I was stopped at a set of lights near my house yesterday waiting my turn right to take the Not so Small Child on our daily rat run to school, when I noticed a young guy, maybe in his early 20s, in a sleek black V8 HSV Maloo ute. He was coming up the hill and had obviously broken down right in the middle of the intersection. He was looking exasperated, as you do in these situations, and was out of his car looking under the hood. A guy on a pushbike, probably in his mid-30s, who was also stopped at the intersection called out to him to offer assistance, as you do in these situations: “Hey mate! Do you want a push?”. The young guy looks up from under the hood and calls back, “I’ll give you a fuckin’ push in a minute!” … as you do in these situations!
What the fuck? The guy on the pushbike looked perplexed and with his hands in the air said, “Mate, I was just offering to help?!?” and the guy with the broken down ute pointedly ignored him. The light changed green, the guy behind me impatiently beeped his horn, and so I left the scene of the Pushbiking Samaritan and the DicklessV8 Driver.
I’m at a loss to understand why someone who is obviously in a bit of a bind, upon receiving an offer of assistance, would react this way? Did he think the guy on the push bike was being smug? Was he under the impression the offer of help was somehow disingenuous? Was he just in a foul mood and decided to take it out on the first person who interacted with him? Did he have a mild case of tourettes? Or is his default position when interacting with others, one of habitually not being courteous to strangers regardless of situational factors? I don’t know. I have no idea what the idiot was thinking.
To the Dickless V8 Driver: I would strongly recommend that you cash in your V8 that you probably like to tinker with on weekends to make you feel like you know something about cars, and perhaps swap it for a nice reliable Camry. You might also consider having its regularly scheduled services carried out by a qualified mechanic at a reputable service centre while you’re at it.
To the Pushbiking Samaritan: I hope this unfortunate interaction doesn’t inhibit your instinct to offer assistance to others in the future. The community needs people prepared to put themselves out for others in the midst of our busy, busy lives. I also hope the universe is sending you good vibes for offering assistance to someone who seriously needed your help, but as it turned out, seriously didn’t deserve your help!