NEW BEGINNINGS

     Doug didn't have any help today, and I had nothing to do, so I went again to the shelter, taking a new radio/CD player with me. Our kitchen music has been barely tolerable for a long, long time. I wish you could have seen Doug opening the box and plugging in his new toy. He was adept with the adjustments, and within a minute he had his favorite station playing loud and clear. We've never heard such clarity.
     Doug was quick to take the old radio out the back door and heave it into the dumpster. That was a proud moment!
     I had burned two CDs for him as well, and he was eager to play them—labeled 1a and 1b. I told him not to play 1b because it was made yesterday when I was grieving. Still, after a couple of hours, he put it on, and soon he yelled across the room, "Boy, you weren't kidding! This is bringing ME down!"
     "Nothing a bottle of wine wouldn't fix." I shouted back.
     On the really exciting front, I hadn't been there 5 minutes before Doug said Hottie had texted him from the bus! He was in Memphis and expected to be home in another 6 hours.
     About that time, the autistic kid's mom came to the counter for coffee and proudly showed us HER TEXTED  PICTURE OF HOTTIE. Doug and I were jealous! Most shocking of all was the haircut the boy got before he left town—that heavenly ponytail is history. He wanted a whole new life, and I had to admit he looks mighty fine in the new do.
     Before the afternoon was over, I too was texting Hottie, and he was much farther down the road. Tonight, he's home with his family, and just as I write, I have a picture of them—together at last.
     You don't need a rundown of the many sack lunches, breakfast sacks, dinner plates and sundry other duties we carried out. Suffice it to say my back was sore when I left in the rain, in the Friday afternoon traffic, through the road work... it was a long way home here too.