Edit: NOT True Story:
On a recent weekend in Atlantic City, a woman won a bucketful of
quarters at a slot machine. She took a break from the slots for dinner
with her husband in the hotel dining room. But first she wanted to
stash the quarters in her room. "I'll be right back and we'll go to
eat," she told her husband and carried the coin-laden bucket to the
elevator.
As she was about to walk into the elevator she noticed two men already
aboard. Both were black. One of them was
tall...very tall...an intimidating figure. The woman froze. Her first thought was: "These two are going to rob me. "Her next thought was: "Don't be a bigot; they look like perfectly nice gentlemen. " But racial stereotypes
are powerful, and fear immobilized her.
She stood and stared at the two men. She felt anxious, flustered and ashamed. She hoped they didn't read her mind but gosh, they had to know what she was thinking!!! Her hesitation about joining them in the elevator was all too obvious now. Her face was flushed. She couldn't just stand there, so with a mighty effort of will she picked up one foot and stepped forward and followed with the other foot and was on the elevator.
Avoiding eye contact, she turned around stiffly and faced the elevator
doors as they closed. A second passed, and then another second, and
then another. Her fear increased!
The elevator didn't move. Panic consumed her.
"My God," she thought, I'm trapped and about to be robbed!" Her heart
plummeted. Perspiration poured from every pore. Then one of the men said, "Hit the floor." Instinct told her to do what they told her. The
bucket of quarters flew upwards as she threw out her arms and
collapsed on the elevator floor. A shower of coins rained down on her.
Take my money and spare me, she prayed.
More seconds passed. She heard one of the men say politely,
"Ma'am, if you'll just tell us what floor you're going to, we'll push
the button."
The one who said it had a little trouble getting the words out. He
was trying mightily to hold in a belly laugh. The woman lifted her head
and looked up at the two men. They reached down to help her up.
Confused, she struggled to her feet.
"When I told my friend here to hit the floor," said the average
sized one, "I meant that he should hit the elevator button for our
floor. I didn't mean for you to hit the floor, ma'am." He spoke
genially. He bit his lip. It was obvious he was having a hard time not
laughing.
The woman thought: "My God, what a spectacle I've made of myself."
She was too humiliated to speak. She wanted to blurt out
an apology, but words failed her. How do you apologize to two
perfectly respectable gentlemen for behaving as though they were going
to rob you? She didn't know what to say.
The three of them gathered up the strewn quarters and refilled her
bucket. When the elevator arrived at her floor they then insisted on
walking her to her room. She seemed a little unsteady on her feet, and
they were afraid she might not make it down the corridor. At her door
they bid her a good evening.
As she slipped into her room she could hear them roaring with laughter as they walked back to the elevator. The woman brushed
herself off. She pulled herself together and went downstairs for
dinner with her husband.
The next morning flowers were delivered to her room - a dozen yellow
roses. Attached to EACH rose was a crisp one hundred dollar bill.
The card said:
"Thanks for the best laugh we've had in years."
It was signed:
Eddie Murphy
Michael Jordan
