Feel the Bern with Bringer of Good Tidings

Radhiya [Arabic: content, satisfied]

Mubashshir [Arabic: messenger, bringer of good tidings, joy]

Three-year-old Radhiya Mubashshir holds her mother’s hand while responding earnestly to her mother’s tears, “Everything [is going to be] okay.” Her mother smiles through tears and looks outside the window and sees their cab has arrived. The customary sounding of the cab’s horn is heard. Considerately singular.

Radhiya’s baby sister cradled in her left arm and Radhiya afoot on her right, Mrs. Mubashshir locks the front door and they descend the apartment stairs to the awaiting cab outside by the sidewalk. The cabdriver sees the mother with baby and daughter approaching carefully so that they do not miss any steps along their way. He manages to see them in time to get out and quickly open the back door of the cab, himself Caucasian and sensitive, too shy to make too much eye contact with the mother, focusing on the child instead, children being the best vehicles for breaking awkward silences and attaining answers.

Affectionately focusing on the three-year-old, the cabdriver accepts an address from the mother. A doctor’s address, his eyes express a concern that even the child perceives and attempts to point out, “Baby [is] sick.” He smiles and answers the three-year-old, “That is why we need to get you all to the doctor as soon as possible.”

Radhiya, mother with baby—all three settle into the backseat. The cabdriver gently closes the door and settles into the driver’s seat himself. The drive is less than two miles. They arrive at the doctor’s office. He again opens the door of the cab for them and helps them to the doctor’s office. While holding the front door for them, the cabdriver tells the mother, “Oh, by the way, I am on my lunch break, so I will be taking a nap. Whenever you get done with the doctor’s checkup, I will be waiting in my cab, and you can pay me the fare for the ride when I take you back.”

The mother makes eye contact with him in gratitude and says, “Thank you, Sir.” The little girl reiterates an echoing, “Thank you, Sir.” Mother and cabdriver smile. The little girl’s dress is as green as a parrot and her shoes are maroon school t-strap leather ensembles with tread on them.

Dr. Antonia Capino and her nurses take over the care of the baby in Mrs. Mubashshir’s arms. Dr. Capino checks the baby’s body temperature and puts her in a cool water bath in an infant bathtub. Changing the water periodically in order to maintain the coolness to break the baby’s fever, Dr. Capino’s nurses proceed to administer drops of medication into the mouth of the distraught little one.

As the baby’s fever abates, the entire process taking an hour, Mrs. Mubashshir finally sighs with relief knowing the baby is in the best care. Handing her a bottle of liquid syrup with a dropper attached to its cap, Dr. Capino reassures her, “Mom, don’t worry about the bill. We will talk about it later. Just take care of baby and she will be fine.” The pediatrician, all heart, hands three-year-old Radhiya a barefoot doll in a cute crocheted pink dress, kindly instructing the little girl, “She comes from the Philippines, my motherland, and you must name her and take care of her, okay?” Dr. Capino smiles and the three-year-old seriously promises, “I will. Thank you, Dr. Capino.” Mrs. Mubashshir and Dr. Capino grin and then chuckle at the gravity with which the three-year-old takes on her responsibility to the plastic figurine embraced in her arms. Radhiya smiles and looks down and around the corner of her right shoulder, clearly self-conscious. “Thank you, Dr. Capino.”

Like a genie in a bottle, the cabdriver appears outside the doctor’s office and opens the door for Mrs. Mubashshir, baby on her left side and the three-year-old holding her hand on the right, the doll tightly clutched upright and against the child’s free arm. Mom is a little embarrassed and tells him hesitantly, “Um, Sir? You needn’t wait at the front door.”

The cabdriver responds, a little embarrassed and hesitant as well, “I just came to check if everything was alright and you just happened to come out.” In order to defuse all uneasiness, he asks the little girl, “So what is your new doll’s name? Looks like you got a present from the doctor?” The little girl generously hands the doll to the cabdriver and with confidence replies, “You can look at her, Sir. Her name is Dr. Capino.”

With mother, infant, and child inside the taxi, the cabdriver closes the door while holding onto the doll the three-year-old shared with such consideration and respect. When he settles into his seat, he hands back the doll to the benevolent little girl in the backseat with her mother and infant sister, “Here’s Dr. Capino.”

“Thank you, Sir.” The little girl remains composed, smiles and accepts the doll from the gentleman. The ride home takes only a few minutes. When the cab arrives at the destination point, baby asleep in her mother’s arms and the little girl carefully studying the doll cradled in her lap, Mrs. Mubashshir inquires about the fare she owes and is handling her purse with one hand while her infant daughter remains asleep in the other.

The gentleman says, “Two dollars.”

Mother, with astonishment, declares, “No, Sir! That is so little!”

The gentleman kindly discloses, “The doctor’s office was walking distance away from the apartment complex. See, the taxi meter did not budge.”

Mother hands him the fare, this time her eyes filled with tears, revealing, “Thank you for making me feel so at home in America with your kindness.”

The gentleman takes the fare quietly and, searching in his windbreaker’s pockets, hands the mother balancing her infant daughter in her arms and keeping an eye out for her three-year-old playing with the now-unforgettable doll, “Please, Ma’am. My number is on this card. My name is Lazarus Carpenter.”

“Thank you, Mr. Lazarus.”

“Now you won’t have to panic when either of them is sick.”

Mrs. Mubashshir opens up her purse one last time and pulls out an envelope containing two twenty-dollar bills and explains, “Their uncle came to see them last night. He left this gift for us. Please accept this. There could be no better way to use this money.”

“Well, you should hold onto that for something for the baby and child. This young lady is blessed with a great nature at such a tender age! You’re doing the world a lot of good by instilling such humanity. The earlier the better!”