Excuse me, are you Japanese? Part 1

I didn't blog about this a month ago. But I am now.

"Excuse me, are you Japanese?"

An Asian man around late 30's stopped me by pulling sleeve.

"No. I'm not." I said.

Then the man started to speak Mandarin Chinese.. Mixed with a heavy Cantonese accent.

"I need help. I really do need help. Can you help me?" He took off his dirty white golf hat and looked up at me... (He was around 5'6")

"Hrm, okay?"

"I accidentally left my wallet in my friend's jacket on the train. They rode the Long Island Rail Road back home already. I left my wallet and everything else in it."

"Okay..." I mumbled as I turned my attention to the time table... Kept an eye for the departure time of MY train.


"The lady at the counter told me, the last bus to New Jersey will depart in 20 minutes. That's my last chance of getting home." He trembled.

"Okay..." I look at him.

"I... I promise that I will send you a check after I get back home... But can you... Can you lead me some money so I can buy the bus ticket?"

"Uh... How much would that be?" I asked him... Unsure if I should trust this man or not... Besides, financially, I was in a very funky situation.

The Asian man mumbled something...

So I pulled out a 5 dollar bill plus two 1 dollar bills.

"Here." I responded back in Mandarin.

He took out a pen and pulled out the train schedule... "Write your address on here. I promise that I will send you the money"

I shook my head. "Nah."

"OH Thank You Thank You Thank you!"

I look over his shoulder, and make sure that I still have time to get onto my train.

"Okay. My train is here. I've got to go. Good Luck."

I took a couple steps forward and away from him...

Then, all of the sudden... He grabbed my shoulder...

"Sorry Sorry...But this is not enough."

"Uh, how much do you need?"

"The bus ticket is 18 dollars. Not 8"

Ah... I thought. That's a lot of money to me. I mean, I can buy 3-5 BBQ Chicken meals with that amount.

"That's a lot of money. Especially you need to take the subway to the Bus station, which, will cost you two dollars more." I look at home.

"Please, Please, You have to help me!" He jumped up and down.

I reached my right hand out. "Give me back the 8 dollars."

He stopped and looked at me.

"Give them back to me." I said firmly.

He unwillingly pulled out the 8 dollars out of his pocket and put them in my hand. "I'm sorry to give you trouble..."

I grabbed the bills and put them back in my wallet... Then I pull out a $20 bill and hand it to him.

"Here. This should be enough." I said.

"Oh thank you thank you!" He waved the little bus schedule sheet at me and asked me to write down my address again.

"I will send the money back to you. I promise."

"No need... In return, I just want you to get back home safely."

"Thank you so much again!! I've got to catch that bus!!!"

He turned around and started running to the subway tunnel... As for myself, I ran down to the train platform and went into the train.

On my way back, I kept on thinking... If I made the right decision... Of what I just did.

Twenty Bucks, that's like a treasure chest for a stingy person like me.

Twenty Bucks....

Oh well...

Then, I would never expect that the same thing happened again earlier today...


***************** to be continued***********************


Okay, off to meet up with Sushil and Lana.