A young girl was trying to run away with her boyfriend, but they had a big argument and he kicked her to the curb and drove away. He literally abandoned her, many miles from home!
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My business card reads Richard but I go by Rick. In 1979 I was 38 years old, recently divorced, living in an apartment in Oceanside, California. I was employed as an outside salesman by a medium sized company. It wasn't a major corporation, but it wasn't a Mom and Pop operation either. I guess a company with about 60 employees could be classified as medium. My job was to call on major corporations all over Southern California and persuade them to contract with the company I worked for to provide services to them. I had a company car and an expense account for hotel rooms, my meals including an occasional business lunch, and any other work related expenses. I made good money.
I had appointments booked for mid-morning and mid-afternoon on the upcoming Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in San Luis Obispo. That's also where Cal-Poly Tech is located. On my way back to my office on Monday the transmission in my company car wasn't shifting right, so the maintenance department took it down to the dealers on Tuesday morning. The mechanic had checked it and said he needed to order some part to fix it, but it would take a couple of days. My appointments had already been made but it wasn't a problem as when issues had come up before I had just used my truck. I wasn't expecting to be taking anyone out for a business lunch. It was a 2 year old ½ ton short bed Chevy. It was nice, V8-automatic with a bench seat. The company would pay me mileage for using it.
I left the office in my truck Tuesday afternoon as my destination was about 300 miles or a 5 hour drive. I had a room reserved at the Holiday Inn for four nights. The drive was uneventful and boring. My appointments all went well and I had three contracts in my briefcase by the time I finished my last one on Friday afternoon.
It was about 5:00PM so I was driving toward downtown to find some place different for dinner. It was a big boulevard that had the sidewalks set back from the curb with a strip of grass and trees between the curb and sidewalk. As I was approaching a traffic light I slowed down. It was then that I saw a young girl sitting on the grass with a large backpack beside her. She had her knees pulled up with her arms folded across them and her head resting on her arms. It struck me that something wasn't quite right.
I pulled over to the curb in front of her. My windows were down so I leaned over toward the passenger side and asked. "Miss, are you OK?" She didn't respond so I repeated myself a little louder. "Miss, are you OK?"
She slowly looked up at me and answered. "No." And lay her head back down on her arms.
I then asked. "Are you hurt?"
There was a long pause... Till she finally looked up and answered, "Not physically."
I immediately put my truck in park, shut the motor off and got out. As I was walking around the back of my truck this thought went thru my mind. If she is not hurt physically... it has to be emotionally. I walked over and squatted down in front of her.
She raised her head up and it was obvious that she had been crying. I asked. "Can I help?"
Her quiet answer was. "I don't know?"
The many questions going thru my mind were not coming up with any answers. There was one thing I needed to know, so I asked. "How old are you?"
She looked up at me again and answered. "19."
I spoke slowly and said. "My work day is done. I'm on my way downtown to have dinner. If you want to join me, dinner is on me and we can talk."
There was another pause. Till she finally asked in her soft voice. "Can I trust you?"
I stood up, pulled out my wallet and got a business card out. I put my wallet back in my hip pocket and squatted back down in front of her. I held my card out to her and said. "This card has my name on it and the name, address and phone number of the company I work for. So, now you know who I am and who I work for... put it in your pocket." I held out my hand to her as an offer to help her get up. She slowly took hold of my hand and I helped her stand up. She stuck my card in her back pocket.
I saw that she was very petite, about 5 feet tall, maybe a hundred pounds, shoulder length blond hair, blue eyes, she was wearing a pink, button up blouse, jeans and pink tennis shoes. It didn't matter that she had no makeup on, she was pretty. I picked up her backpack and put it in the back of the truck. I opened the passenger door and she slowly climbed in.
I had to ask her. "How long have you been sitting here?"
She answered. "I guess a couple of hours."
I started my truck and we pulled out into traffic heading towards downtown.
I spotted a Mexican restaurant with several cars in the parking lot so figured the food was probably good. I asked. "Do you like Mexican food?" She just nodded, still being very quiet. I parked in the lot, got out, hit the lock nob and shut the door. By the time I walked around the truck she had opened the door and gotten out. I grabbed her backpack out of the back and put it in the cab on the seat, locked the door and shut it.
(You don't leave anything in the open bed of a pickup in Southern California. If you do... it will be gone in a matter of minutes after you walk away!) We walked into the restaurant and were greeted by the hostess. I asked if she had a booth in a quiet corner somewhere.
She looked at us, trying to decide if we were a daddy/daughter out for dinner... or something else. She said. "Follow me please."
She seated us in a back corner booth away from any other patrons. I thanked her. The waitress came soon and handed us menus, and said she'd be back in a few minutes which she was. We each ordered one of the specialty plates, tacos for her and enchiladas for me, with two iced teas. I was glad we were seated across from each other so I could try to read her face. We talked a little bit about how nice the restaurant was and she relaxed a little. Our dinners came out quickly which is one of the nice things about Mexican food. It's mostly precooked so that all they have to do is dish it up.