9.
“I was on my way to visit a friend in Missouri when my car broke down just west of Tulsa. This was back when mobile phones were just a nerdy pipe dream, so I walked to a nearby convenience store to find a payphone to call another friend to ask for assistance. While I was waiting for my friend to arrive, I started chatting with the store’s clerk. I told him about my car trouble, and he just happened to have the part I needed in his car and stepped away for a few minutes to get it. Once he returned, I thanked him, gave him a few bucks for the part, and made sure it was okay with him for me to hang out there a while longer while I waited for my friend to arrive. The clerk and I continued to chat, and this is when I learned that he already had a few years under his belt towards his degree in veterinary medicine. Then he proceeded to tell me about the surgery skills he recently had the chance to practice by removing a tumor from his buddy’s stomach.”
“He, of course, didn’t have access to the proper anesthesia, so his buddy just used a bottle of whiskey to dampen the pain instead. As I sat across the table from this guy, wondering how I would respond or even if I should respond, I was saved by my friend who had just walked in the door. I used my friend’s appropriately-timed arrival as an excuse to thank the clerk again for the part and be on my way.”
—Anonymous
