Full question: “You are driving in the rain. You come across a bus stop with three people waiting. You find the people are your best friend who saved your life once, your soul mate, and an elderly woman who is having a heart attack. You can only carry one other person in your car, and once you leave you won’t see your soul mate again. What do you do?”
Wow, what a question. Here is my answer:
I stop the car, and help the elderly woman inside so I can drive her to the hospital. As the other two help me, my soul mate and I catch each other’s eye. She knows what this means. My best friend is shaken by what’s happening, so I give him money for a taxi and tell him to meet me at the hospital as soon as he can – that I’ll always be here for him, like he was for me and like I must be now for this woman.
Time is against us, but as I turn to face my soul mate, it feels like it’s stopped. We can barely feel the rain. In a split second, the sorrow is overwhelming but so is the connection we feel, as infinite as the universe. Two souls meet like this outside of time, where they always were and will always be together, if not in proximity than in spirit. There are no words, just smiles in spite of the tears; just gratitude in spite of the heartbreak; just a knowledge that a soul mate never truly leaves your heart.
There’s no time to indulge in this, and within a blink, I’m driving to the hospital, one hand on the wheel, the other in the elderly woman’s, gripping mine tightly. She knows as well, as if her touch shares a moment she once had to let go of somebody special herself. I’m comforted by her, and her revelation that where soul mates have to leave, other special people can arrive, and that age can bring wisdom to heal and grow amidst it all.