So I hopped in the car and drove off to meet him to see if
he needed any help. When I drove up, he
was situated such that he was on my passenger side. He looked older, maybe in his 60s or 70s. I called out to him, and Bob, as I later found out his name, got up and came
over.
“Hi, do you need any help?”
“Yes, I need an AM/FM radio.”“Oh yeah?”
“Yes, at night I hear a lot of peoples' voices, and the radio helps me sleep.”
…
“This probably makes no sense to you. But the radio helps cuts down on the voices.”
“I understand, but the problem is that I don’t have an AM/FM radio on me.”
“Oh that’s okay, Wal-Mart sells them. You can go there and get one. Incoherent part (we’ll come back to that).”
“You’re right. Okay, just hold on and I’ll go get you one.”
“Okay, I’ll wait right here.”
I drove into Wal-Mart, which was in that shopping center, and lo and behold they had portable
AM/FM radios for sale, two models actually, batteries naturally not included. So I got him a radio, and a pack of triple As,
(kept the receipt just in case), threw ten dollars into the bag, and drove back
to him.
“Hi again, I’ve got your radio!”“Thank you, what do I owe you. (Ahh, now I realized that his incoherent part from before was him stating he was going to pay me back).”
“It’s a gift, enjoy it.”
“No really, what did it cost, let me pay you back.”
“That’s really okay, it’s a gift. Sleep well.”
“Hey, thanks a lot! Do you want to come sit and talk?”
“Oh, I am sorry, I really must be going. But I’ll take some prayers!”
“Sure, I’ll pray for you, what’s your name!?”
And that’s pretty much the story. I felt bad for not staying with him. The poor guy probably would have loved the
company. But he also literally hears
voices in his head, and he was in a very dark corner. Although, I still feel bad, because that is
really just an excuse. If he had violent
tendencies he would likely have been in prison, and he was very friendly and
nice. No, the reason I didn’t stick
around and talk is because I really just didn’t want to get more involved. Gah, that’s heartless. I was happy to see he had food with him, and
appeared to be in good spirits. But it
breaks my heart thinking he has no one to talk with. Hopefully, he has a good group of
friends. It’s hard to be sure, because
there are a variety of places around here for people to receive assistance be
it shelter, job training, food, and so on.
Hopefully he makes use of those services, but sometimes, all we really
want is someone to hang out with on our Saturday nights.
So keep Bob in your prayers, that he finds some
good friends to talk with.
