An Unlikely Coincidence

So get this: there's pouring rain and a heavy fall thunderstorm Tuesday morning. About a quarter mile from work I see a car, facing the wrong direction, in a ditch. I pull over, pause to regret my decision, then run back to the other car to ask them if anyone is hurt.

There's woman and her two teens in the car. They're fine and there was no accident; she said she pulled over because it's her kids school bus stop but went too far and slid into the ditch.

The rear passenger wheel was a good foot off the ground. I told her she'd need a tow but we could try one time to push it out, thinking maybe she was hung up on something.

Like all teens, her boy wouldn't get out of the car to help until she yelled at him. He was content with sitting and watching. Not that it mattered. Pushing it didn't work. It made things worse, and with the tire now a foot higher I could see the drivers side tires were buried in mud.

But get this . . .the woman says "Are you Dan?"

It was Jackie S--, a friend of Lisa's that I've met a few times, and a former almost-stepmom of my nephew and nieces. 

Small world. Too unbelievable to write down if this was fiction, for sure.

Anyway, a guy pulled over, told us he worked down the road and would return with a chain to pull her out.

Good deed (unsuccessfully) accomplished, I headed to work, completely soaked.

Update - ok so it was simultaneously NOT so unbelievable, but also more so. It turns out she called me by name because she thought I was answering her call for help. Not in a general way, she was literally texting me asking to come help. Apparently she lives out there and Lisa gave her my # and told her to reach out in a pinch. Which was fine, if one of them hadn't transposed two of the digits.

So she thought she was texting me but wasn't. And I happened to pass by and stop randomly. Yes, I know it was the road to work but I was coming from that direction only because of a Pokestop along the way lol