the glorious exchange

Frustrated, I headed towards Circuit City. I was sick of this wild goose chase (sorry, Mark). I had been hunting for a 2.5″ SATA laptop hard drive enclosure for nearly an hour, without any luck. So I left Best Buy, and headed across the street to the big CC, which I dreaded. I hate walking into Circuit City. I parked the car, locked the doors, and turned towards the motion-detecting doors when I ran into a middle-aged, heavyset man with duct-taped eyeglasses who spoke softly, yet with a confident Southern drawl:

“I don’t mean to harm you sir, but I was wondering if you could spare a dollar so I could buy myself something to eat.”

I looked at him. Squared him up. He was obviously homeless. And hurting. The crutch and mended eyeglasses notwithstanding, the loneliness was evident on his face and in his demeanor. I responded.

“Sorry, but I don’t carry cash on me, sir”

At this his eyes softened and were cast downward, and his head nodded with a motion that I’m sure he had made many times before. But I hadn’t finished speaking…

“But I’d be glad to sit down with you and have lunch.”

At this his face, along with its five o’clock shadow, lurched upwards, and his steel-grey eyes bore into my face. And he stammered:

“R…r…really?”

I answered in the affirmative, asked him to get into my SUV, and this was the beginning of my Lunch With Ed.

To be continued.