Jacob wanted strawberry milk. We can’t go until he gets his wallet. He wants to pay. We go to the local deli. While there Jacob sees a homeless man outside. I have positioned Jacob with a direct view of him. Not on purpose, but because I want Jacob to be near fresh air as he refused to wear his mask. And he opens his wallet and asks me if he can give the man money.
Sure. “Do you have a dollar?”
“I want to give him 20 dollars.”
He opens his wallet and the first thing I see is a $10 bill. “Give him the $10.” I hate watching Jacob touch money. It has germs. “Give him that one. It’s right there. “
“Let’s give him both” and he digs into his wallet. Touching it all. He hands me $30. I give the money to the man. I tell him my son wants you to have this. The man at first refuses.
“Are you sure? Are you sure?” He asks.
Jacob says “quack”
I tell him yes.
He shakes Jacob’s hand and I let him. I let my son touch this man who is one with the ground and all of the microbes that inhabit it. I don’t recoil. I watch it.
He tells Jacob that God is real. He tells Jacob that God is real. Jesus is real. The whole thing.
Then he talks to me. He asks what Jacob is fighting. I tell him cancer and he tells me about his friend. He talks about his friend from the shelter that lost his life to cancer, and how he now physically hurts. How his leg hurts and he knows its cancer. He is scared to go to the clinic. Scared to know.
And I tell him to go. “They are doing miracles over there” and he smiles.
And he smiles. I see all his teeth and says this to me. “Yes they are! Yes they are! Miracles are happening! God bless you and your children.”
And we part with him and his fortune. His $30 and Jacob with his own fortune a red wallet and a little wiser.
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