Tasked with delivering information to an individual, information best delivered in person, I had been given an address in a neighboring town, but no phone number or email. The directions are simple, head west for 30 some-odd miles, take a left at the light across from the Target store, go 2 blocks – the building is on the right; the parking lot is in the back. This is the second time I have tried to deliver what I have. I walk up the steps leading to the entrance and because it is not a public place, I knock on the door and wait… and for the second time, there is no answer.
Later I ask someone for advice and am told, “The Boss will let you know when.” The information, while being important, is not time sensitive and I put it away. Several months pass and mid-week I get a strong sense it is time and I need to go the upcoming Saturday. The weekend starts and I gather what I need and get on the road. I am using an app for directions knowing I would be rerouted if there are traffic issues.
Thirty minutes later my turn is only a couple of miles away and the app indicates the route is clear, yet it shows not just another route but a route that is the most convoluted route I have ever seen on such an app. There are easily ten turns, maybe more. Shocked by the twists and turns I utter “Oh hell no,” and for the first time I hear someone else’s voice in my head as clear to me as if a person is sitting in the seat next to me, “Follow the map,” and so I do. Two turns later and I am on a college campus, empty due to the summer months, four more turns and the map leads me not down a street but across a parking lot! As I make the next turn down an alley I see a sign with the posted speed limit, 10 MPH. I shook my head and said to myself “I am not driving 10 miles per hour.” Again the voice, “Drive the speed limit.” I cannot remember the last time I felt like a fool, but here I am driving around an empty campus, across a parking lot, and down an alley going all of ten miles an hour. A couple of turns later I am finally on the street of my destination. I reach the building and parking lot and exit the Jeep.
As I approach the building, I see a man smoking a cigarette on the steps to the left. He sees me walking toward the door and asks, “Can I help you?” I explain I am here to see someone, using the name of the person I am looking for. The man looks at me and explains, “That would be me.” He puts out his cigarette as I introduce myself and with a brief explanation, we go in and talk for a few minutes.
Not being a smoker, I don’t know how long it takes to start and finish a cigarette. Five minutes? Ten? If I had ignored the map and went directly to the location chances are that person would not have come to the door. But following the map, driving that ludicrous speed limit, put me at the precise time to catch the man outside smoking a cigarette and enabling me to accomplish a task given to me by the Boss.
Events that knock me off my course, even slightly, no longer bother me. Weather not cooperating, car not starting, the four or five consecutive stops because of traffic lights, they all may still frustrate me from time to time but I readily accept they happen for a reason. Reasons I may never know or could even understand but I am good with it all.
Copyright © 2025 G. Steven Nolte – Rights for non-commercial reproduction granted: May be copied in its entirety, but neither retyped nor edited.