Rescue at the Goodwill

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A great rescue occurred yesterday at the Goodwill store in West Asheville, NC. I was not a witness to the event though it happened right behind me. I did, however, hear the incident debriefed.

 

I was in my usual place near the entrance where they display couches and easy chairs for sale. I test the merchandise and read while keeping an eye on my son who likes to browse their VHS video collection.

 

My strategy, developed over many visits to the store, is to find a seat that is comfortable enough without being too attractive to prospective buyers so I won't have to move. Yesterday, I sat in a blue, vinyl-covered love seat I’ve sat in before. If you were looking to decorate in an early Waffle House motif, it would be a good buy.

 

I’m sitting there, and I'm near the end of a novel that’s gone on way too long. I hear two young men talking excitedly, and I look up, grateful for the distraction. One of the men is a beefy sort, with close-cropped, dark hair and an open face. He wears a stained blue T-shirt, jeans, and work boots, and he looks like he just climbed down from his tractor. He’s addressing a slender, bearded fellow with long, blonde dreadlocks and a yellow bandana tied around his forehead. Bandana Man fits the stereotype of many inhabitants found among the coffee shops and co-ops of West Asheville.

 The conversation went like this:

Farmer Joe : “Did you just…how did you…?”

 

Bandana Man: “Yeah, right? That was crazy! She was just crashing against the window, trying to get out, and I'm like, whoa! I put my finger up there, and she lit right on it. I just walked slowly outside, and she flew off!”

 

Farmer Joe: “I saw it! That was awesome! Man! That was awesome.”

 

I realized I had seen a yellow Swallowtail butterfly in the distance as I looked up at the men. Piecing together their excited conversation, I ascertained that Bandana Man had rescued the butterfly from inside the store where it was facing certain death by head banging into the front window. What touched me was how the rescue had, for a moment, brought together two young men whose paths may have never otherwise crossed. They would have passed in the doorway without a glance, one entering, one exiting, if not for the butterfly.

 

Here were two young men, Country and City, united in their joy and wonder over an insect life saved. For that brief moment defenses were down, and they connected. And imagine the joy and wonder shared that evening by Madame and Monsieur Butterfly as Mama told the story of her near demise to her spouse and their little caterpillars. For generations to come it will go down in butterfly lore as the Great Rescue in West Asheville at the Goodwill store.

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