WIDE-EYED & WARY

        Tipped off that only Miss Lillian and I would be serving lunch, I stepped cautiously into the inner sanctum this morning, not knowing who'd be keeping the gate. The gatekeeper was Ken. He's never been a Sunday regular, but we'd met. He allayed some of my apprehension with, "It's good to see you again!" One down.

       Lillian had enlisted a fellow to clean the dining room floors for her, and she was busy with dinner prep. Lunch was a large pan of spaghetti that she had warming in the oven. I filled a bowl with fruit, she heated rolls, and we called it lunch.

       We needed to fill the PBJ tub, so I put together 52 PBJ sandwiches and sacked 26 lunches. That took about an hour. Then it was time to fill plates for our diners. The pre-release were in good spirits today and ate well, tho Lillian is very stingy with the food. It's a bit frustrating to have 10 meals left over, after denying seconds to a number of folks. But I don't think anyone left hungry.

       Our resident homeless group was small, but my boy was there, and I gave him a stuffed monkey with a "press me" button on its belly. Pressing the button sets off a loud monkey squeal, and my boy was delighted to know it would irritate his friends. The monkey squealed a lot during lunch, and waved its little paw at me on leaving. My, how that child has come out :) His favorite subject is math, and school is good.

       Our she man made an appearance before lunch, but I wasn't in on his/her conversation with Lillian. I did get the scoop: He/she is leaving in a day or two to go live with his/her husband in a hotel. She man is 20 years older than hubby, and hub just got out of prison. Rode hard and put up wet, one and all.

       We had the gospel hour for our entertainment, but it was more like the gospel 2-1/2 hours with a bit of a Martin Luther King speech thrown in. Nothing to dance to.

       Doug is reported to have retained the position for which he was hired, but I get the feeling that he'll be walking a tightrope. I asked Lillian how she managed to stay there so many years, while so many other folks got tossed out on their ears. She said it was because she just does her job and never gets friendly with anybody. As I see it, the bottom line is that the Bureau of Prisons frowns on having their prisoners treated good-naturedly. Doug really needs to cut back on the compassion…

       So all's well that ends well. I'll be practicing my prisoner-appropriate scowl in the meantime, and God willing, I'll see you next Sunday.