I was on a plane returning home to Dallas, Texas after completing my duty in Vietnam. There were no hometown parades for us veterans （退役老兵） from that1war and I had been warned about the unfriendliness from our countrymen at that time.2, I was just trying to get home without incident.

    I sat, in uniform, in a window seat,3eye contact with my fellow passengers. No one was sitting in the seat next to me, which4my loneliness. A little girl, not more than 10 years old, suddenly5 in the passage. She smiled and, without a word,6handed me a magazine. I accepted her7together with her quiet “welcome home”. I turned to the window and wept. Her small8of caring was the first I had9 in a long time.

    I believe in the10between strangers when we reach out to one another.

    Today, that young girl 11 has no memory of what happened years ago. I like to think of her as having grown up, continuing to12others and teaching her children to do the same. I know she might have been told to give me the “13” by her parents. It doesn't matter why she gave me the magazine. The 14thing is she did.

    From then on, I have followed her15 and tried, in different ways for 16people, to do the same for them. I know that my 17since then are all due to that little girl. Her offer of a magazine to a tired, scared and 18soldier has echoed throughout my 19. I have to believe that my small gestures have the same20 on others.