Every Saturday morning, Jessica and her mother would get ready to go the gym for an aerobics class. Jessica's mother was an excellent aerobics instructor. Like all of her mother's aerobics students, Jessica herself loved to participate in her mother's aerobics class. She loved to do the stretching exercises. And, she loved to do the high kicks. Sometimes, since Jessica was still a little kid, it was hard for Jessica to keep up with the aerobics class. But she gave it her best.

Jessica and her mother always started the day by eating a light breakfast of juice and fresh fruit. Then they would pack their workout bags into her Mom's jeep, and head for the gym which was located across town.

But today, while driving down the street, Jessica and her mother heard a very loud noise coming from the rear of the jeep, "POP!" They had a flat tire!

"Oh, no," said Jessica's mother. "We will be late for our first aerobics class."

Jessica's mother got out of the jeep, and prepared to fix the flat tire. Fortunately Jeep is one of the few vehicles left that still had a full size spare tire.

Jessica's mother wasn't very big and strong, but she knew how fix a flat tire. She also knew how to fix many things around the house, too.

"May I help?" asked Jessica.

"No thank you," replied Jessica's mother. "This is a busy road. I'd prefer that you stayed inside the Jeep for safety."

Just as Jessica's mother was removing the jack from the trunk, a young man drove up behind the jeep.

"Might I help?" asked the young man.

"Oh yes, thank you very much," replied Jessica's mother. The spare tire was really, really heavy.

So Jessica and her mother stood on the side of the road, while the young man fixed their flat tire. Jessica's mother didn't want to be late for her first aerobics class. After about five minutes, the young man had fixed the tire.

"Can I offer you anything for fixing the tire?" asked Jessica's mother.

"No, thank you," replied the young man. "It was my pleasure to help you. Have a nice day."

The young man slowly drove away, and waved goodbye. Jessica and her mother got back into the jeep, and started off to the gym.

"Why didn't that nice man accept anything for helping us?' asked Jessica.

"I guess he saw we were have trouble, " said Jessica's mother. "And, just wanted to help."

They finally reached the gym, just in time for their first aerobics class. Everybody was warmed up and ready to begin. They started the aerobics class with some stretching exercises. Then they did some stair stepping exercises. And then they finished the class with the warm down period. Everybody felt so much better and relaxed after a good aerobics class.

While members of the class were enjoying cool glasses of apple juice or chilled water, a worried woman walked up and asked, "Has anyone seen a diamond ring? I had it on before the aerobics class. It must have slipped off of my finger! I've been meaning to get it resized because it began to feel a bit loose, but I just haven't had time to get to the jeweler yet."

The entire class pitched in to help search for the lost diamond ring, but after a good thirty minutes of searching, the diamond ring had still not been found. They had searched everywhere!

The woman left her telephone number with Jessica's mother. Jessica noticed that the woman had tears in her eyes as she walked out of the gym. She had told Jessica's mother that although it wasn't a big diamond, her late husband had given her that ring for their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, so it really meant a lot to her.

Realizing how important it was to her heart, Jessica decided to search the whole place once again. She looked under the weight machines. She looked around the soda machines. She looked under the treadmills. She looked around the spa and pool area. She even looked under the rowing machines!

Jessica looked everywhere she thought the woman might have lost her ring.

Finally, Jessica decided to take one last look around the area where they'd had their first aerobics class. As she entered the room, to her total surprise, Jessica saw the tiniest sparkle coming from a far corner of the room. The aerobics class hadn't been anywhere near that part of the room! She could no longer see a sparkle, but nevertheless, Jessica decided to take a look anyway.

She walked closer and closer to where she thought she'd seen that brief sparkle, and sure enough, there it was! Goodness knows how that ring managed to get all the way over there! It probably slipped off the woman's finger, bounced a couple of times, and had accidentally gotten kicked way off into a far corner during the exercises, Jessica reasoned.

"Mother! Mother!" Jessica shouted. "I found it! I found the diamond ring!"

Jessica's mother quickly telephoned the woman who had lost her ring and the delighted woman said she'd rush right back to the gym to pick it up.

"Who found my ring?" asked the grateful woman when she arrived. "I thought I had lost it forever!"

"I did," replied Jessica with a smile. "I found it in the aerobics room."

"That ring is so very special to me," said the woman. "Is there anything I can give you for finding it?"

Just then, Jessica thought about the young man who had helped them change the flat tire earlier that morning.

"No thank you," said Jessica. "I'm glad I was able to help and find you ring."

The woman left the gym with the ring on her finger, saying she was headed to the jewelers right now to get it resized so she'd never risk losing it again. She was so happy that she had a great big smile on her face.

Jessica had a great big smile on her face too!

Helping other people gives you a pretty good feeling inside, she realized.

And that was a pretty good thing to have learned, she decided.

The End