THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD - Democratic Underground

WilliamPitt

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Mon Sep-12-05 09:29 PM
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THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD

Edited on Mon Sep-12-05 09:30 PM by WilliamPitt

This is first-hand. I just got it over the telephone.

The woman I am currently dating used to be with this guy named Steve a long time ago, they were from the same Massachusetts town, and they have remained good friends. From what she has told me in the past, he sounds like a great guy. He is a super-townie with oak clusters, a 'yah-dood' in the purest sense of the word, a great guy.

One story she tells is of him buying a $2,000 engagement ring for his girlfriend, finding out she had been sleeping around on him, so he called the whole thing off. He went down to a bridge over a river to chuck the ring into the river, and saw this young woman coming with two babies in a carriage and a third on her arm. He gave her the ring instead, told her what it was worth and that she should pawn it. So he's that kind of guy, just a big hearted sheet-metal worker who never left the town he grew up in, not political, just a solid citizen.

Well, my girlfriend just got back from hanging out with him tonight, and she tells me this MIND-BLOWING story. It seems Steve is crazy about this girl who was originally from New Jersey, but recently moved to New Orleans for a job. The storm hit, he couldn't reach her, her parents couldn't reach her, and he is worried sick.

Fuck it, he says, I'm going. Last Sunday he told his boss he was headed down, his boss busted him two paychecks, and off he went. Got down to the WORST DISASTER AREA IN THE COUNTRY and just started looking for this girl he is in love with.

He goes from shelter to shelter, looking for her. Wades through disgusting water, past bodies, gets this fungus growing on his feet, and keeps looking. Meets an Iraq vet in one shelter who was paralyzed from the waist down, and who had just lost his whole family to the storm.

Got his hands on a flat-bottom boat and starts rowing his ass all through the city, going from shelter to shelter looking for her. Along the way he keeps finding people and bringing them to safety. Once day he passed a house and heard a baby crying, and went in. He saw a baby crying on the floor with two people sitting above it, asked, "Are you OK? I have a boat, want to come?" The two people were dead. He saved the baby.

After several days of searching shelters, rowing past bodies and helping anyone he could along the way, HE FOUND THE GIRL HE IS IN LOVE WITH in one shelter. She flips out, and he says we are getting out of here. No, no, she says, we can't go, they are shooting out there, it is the Wild West. Hell with that, he says, and they go. They get out of the city and up to Baton Rouge, get a hotel, and she finally calls her parents to say she is OK. They get a plane home the next day. Needless to say, she now thinks Steve wears a cape and is from Krypton. Frankly, so do I.

So tonight, my girlfriend gets together with him and says, "Boy, have I had a hard week." He says, "Me, too," like the Mr. Humble he is. He'd just gotten back yesterday. Ordinary hero.

I am going to meet up with this guy in a few days and get his whole story; apparently, there are many more details. But he found her. He fucking found her. He went down there and found her.

The last thing I said to my girlfriend was, "So, when are you dumping me for him?" :)

Amazing.