One day last week I had a morning chalked full of hospital visits in Ft. Worth.  By the time I started heading back to Granbury, it was already 2:00 in the afternoon.  I decided to stop at the Sonic Drive-In Cresson to get a low calorie chick wrap.  I could not help but tease the girl waiting on me about the roller blades she was wearing to work in as a car hop.  After a few moments she emerged from the building and start skating toward my truck with a double hamburger and a large order of onion rings.  I told her the onion rings looked great, but I had better stick with my low-fat chicken wrap.  It was at that point that I noticed that she was wearing a rather unusual necklace…

The necklace had a lone bullet threaded through a gold chain.  I thought: why would she have a bullet on her necklace?  Of course my first thought was: it was a symbol of some kind of gang involvement.  I made up mind while I waited for her to correct the order that I was going to inquire about this extraordinary piece of jewelry.

What is the significance of the lone bullet, I asked?  I anticipated that she would  tell me that it was the symbol of some Ft. Worth street gang, but I was wrong.  In fact I was very wrong…  The young girl, who could not have been more than 20 years old, proceeded to tell me that her boyfriend shot himself a year or so ago. He died from the self-inflicted injury.  She took me off guard, so I just told  her I was very sorry.  I paid for my meal and headed toward Granbury.

By the time I took a second bite out the chicken wrap, I had already turned the truck around to head back to The Sonic.   I have had too much training and too much experience in crisis intervention to leave that girl dangling.  You should have seen the look on her face when I drove up and got out of the truck. I think she thought I was going to complain to her manager about the onion ring mix up!

I told her what I did professionally and gave her my card.  I don’t believe that my late lunch stop was an accident.  Nor I believe that the onion ring mix up was accidental either.   I think I was supposed to be at the Sonic.  Who knows what may develop from our brief encounter.  Who will you encounter today?  Hopefully you won’t have to turn around before you realize that an opportunity to serve someone in need is right before you!