OFF THE CHAIN

       There was nothing on the stove when I arrived in the kitchen. Doug is always bustling about with his dinner preparations, but not today. Today he was chatting with the inmates and taking his time. He did have 3 or 4 turkeys in the oven for Miss Lillian to debone tomorrow, but no dinner prep.

       As for lunch, he said he was going to deep-fry corn dogs, chicken nuggets, and French fries. He had applesauce to serve on the side. He said he and I would make a bunch of PBJs… Then I asked him to take a picture of me in the apron my friend sent from Georgia.

      Pretty soon, a young woman came in (community service hours, I believe). She's just delightful, and Doug put her right to work on the PBJs. In the meantime, I whined about having no soup to make, until Doug took a big pot and set it on the stove with a "good luck" look in his eye.

       Again this week, a benevolent soul visited the mystery box. When the soup pot was filled, it contained 2 cans of beef stew, several cups of corn, cans of peas, spinach and green beans, 2 jars of Ragu, most of a head of cabbage, broccoli, a fistful of rice, and a cup of curly noodles.

       When it was near completion, BOB arrived. BOB is back. He set right to work filling the ice bin and seeing to other needs. Our young woman finished her PBJs and began filling plates to serve the pre-release. She caught on so fast that I found myself with little to do but watch. And that felt pretty good because it clearly demonstrated why I get so worn out from filling 40 plates! I could enjoy "supervising" more often. In fact, she says she'll be back next Sunday!

       The baby girl and her cousin were there, but didn't come to lunch. The baby's mom came for some milk, so I sent their toys back with her. However, we have two new girls(!) who are 14 and 17, and I had prepared age-appropriate goody bags for them. Too, I had saved back enough mini-packs of gum to put one on every plate.

       Interestingly, as the homeless crowd came to the counter, the first young woman to take a meal didn't understand about giving BOB her room number. The guy with the young woman said, "She slept in room #8 last night." Well, that's in the MEN's section, and the poor girl is not registered to stay there. We fed her and ignored the issue. She hung her head and looked awfully frightened and lost. Sad.

       Tall dark handsomes were both at lunch and both upbeat. I slipped a couple of chocolates to the sweet one when he came to mop the dining room. There's a new pre-release that Doug says has been in prison for 26 years. He said the man was trembling one night last week when they had meatloaf, saying he could not remember having had such good food.

       So Doug and BOB got themselves each a bowl of soup, and I did too. Pretty soon, BOB said, "Miss Joy, that soup is off the chain!"

       I don't get out enough… it was a compliment. Even the young volunteer understood. Doug filled a small container with the leftover soup for BOB to take home.

       The Christians arrived, just as the homeless were finishing their meal and vacating the dining room. Doug eagerly told the volunteer what we do with the loaves, and I raced to ask him, jumping up and down, "Can we shoot hoops? Can we, huh?"

       He pulled a burnt loaf out of a sack and threw me a long pass as I dashed out the back door, vaulted it over the porch railing, and watched it drop clean into the gaping maw of the dumpster… looking straight into the windshield of the Christians who had not yet backed out of the driveway…

       We may not see them again… depending on who saw what and how they define "off the chain."