Saved By an Angel
She was a beautiful girl in an area of the school where she should not have been, especially dressed in the skirt she wore. Definitely not the tomboy type you’d usually see near the auto shop. Her wavy brown hair bounced as she walked, a backpack slung over her left shoulder. I couldn’t take my eyes off her, and I could have sworn she was looking my way.
I was on my way to Freshman English. My usual route took me past the south parking lot with two entrances: the one I was nearing and another, one hundred yards down the block. School buses exited this driveway; standard yellow and black, some long, some short. It was the short bus that crossed my path that cold November morning. I was making decent time too, always trying to break my record, so I’d know how late I could sleep in and still make it to Mrs. Guilfoyle’s class on time. Many times I was late, but not today; I was well ahead of schedule.
Instead of waiting for the bus to turn out of the lot, I went to walk around behind it. As I approached the rear of the exiting bus, she caught my eye. You see, I never waited for any bus to pass, it would throw off my time. Today was no different. Walking behind the bus actually put me in line to see her. If I hadn’t, I most likely would have missed her altogether.
For the life of me, I couldn’t believe a girl dressed so nice was going into the oily, smoky auto shop. She doesn’t belong there, I kept telling myself. I followed her path as I made my way around the bus. This slowed my pace a bit. It slowed me enough that the white jeep that had swung a quick left turn around the bus into the lot sped past me, missing me by mere inches. It caused me to jump back, almost losing my balance. My eyes followed the jeep with its loud music into the parking lot; then, I looked over toward the brunette who should have been nearing the shop; she was gone.
I never saw her again that day, in a school of three thousand that wasn’t unheard of, but I did look. All I know is that from where I first saw her, to when my eyes left her, to when they went back to where she should have been, there was no way she could have walked that far in so little time. There were no other entrances, only the one that was much further south than where she was. She was just gone.
I am convinced that God sent me an angel that day, 30 years ago. He protected me from harm through the beautiful girl that walked through my life. I still remember that tan floral skirt and that blue jean backpack. I can still see her hair bouncing with each step. I thank the Lord for her, the angel he sent me. She saved my life.
Photo by Christophe Van der waals on Unsplash