Recently my wife and I flew in to Chicago for meetings. At the airport we boarded the shuttle bus for the ride over to the car rental lot... a huge facility! En route we had a brief conversation with the shuttle bus driver. When I got off the bus, I asked him if he was a "reader." He answered affirmatively, and so I offered him a "Stranger." He took the book, but when he discovered the Bible was the topic, he showed very little enthusiasm. He left us with a feeling that this book would just end up "on the shelf."
A week later we returned our rental car and boarded the shuttle bus back to the airport, this time with a different driver. Upon arriving at the terminal, I ran inside to get a luggage cart. While I was inside, the driver unloaded our luggage from the bus, including a carton of "Stranger" books. I arrived back at the curb just in time to see the driver jump on the bus. He waved at me as he left. In his hand was a copy of "The Stranger" with a prominent bookmark.
My wife explained that the shuttle driver had made a connection between us and the "Stranger" when he saw the case of books. While I was gone, he told my wife this story. About a week earlier he was in the lunch room when he saw another driver with the book. Looking it over, he had asked the other man if he was going to read it. When he got a noncommittal answer, driver "two" said he would like to read it. He told my wife that the book was answering all sorts of questions for him. The worn book in his hand was evidence that it was getting a good "read," just what we hoped for when we had first given it away.
