Every morning a van drove through our town. It was always nice and clean, washed and followed the traffic rules. It didn’t make any noise. It drove quietly and orderly. It delivered goodies around town. Early in the morning, the van would go far out of town, where nobody knew it. It’d load up on fruit and vegetables and then go back to our town. Here, it would take the food to the different stalls where people went to shop. The van was driven by one driver… But he wasn’t just any driver.
At first glance, you could be scared by him. He was taller, had big muscles on his arms and his gaze was stern. But when he smiled, his kind, sky- blue eyes lit up in a way that no one could be afraid of. He loved to drive his van. He loved to travel. When he left in the morning, he looked forward to getting on the road again so he could see the beautiful places where fruits and vegetables grew. Not many people knew about those places. In our town, only this driver knew them. Only he knew for sure where they were and how beautiful they looked.
One day, when he was returning from his travels and had a van full of fruit and vegetables, he drove up to a stall where he was going to unload some fruit. Then his van skidded. It was so full and heavy that he couldn’t stop it. It kept spinning around and around. The driver tried to stop it, but he couldn’t. The van was stronger than he was. Eventually, it knocked the stall over and flipped it all over on the ground. Its cargo hold opened up and all the fruit spilled out onto the lady who owned the stand. The driver ran out of the van and tried to find the little saleswoman under the pile of oranges and apples.
After a few minutes, a voice finally came from under the pile: “If you help me rebuild the stand and give me some of those extra oranges for free, I’ll forgive you.” The driver removed another orange from the pile and discovered her face. The sales lady was ruffled and a little dirty, but she was smiling. The driver helped her up. Without thinking about it, he hugged her warmly.
The saleswoman was surprised. She wasn’t expecting it. In his big and firm arms, she shyly asked: “Why? Why are you hugging me like that?” “I’m happy you’re not hurt. I was very worried about you,” the driver replied, hugging her one last time. Then he helped the saleswoman clean up and put everything back in order.
Every morning after that, when the driver delivered the fruit and vegetables, his van stood for the longest time at the rebuilt stall. That’s where he had his saleslady. They always talked for a long time. And when the saleswoman was sad, the driver would take her to the wonderful places he went to get fruits and vegetables that he was the only one who knew about. It always put a smile on her lips and he was glad for it. Even though the saleswoman was an ordinary petite lady with a shy smile, he was a big and muscular man and they was completely different, a special bond of friendship formed between them.
