The First and the Last

Thursday last week I was getting ready for a weekend trip to Utah with my cousin Courtney. The plan was to leave Thursday night and drive all night and arrive at my brother’s house around breakfast time the next morning. Courtney dropped me off there for the weekend and she continued to drive on another half hour to spend the weekend with her best friend.

Thursday afternoon before leaving to my grandma’s house where Courtney was going to pick me up I stopped somewhere to complete an errand before I was on my way. I was heading back to my car in the parking lot when a man calls to me and says, “Excuse me, Ma’am?”

Uh oh. I hate it when strange people talk to me. I usually try to avoid this by walking with a purpose and not making eye contact with people who look to be wanting signatures for something or money or time I don’t have to give. I got quite good at it going to school at Sac State. They always have people trying to corner you in the busy walkways by the library. As good as I got at the “walk with a purpose don’t make eye contact” strategy, obviously it doesn’t always work every time and despite my not looking at them they’ll ask me their opening line- one of: Do you have a few minutes…do you have money…do you want to save the earth…do you like animals…etc. Those are the times I go to plan B and flash a smile at them as I continue my purposeful walk forward without slowing. No need to say anything unless I feel like it that day (or if they start walking with me) and as long as I don’t slow down or stop. Never show any signs of hesitation or slowing or else they’ve got you. Sometimes I’ll throw in a “Sorry, no” while grinning at them and continuing my quick determined walk forward.

I approached my car. The man walked towards me. “Excuse me Ma’am” he said again when he saw I was stopping at my car. He made sure to leave enough distance between us that I wouldn’t feel threatened. “Do you happen to have…” I immediately tried to think of ways out of whatever it was he was going to ask me and was dreading the end of his question. I don’t have any money to spare, I don’t want to sign your petition, and I don’t know how to get to where ever it is you’re trying to get to. It wasn’t like I could resort to my usual Plan B; I was already at my destination I so purposefully walked to. He finished his query, “…any food?”

Oh.

It was a pleasant surprise and any dread or irritation I had went away. I wasn’t expecting that. It just so happened I had a whole bunch of individual bags of sun-chips in a brown bag in my back seat to snack on during my upcoming drive to and from Utah. I looked at him, opened my car door with out saying anything, pulled out a bag of chips, smiled at him and said, “Here, I have a bag of chips for you!”

“ALRIGHT, haHA! Yes!” He did a little jump up and down dance. “Thank you! God bless you! haHA!”

“You’re welcome!” It made me feel good yet sad at the same time to see how grateful and excited he was over just a bag of chips. He took them, and blessed me again. He put the chips under his jacket/sweater and walked back to his post in front of the building. I saw him talking to another woman walking out of it before I drove off. I wondered how successful the rest of his day would be.

On the drive back to California on Sunday, Courtney and I had 2 more passengers. My brother Danny and his wife Brittany came back with us so he could pick up a truck in the bay area he was getting for his car dealership business. When we got to be 20 minutes away from our g-ma’s we stopped to pick up my other brother David so he could come home with us to visit while Danny was in town. His wife Nancy and kids would come the next day. I had one bag of sun chips left when we pulled up to David’s house. I felt like I needed to get rid of it, so I offered it to him. He declined. Nobody else wanted it either so it sat in my bag by itself missing the other bags of sun-chips that had already been eaten. We took the exit off the freeway towards my g-ma’s house where my car was parked waiting to take my brothers, Brittany and I the last hour or so of our journey home. The light had just turned red. Instead of staying in the middle lane that could also turn left, my brother pulled into the next lane over so we wouldn’t be stuck behind slower cars once the light turned green.

There was a very somber looking man sitting on the side of the off ramp right next to where we stopped. He was holding a card board sign that had “$” drawn on it. Hmmm. I remembered my bag of chips I was trying to get rid of. I asked those in the car if they thought I should give them to him- it wasn’t money like he wanted. I was sitting between Brittany and Courtney in the middle back seat. Feeling safe with Brittany as my buffer I reached over her, rolled the window down, held out the bag of chips to the man and asked him if he wanted them. “Sure,” he got up walked over to the opened window and took them, “Thanks”. “You’re welcome!” and up went the window again. He sat back down on the ground, put the chips in the front pocket of his hoodie and continued to hold his sign looking just as morose as before. The light turned green and we rolled away. I wondered how successful the rest of his day would be. At least he had a snack to munch on while waiting to make it big on the Jefferson off ramp in West Sac.

I realized how appropriate it was to give him my last bag of sun-chips when I remembered where my first bag had gone. Yesterday there was a bowl of sun chips at my Aunt’s house. Brittany saw them and said, “Katie, there’s sun chips.”

“I know. I saw them. I was thinking, where’s a bum I can give them to?”