who drives super fast. I ran two red lights (unless you, the reader, has the authority to ticket me for that, then lol jk I did not…) and even so I lost the guy.
The phone was locked with a passcode and/or face id. The only thing I knew for sure at that moment was that the owner of the phone did not have my exact face. He did, however, have a very lovely woman as the background of his phone and I knew that I could use this as a clue. I used my phone - with its screen so shattered that I literally picked a shard of glass out of my thigh yesterday - and took a picture of his indestructable phone and posted the photo on several local Facebook groups in hopes that I could track the owner down. And maybe, as a bonus, we could become friends and I could talk through whatever rage problem led to frisbeeing this perfect, magical phone-of-the-future out the window in the first place.
I immediately started getting suggestions about using Siri to call “mom” or “dad” in hopes of connecting with a loved one. I tried both “mom” and “dad” with no luck, so I just tried random names. This whole month of kindness is in memory of my brother, Adam, so I thought I would try his name first. Well, Adam didn’t pick up and I panicked about what to say in a voicemail and just hung up. I tried a couple other common names, with no luck.
Until, Mike.
Mike came through for me! Here is an abridged version of our conversation:
Mike: Hey, Thomas!
Me: Nope.
Me: (Tells whole story. Realizes how absurd I am as a person. Gives this stranger my phone number.)
Mike: I’m on it.
An hour later Thomas is in my driveway to retrieve his phone. He told me the whole story about how he got distracted and placed his phone on the roof of his car. Apparently I would make for a horrible eye witness because I would have bet my life that thing came flying directly out the window. We chatted for a few minutes and he told me about his bride (pictured above on the pristine and impenetrable glass screen above) and a really cool story about his life, overcoming some personal obstacles and how the Adam I randomly asked Siri to call was a guy he went golfing with ten years ago and never saw again. He offered me a very generous reward, which I denied (because human decency) and I made him listen to me explain #AdamsActs instead.
Not bad for Day 2. I want to thank each and every one of you who has shared the blog with others. Before Mystery Mike and I hung up the phone he said something like, “It’s really nice to know there are still good people out there willing to help a stranger.” Well, Mike… be encouraged. Because this month, there are thousands of us out there willing to help, run a red light or two, and extend kindness to a stranger.