The People That You Meet

when you're kayaking down the creek...or lake. I was out again in the kayak and loving it. No jellyfish at this spot, or eel grass. Just enough wind to keep all flies at bay. So I'm kayaking back towards the beach and my car when I see a woman walking down by my car. She appears to be looking for something, but I'm not sure. Then I get in closer to shore and she is walking on the road again, but then cuts across the grass to the beach towards me. Ok, what's up. Well, it appears she was camping about 100 yards from my car in the bush, private land it appears. She had been stranded there two days ago (Friday) by her friends. Hmmm...she smells a little like someone just off a bender, you know, that after-drinking-your-face-off-odor. She is also shaking like someone with the DT's. Turns out her friends were with her on Friday, the male friend there decided he needed to play Paul Bunyan and saw down a tree, despite the abundance of driftwood on the beach nearby to burn. The tree nearly clips my new friend, and she freaks out at him. He gets pissy, takes the other friend and leaves, never to come back. Hmmmm...and to add to the complications of being left in the middle of nowhere, she is a severe asthmatic, can hardly talk because of her hoarseness, and her "friend" left with her meds in the car. She takes two inhalers, one tablet med, and is on a breathing machine at night. She is lucky she didn't take a severe attack and die!

So she wanted to use my phone, and I happened to have it with me in the kayak as I am on call for work. She left a message for her friend, and began to cry, not knowing what to do. So I offered to give her a ride somewhere, and took her back to the "friend" who left her. Things seemed a little sketchy about leaving her there, and she was holding my hand through the car window to say good bye and thanks for everything. I offered a dozen times to take her back to her house in another town, but she wanted to stay there.

Strange, very strange...