Meant To Be

I was driving us to the dojo this evening.  

While waiting at a traffic light, I glanced over to the right and saw a white-colored Jeep slightly ahead of us.  On the dash was a row of rubber duckies of various sorts.

"Look!  It is such a collection of rubber duckies!" I hollered to Mike who was looking at something else.  "You know what?  I have a rubber ducky in my purse.  I just got it today from the public library promotion team at the rec center."  

I pulled it out of my purse to show Mike.  It was a dark green, evil-looking rubber ducky to go on top of a pencil.

"Should we offer it to him?" I asked Mike.

😳 "How?  We are here and he is over there in his car . . ." Mike muttered.

Before Mike could finish his sentence, I rolled down his window and started waving at the Duck Man like a maniac.

Duck Man was a cute young man with long curls in his hair.  He was so busily conversing with someone on the phone while playing with the curls with his fingers that he did not see us.

Meanwhile, the traffic light just turned green.  We had to get going. 

"Oh, well.  We tried."  Mike rolled his window back up.  "You don't even know if he would want a rubber ducky from a stranger.  It's weird, you know."

He put the rubber ducky back into my purse.

"No, it is not weird," I protested.  "It's cool to get a rubber ducky from strangers.  To someone who loves rubber duckies, it is very cool."

As I was driving, I continued to monitor the position of Duck Man's white Jeep.  He continued in the right lane, but had fallen behind a few cars.  Our cars became further and further apart, but I kept an eye on it.  

I never thought I would be stalking anybody.   I cannot believe I was stalking a stranger from in front!  

"Argh!  Is it not mean to be?" I started lamenting to myself.  "Too bad he didn't see us.  We could have given him the rubber ducky . . ."  

After going under an overpass and another set of traffic light, a few cars moved out of the right lane.  Suddenly, the white Jeep was in sight again!

"Look, look!  He is still there,  He is the third car behind us on the right." I cheered.

As it happened, the light in front of us turned red, and our line was longer than the right one.  It meant, when Duck Man's Jeep rolled up, he might be next to us once again!

"Hurry, hurry up, Mike!  Get the rubber ducky.  Let's give it to him!"

I rolled down the window as Mike fumbled with my purse to look for the green evil duck.  

We waved and waved at Duck Man.  This time, he noticed us.  He was all perplexed by these two strange strangers.  

He mouthed, "What?"

I pulled our car a little more forward so he could see us better.  Mike triumpantly waved the green ducky in front of his face.

Duck Man broke out a giant smile and nodded his head enthusiastically.  

The light was about to change.  Duck Man hurried to roll down his window.  Mike tossed the ducky at him, and Duck Man tried to catch it. 

TONK!

Somehow, the evil ducky bounced off something and fell . . . 

"AAAAAAW!" all three of us let it out loud simultaneously.

Where did the duck go?  Duck Man stuck his head outside his car window to search for the unfortunate ducky. 

"OMG!!!!!"  Duck Man laughed hysterically.   

The light turned green.  Without saying a word or looking back at us, the Jeep took off.

Even though it was disappointing, we had to get on our way.  It was very tempting, but if you want to live, you don't get out of the car to fetch a rubber ducky on a busy main street in DC.  

Now that we were slightly behind the Jeep, we could see what Duck Man was laughing about.  

"OMG!!!" Mike and I went.

It turned out, the green evil rubber ducky bounced off, but miraculously landed on the running board outside the Jeep's driver's side door!

At the next light, Duck Man pulled over to the side street on the right to retrieve his miracle ducky.  And we turned left to continue with our journey to the dojo.  I almost wanted to honk the horn!

"It was incredible.  We did it!!!"  Mike high-fived me.

"I am so glad we did not give up!  After all, it was meant to be."  I was so proud of our persistence.  

"Did you see his smile?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, it was priceless."  I was ecstatic.

"You look very pleased about getting the rubber ducky to the Duck Man," Mike commented.

"Of course I am.  You know, psychologists did a research and found that one gets more pleasure from giving a nice gift than to have received a gift.  It is definitely true in my case.  It was kinda fun to have gotten the rubber ducky from the library crew, but to have successfully passed the ducky onto Duck Man under these circumstances, it is like having a miracle."

"I guess it is nice to bring a litle joy into other people's life," Mike said.

"If we all are willing to do just that, the world would be a very different place." I asserted.

"Well, maybe true to a certain degree . . ." Mike responded with reservation.

"If we are willing to make an effort to bring joy into others' life, we may be less inclined to do things that will bring them anguish and suffering.  The world will be much better off."  I really want to believe.

This definitely was a amazing, crazy adventure for us.  I wonder what this encounter meant for Duck Man . . . 🤔💭💭

Would he think:  "Who are these people?  They were driving so far ahead of me.  How did they know I collect rubber duckies?  They waited for me to drive up so as to give a rubber ducky to me.  Have they been stalking me?  This is a brand new ducky with the tag still on!  What is with these people?  Do they just drive around to give away rubber duckies to strangers?"

He may think we are freaks!  😱

Be that as it may, I am sure this particular green evil ducky will forever provide the Duck Man with a funny story to tell.  

The next time on the way to the dojo, I will keep an eye out for a certain white Jeep . . . 

Credit: Intever