God Looks After
Fools and Drunks

by Beth Tally

Years ago, my brother Gene was walking down the sidewalk of Main Street in Greenville, SC, on his way to an early morning business meeting.  He happened to approach a disheveled, smelly and generally pathetic homeless man slouched against the wall of a building.  Gene thought the guy was asleep, but as he passed, a voice crept out from the pitiable form.

“Do you have a dollar for a cup of coffee?” 

Without breaking stride, Gene responded pretty roughly, “No I don’t!”  He felt pretty disgusted by the man’s appearance and crude solicitation.  He certainly wasn’t inclined to give the man money that would only be used to buy liquor.

But, about half a block later his conscience got the better of him – probably a tug from the spirit of our beloved deceased mother who couldn’t turn anybody down no matter if they were the worst reprobate in the world.  He ducked into a café and ordered a hot, fragrant cup of coffee “to go,” paid for it and picked up some cream, sugar and diet sweetener just in case the homeless man happened to be a little discriminating.  He put a lid on the cup and walked back up the street.

“Here.  I’ve brought you some coffee since that’s what you wanted.”  Gene stooped over to hand the man the cup.

As if in slow motion, the fellow reached for the coffee and carefully pried the lid off.  He stared into the dark liquid for a few seconds then raised his bloodshot eyes to Gene with a disdain softened only by his stupor.

“That’s not the kind I like,” he slurred.

I thought about this story recently when we were in Guatemala on Lake Atitlan visiting with our friends Tom and Susan Hayward.  The only transportation from community to community around the lake is by water and on this particular day we had hopped a lancha from Jaibolito over to San Pedro for the afternoon.  We strolled around the village for a couple of hours observing the pace of the town, ranking it along side of the other places we had visited on the lake. 

At one point, Tom somehow got ahead of us as he meandered down a road towards the lake.  The road quickly became a path and by the time we caught up with him, he had climbed over some pretty large rocks to get a good angle of the water below for a picture.  Suddenly, rising up in our view between us and Tom, a man came stumbling up the hillside from apparently nowhere.  By his stagger and the glazed look on his face, we knew he was three sheets to the wind. 

He stopped at the end of the path, steadied himself as much as his inebriation would allow and earnestly focused on Tom.  You could almost read the perplexity on his face as he tried to figure out why someone would be where Tom was standing.  He wobbled in Tom’s direction, his hand automatically emerging from his pants pocket palm up like a genetically ingrained maneuver.  We could see Tom shaking his head and mumbling repetitively in Spanish “No tengo dinero, senor. Lo siento.”

His shoulders slumped a little as the message penetrated his pickled brain.  When it registered, he did the drunkard equivalent of spinning on his heels.  I guess years of operating under the influence of alcohol made him rather adept at such choreography.  This put the three of us in the crosshairs of his blurred vision.  A slow smile of recognition crossed his face and he began a steady, if not sure, walk towards us. 

John and I both instinctively backed away, but Susan stood her ground.  As the poor, pitiful man came closer to her, she reached in her satchel and pulled out several pieces of hard candy which she normally carries to dispense to children that she meets.  He walked up to her close enough for his stinky breath to blow in her face.  She reached down and took his hand, placed the candy in it and folded his fingers over them. 

By then, Tom had caught up with us.  He gently grabbed Susan’s elbow and directed her away.  The drunk stood there, eyes aglow, a most appreciative look on his face.  Without even looking to see what she had given him, he began staggering back towards town.

I can only imagine the scene when, thinking there were coins in his hand, he took the prize to the liquor store to buy another infusion of alcohol.  Wonder what a few pieces of candy will buy?  More than that, I wonder if they are the kind he likes!!