Encounter with an Angel

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"Can you help me?" Barely 5 a.m. and being panhandled already, I thought sarcastically. I reached into my pocket. "No, I don't want any money," said the middle-aged man wearing a worn tee-shirt and short pants. Pointing to his right eye and to the left, he said,"You see, I am blind in this eye and partially blind in this one. I need a ticket, but can't see well enough to use the machine." We walked over to the fare machine located at the end of the platform. The man opened his wallet. He rifled through the bills trying to determine the denominations. "If you want, you can take the money out yourself. I'm a little slow. In fact, you could rob me and I can'r stop you, you know." The man managed to take out a five dollar bill, which I placed into the fare machine to buy him a ticket. The machine returned two dollars in change. "You can keep the change if you want." When the train came, he followed me inside. "Is it okay if I sit near you?" "Sure," I mumbled. To be honest, I wanted to be rid of him so i could nap. "I hate busses," he said, "And I'm not going to like this. It's scary. Is it always this loud?" "Yes," I answered, "But just hang on for twenty minutes. It will go by fast." As we reached each stop, I let the man know how many stops remained until we reached his destination. This reassured him. As the train filled, he looked around and commented about the people. "I guess everybody here is going to work, but no one looks happy. Yeah, it's so early, but it's got to be done. you may not want to do it, but something has got to be done, you really don't have a choice." As we neared his stop, he asked for my name. "Steve," I said as i shook his hand. "The next stop is yours." "Thank you. I am going to make your day." I did not respond. He repeated, "I know you don't believe me, but you have been so nice this morning that I am going to make your day." Later that morning, a co-worker passed by my desk and started to poke fun at me. I looked up. He stopped and asked, "Why are you in such a good mood today? You have the biggest smile I have ever seen." Indeed, he had made my day.