an angel

met an angel on sunday.

my sister's laptop was going bonkers and would have died in the near future. thus xiang, my sis and i made a trip down to funan after church in a bid to get her a new one.

so we made our way through several shops and looked at quite a few laptops before deciding on one that we decided suited all her requirements and there was a $150 cash back. so why not?

being told that we needed to get our cash back from the service hub on the 6th floor and they closed at 3pm on Sundays, (it was then 2.50pm) we made our way upstairs while they were readying the laptop for use etc.

To our horror there was a HUGE mass of people all waiting at the service hub. so we got our queue number and it read 1398. we looked at the number currently being served and to our even greater horror realised it was 1303!!!!!!!

but hey, it was $150 right? so we decided that my sis would go down and have the shop set whatever settings she needed and wanted, then come back up since there was still quite a looooong way to go before our turn.

After seeing about 4 people being served, i had a brain wave of coming back another day to claim the cash back and wondered if this was a possibility (which was highly attractive cos i'm still nursing back my health and did just walk all the way from church to funan and trudged thru a fair number of computer shops). so dialed my sister's number and asked her to check with the shop on returning another day.

i remember i was kinda facing xiang at that time and simply speaking normally into the phone.. not one of those who shriek into the phone or informs the entire bus or train carriage on what they had for dinner last night. so as we were contemplating on the best course of action, someone tapped me on the arm and grabbed my queue number and slid another into my hand in one swift action. (note: he took my number first, without even knowing what it was!)

so while i was speaking...."so you'll be too busy to come back another ah??..... eerrr.... someone just gave me another queue number..." and as i was coming to terms with this new queue number, my brain began to register the number and it read 1314... i looked up at the person and in complete shock i looked questioningly at him. he kinda shrugged and smiled... so i put the phone down and asked "errr... why did you change queue numbers with me? my number's really big you know?" and again he shrugged, gestured at his huge macdonalds drink and said simply with a smile 'i can wait...' but i found it incomprehensible that someone would trade a 1314 (when at that time they were serving 1309) for my 1398! so i asked again "but my number's really very big!" and he just smiled again and said "i haven't finished my drink..." speechless i stood there dumbfounded and he continued "make sure you've got your receipts, ic and everything otherwise they can't help you..." so all i could do really was graciously accept his offer and thanked him profusely...

he walked towards another area of the crowd...

i called my sis and asked her to come up cos we needed her ic etc... so up she came and within minutes it was our turn, within a minute everything was done... three $50 notes were handed to her... and we were out in a jiffy. but he was gone... i wanted to point him out so that my sis could add her thanks... but he was no where in sight.

while i know he's probably a human being, but to me, he was an angel. a stranger doing a good deed and not getting a single thing out of it.

most people i know wouldn't mind helping at their convenience... but this gentleman helped with no advantage or convenience to him. he was simply nice.

earlier on in the day, we screened a cartoon on the good samaritan. i believe i met one that afternoon. and in this clear object lesson i had, i now know what it means to be a good samaritan and hope that one day, i too can be one. =)