What Goes Around Comes Around
7/29/87


Charley Tensul was driving to work.  He was furious.  He and his wife 
Silky had just had a terrible argument.  Actually, it wasn't really an 
argument.  Actually, it was Charley who'd gotten mad, shouted, and 
stormed out of the house.

The traffic had slowed to a crawl and there was a car signalling from a 
side street to come into his lane.  About ten cars had gone by without 
giving room and Charley still fuming, not noticing and being slow to 
respond, left a gap in his lane large enough for the signalling car 
to sneak in.

Johnny Plump saw the gap.  The way everyone was rushing, he thought 
he'd have to wait there all day.  "Thanks old buddy, " he said as he 
gestured and pulled into Charley's lane.  "Still some nice people left
in this world," he thought.  A little later as he turned off toward his 
mother's house, he saw an old man resting on his can waiting to cross
the street.  Johnny, still remembering Charley's courtesy, stopped his
car and waved for the old man to cross.

Manny Lutz didn't always have a bad leg.  His knee cap was blown off 
by a land mine in W.W.II.  It was all that the field surgeons could 
do to save his leg.  As it turned out, he wound up with a silver knee 
cap and a cane.  As he slowly made his way toward the business district 
he was still thinking how nice it was of that motorist to let him 
cross.  Suddenly, he saw a short stout woman trying to maneuver a 
shopping cart and her child through a swinging door.  As 
incapacitated as he was, and without thinking twice, he scuffed 
over and held the door open for her.  She thanked Manny and floated 
through the open entrance.

"Chivalray is not dead," said Mrs. Angela Tortisino to her little 
child as they went through the store shopping for their needs.  After 
filling her cart, she made her way to the check-out counter.  She 
saw an open checker and, instinctively, picked up speed to claim the 
position before anyone else did.  As she was homing in, she saw a 
young lady dragging two twenty gallon trash cans running toward 
the same check-out.  Angella was a veteran at this sort of thing and 
normally she would have accepted the challenge and won; but, she 
remembered that crippled, old knight who had opened the door for her 
and her little baby.  She stopped and waved to the young lady with 
the two trash cans to go ahead of her.  "Go ahead," she said.  "I 
got alot more than you have.  No sense holding you up."  

"Thanks," said Sissy Pendlestorm.  "I'm on a half-hour lunch -- 
thanks alot."  After checking out, Sissy dragged her trash can 
to a little blue Toyota in the parking lot.  She opened the rear 
door and placed them on the back seat of the car -- then she ran to 
"Collette's Coiffure" where she worked as a hair dresser.

Charley, wrapped things up early that day.  Normally, he would 
have waited an hour to let the rush hour traffic die down.  
Tonight, however, he wanted to get home.  He was still fuming 
over the falling out he had with Silky.  As he pulled out of the 
underground parking facility, he saw the frenzied movement of 
the going home traffic.  This was rush hour and everyone was in 
an insane rush to get home.  "Oh hell, should've waited --- 
God damn it ---"  Charley's temperature was going up.  It was 
certain that from this moment on that every bit of aggravation 
he suffered, was going to be Silky's fault.  Suddenly, he 
realized that someone was honking their horn.  A little blue 
Toyota had stopped and was signalling for Charley to move in.  
As he turned into traffic he waved his hand to acknowledge the 
kindness.  He noticed two trash cans in the rear of the car
and an attractive young lady driving - sort of like Silky.  
"Yeah, Silky," he thought, she's that way, she wouldn've let 
me in."

As Charley drove home, he kept thinking of the nice lady who 
let him cut in, and of Silky.  He had the radio on, but he 
wasn't listening.  He was talking to himself.  "I didn't even 
let Silky explain.  Boy, if she ever yelled at me like I yelled 
at her.   Yeah, but God dammit she knows how I am.  Why can't 
she use her brains a little more?"

By the time Charley got home, he knew what had happened that 
morning was his fault.  He had picked up a small box of 
candy as a peace offering.  He found Silky sitting on the 
couch in the living room; he sheepishly put the small box 
of candy in her lap and sat down on the couch next to her.  
He smelled like he'd been drinking.  Silky took the candy 
and placed it on the lamp table.  "Let me get supper on 
the table," she said coldly, as she rushed into the kitchen 
leaving Charley sitting by himself.

Well, to make a long story short, Charley turned on all of 
his chauvinistic charm and by the time dinner was finished 
and he'd finished his third up of coffee, Silky broke 
down and started sniffling.  Charley went to her and took 
her in his arms. 

It wouldn't be right for me to tell you what happened after 
that.  After all, some things are private and should remain 
that way.  All I can say is that the dinner dishes never 
got washed.  But if you want to ask me what I learned from 
all this, I would have to say that if a husband and wife 
argue, and if one of them drives to work, and they see 
someone signalling to come into their lane of traffic, 
they should let them in.  The way I see it, what goes 
around, comes around.

Joseph Vosbikian