CHANGE? WHAT CHANGE?

We received a new foster kitten late yesterday. It's tiny and sickly. On my way to the soup kitchen this morning, I stopped at the animal shelter to get medicine for the new baby. The medicine must be refrigerated, so after greeting Joey, I told him about the kitten and the medicine. "I have to put it in the refrigerator. Joey—DO NOT let me leave here without this medicine!"

"Oh, Miss Joy," he promised, "If you drive away without that you'll see this little black spot running behind you, yelling 'You forgot your medicine!'"

And that was Joey just cranking up...

Pretty soon he showed me a giant cake that had been donated. He asked me to cut it up and put the pieces on saucers for the evening meal. That cake was huge and it was covered with a half-inch-thick white frosting; it had at least five layers, and the bottom of the pan held a gooey layer of chocolate. Somewhere in the middle were cherries.

"Miss Joy, this cake is so good it'll have you cussin' in tongues."

And later, "Those layers are like seven deadly sins."

Joey has told me about his fetal alcohol syndrome and how he craves sugar. It was interesting to watch him dance around that cake—not unlike an addict confronted with the drug of choice.

As always, we had our oldies country western music. There were only seven sack lunches in the fridge, so I had to make 38 more—or 76 sandwiches. I finally have the assembly-line mentality for that, and though it was a hard job, it did come to an end. I stopped often to help serve the clients. Our "interesting client of the day" was a tall pre-release prisoner who frowned at Joey's tuna salad and said, "I don't eat onions!"

Joey said, "It doesn't have onions."

The man frowned again and stared hard at the salad. "I don't eat celery." He rubbed his stomach like a spoiled 2-year-old and decided that all he wanted was a plateful of spicy fried potatoes.

The peanut butter & jelly sandwiches were already made, so all I had to do for our street people was sack them with drinks and snacks. We didn't prepare breakfast sacks today.

Joey says I can contribute anything I want to the kitchen! I can cook a big pot of soup; I can bring a casserole or a salad—anything I want! It's going to be a challenge to find a large amount of affordable, tasty, nutritious food... and an inviting way to serve it.

My name is officially on the refrigerator, along with Anna's, as a Sunday Lady. Anna wants to work Sunday afternoons, helping with dinner prep. We'll dovetail perfectly! That, and she has a man in her life—something Joey says was long awaited. It's all good; it's just all good.