"I kept thinking how the weather had turned, and how cold he must be."

Larissa Kaye Batten (llbeara@aol.com) writes "Soul Food," a weekly column for SpiritSite.com.  

Larissa is a prolific writer whose work has been featured in several publications.  

"Excuse me, do you work in that department over there?" I asked the lady in a Target store uniform.

"I don’t, but I’d be happy to help you," she replied.

"Good. It doesn’t matter if you don’t work in that department," I explained. "I just need someone who is nice to help me. And you looked like a nice person."

"Okay, here’s the deal," I said as the lady and I walked into the bedding department of the new superstore.

"See, I met this man," I said. I laughed. "No, that’s not what I meant," I continued. "I’m married. It’s not like I met a man, not in that way," I laughed again.

"I met this man who’s elderly. He looks like he’s dying. He was sitting on the front porch of his trailer when I met him. He was wrapped in this really thin blanket. He looked really cold," I said. "And I want to buy him a blanket or a comforter to keep him warm."

"Okay," the lady smiled. "Let’s look down this aisle."

For the next 10 minutes or so, the two of us went up and down the aisles of the bedding department to find the right blanket for the man.

When I met the man, he was wrapped in his thin blanket. His gaunt body lay cast to one side and backward in his chair, and his eyes looked fevered. Or perhaps they were looking elsewhere, to some place only he could see.

"Hi, can I ask you a question?" I had asked the man.

"Yes," he answered simply.

"I’m looking for a dog," I said. "A few days ago, I rescued these little puppies. They were left in a basket at the library.  I want to find their mother so I can help her, too."

I didn’t know I was there to help a man. I didn’t know he was there to help me, too.

The man spoke simply.

"I don’t know," he said. "Those are my son-in-law’s dogs," he said, pointing to a bulldog-lab mix and a terrier mix tied by chains to trees.

"So you haven’t seen a dog that gave birth recently?" I asked again.

"No. Those are my son-in-law’s dogs right there."

His voice was gruff, but not impolite. It was obvious to me it took some effort for him to speak. He seemed tired. He seemed ill. But he didn’t try to get rid of me. He was content to answer my questions.

In fact, he did not question me about my appearance at his trailer. I had had to drive around a bit to find the few trailers that were scattered around an old yard. I had pulled up his driveway to find kittens running all over, the dogs tied to trees, a bunch of garbage in one area, and a run-down ramshackle of a building.

I had stepped out into a small yard of what could have been another time. Only this was now.

I was not afraid to approach the man.

Nor was I afraid to approach the dogs.

"I like to help animals," I said again. "Can I pet these dogs?"

"Yes, you can," he said in his simple way.

He did not move at all. He lay backward in his chair in his weakened state. No one was around to care for him.

I talked to the dogs for a bit, and checked them out for any signs of neglect. They were in fine shape.

"Maybe I can come back some time and talk to your son-in-law," I said.

"Okay," he said.

I left without even knowing his name.

Throughout that afternoon and evening, and into the next morning, I could not forget the man. I kept thinking how the weather had turned, and how cold he must be. Maybe he didn’t even have enough money for medicine. He just lay on his chair sheltered in the thin blanket wrapped around him.

I kept thinking how cold he must be.

"I don’t like that comforter," I told the lady at Target. "And the quilts are nice, but I want something really warm. You know how some comforters are just really cheap. Not just in this store, but in general."

"Yes," she agreed.

"Well, I don’t want to spend a fortune, but I really want something to keep him warm."

We continued through the aisles and pointed out different choices to each other.

She never mentioned to me that it seemed out of the ordinary for a woman in her 30s to come in and buy a blanket for an elderly man in a trailer she did not know. Nor did I feel I was doing anything out of the ordinary.

I simply had known since I left the man that I would be back. And I knew I needed to come with a blanket.

An hour or so after the lady at Target and I picked out a comforter, I knocked on his door. I had expected to see him on the front porch in the cold, but he was indoors.

I had supplies for the dogs, but I also had the man’s Christmas present. It wasn’t Christmas yet, but I didn’t know how else to explain why I would bring him this gift.

"Hello?" I called through the door. "Are you the person I spoke to you yesterday? I’m the lady who was here about the dogs."

"Yes," he said slowly. "That’s me."

"I brought some things for the dogs, and I brought you a Christmas present."

He did not open the door.

"Okay," he said.

"Is it okay if I give some things to the dogs?" I asked.

"Yes, that’s okay."

I realized he would not come out, so I spent a while petting the dogs and giving them food, biscuits, toys, collars, and leashes. It felt good to be around the dogs again.

I knocked on the door a while later.

"I’m going now," I said. "I’m going to leave your Christmas present on the front step."

"On the front step?" he said.

"Yes," I said.

He did not say thank you. I did not need a thank you. I felt I was right where I belonged.

"I noticed you were cold yesterday," I said. "I’ll leave your present and go now."

"Okay," he said.

I petted the dogs again and walked back to my car.

I turned back toward the trailer and saw the door open just a little bit. He must have peered out and seen me, and he would not open the door any wider.

I imagined he would open the door once I was gone to see what I had brought him.

He didn’t know what he had already brought me.

Grace doesn’t have any price tag on it at all.

Amen.

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