Kindness of Strangers

   Peering out of an office window that overlooks Main Street and the East Hampton Library late on Labor Day, idly contemplating the relentless line of traffic headed west, we noticed a car trying to get out of the library’s driveway that looked as if might be stuck there forever.

    Several people were walking on the sidewalk. When he could, the young man at the wheel edged the car forward, first across the pedestrian walkway and then a few inches into the road, until he could go no farther without someone hitting him. For all the drivers passing by cared, his car might as well have been invisible.

    Minutes later, when we looked again, the young man’s car was still sitting there. And then, surprise, a Mercedes — not, perhaps, what  you might expect — slowed down and stopped, letting the trapped driver, with a big thank-you wave of his hand, escape.