The Busted Samaritan

I'd taken a wrong turn and was driving down a two-lane state highway in rural Arizona on a blistering hot afternoon. I Couldn't get a cell phone signal even on Sprint.  Passing an abandoned car on the shoulder with a flat tire, I thought "They probably can't find where the manufacturer hid their jack either."

After about a mile, I saw someone sitting by the side of the road.  It was an obviously pregnant girl, who looked Hispanic to me.  I pulled up in front of her and put the passenger window down.  The desert heat came through the open window like a blast furnace.  "Are you OK?" I asked. She was crying, and her clothes were soaked with sweat.  "Yes, I just rest here," she said, trying to stifle her tears.  "Mucho calor!"

"I have flat tire and spar flat too." (Looks like my racial profiling was right on the nose.  If she's not a Mexican, I'm a Canadian!)  "Get in," I said.  "I'll help you." 
 

She got in the car, fastened her seat belt and bent forward, holding her face as close as she could to the air conditioner vent.  I cranked the AC up to the max, made a U-turn and headed back toward her car.  When we got there, I opened her trunk, and sure enough, the "spar" was flat and I wished I hadn't left my tire inflator that plugs into the lighter back in Nashville. 
 

"We'll find someone who can fix it, I told her," so I made another U-turn and we headed for the nearest civilization.  Then I heard a siren squawk and saw the flashing blue lights in my rear-view mirror. It was a Maricopa County Deputy Sheriff's car. Are U-turns illegal in Arizona?
 

I pulled over and took my wallet from the console.  I'd also brought my passport since Arizona is close to Mexico, and in the unlikely event that I might have an the time and decide to brave the drug cartels, I could drive across the border just to say I'd done it and lived. Also, I figured with that new law, it couldn't hurt to have it. I was born and raised in the "Show-me" state, But lately, I've heard too many people calling Arizona the "Show me your papers" state to leave my passport behind if I'm going there.
 

"License, registration and proof of insurance," the deputy said.  I kind of expected that, and handed him all three. (At least he didn't say "your papers, please.") "Oh, here's my passport too." I said, handing that to him too.  "Are you going to Mexico?" he asked me.   "Probably not," I said, "but this is Arizona, and I thought I might need it."  He gave me a dirty look when I said that.
 

"I need to see your ID too," he told my passenger.  "She reached in her purse and took out a Matricula Consular photo ID card.  "Is this all you have?" He said,  "Si," she replied nervously.
 

"Step out of the car!" the officer said. "Both of you!"  We did, and the next thing I knew, he slammed us both up against the hot car hood and barked, "hands behind your backs!" To make what could easily amount to a long story short, we were both arrested and handcuffed.  I was charged with human trafficking and transporting an alien, for which they would also be confiscating my car.  (At least that's what the guy who took our mug shots told me.) "How the hell was I supposed to know if some pregnant girl I see crying by the side of the road is a citizen or not? I asked him.  And what business is it of mine anyway?  Should I have asked to see her papers?  She's pregnant, for God's sake, and the thermometer on my dashboard said it was a hundred and ten outside.  She was sitting by the side of the road crying, for Christ's sake! What was I supposed to do?" 

"Don't go taking the name of the Lord in vain in here!" another cop said.  For some reason the Parable of the Good Samaritan popped into my mind. 

"If you want to talk about the Lord, why not ask yourself what would Jesus do?   I told him. They really didn't like that! Maybe they have a different Jesus in Arizona, but the one I've come to know and love would have picked up the girl and tried to help just like I did.  And I guess right now he'd be sitting here with me in Joe Arpaio's stifling tent wearing pink underwear just like mine. At least I did get my one phone call. I hope my son got hold of a good lawyer.  This tent is mucho calor!

Author's note:

You'll notice I didn't give the girl in this story a name. It didn't occur to me to do so because she has so many names; Victoria, Christina, Rosa, Maria, Anna... you can call her what you like.   To me, she's just another human being sharing this planet we call Earth.  I thought aliens came from outer space?  So does Professor Stephen Hawking. He's a pretty smart guy and he believes they're out there. We've been trying to contact them for years, but Hawking doesn't think that's a very good idea because they might not be friendly and may eat us or something. I hope he's not right.  But if he is, and they are, I'll bet we'd redefine the word "alien" real fast! I hope not, but maybe that’s the only way we’ll ever realize we're "All One World."

WR - May 1, 2010

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