Angry man

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

I got to the Church of the Fervently Religious at 4:30 pm, in time to receive the delivered food, pulled pork sandwiches and cole slaw.  The children were hungrier than many, especially a toddler, Paul.  I kept giving Paul handfuls of food and he ate until his lids looked heavy.  The adults and teens had attended a class until 7 and they acted typically shy and withdrawn while eating.  I attempted to engage a familiar looking woman, Linda, who grew up in Lame Deer, Northern Cheyenne.

Linda brightened when I told her that I’d worked as a pharmacist there.  In all my years there I never needed anyone’s help coping with angry or belligerent people.  Linda’s expression didn’t change.  I decided to tell her how I used to give out birth control pills to young women who eventually showed up at the pharmacy pregnant, needing prenatal vitamins.  I told Linda that my reaction was frequently, “Awwww.  What went wrong?”

Linda laughed.  Then I told how my attitude changed and I started saying, “Well, congratulations!”

“That’s funny,” she said.  Linda’s husband and I chatted and ate for some while, then the family dressed up to go on walk about before bed.

After they had gone I heard the sound of a door closing at the top of the stairs to the church basement.  I rushed over to meet a large man coming down.  “Hello,” I said.

“I have come to pray,” stated the man emphatically.

“Oh, you’ve come in the wrong door,” I said.  “Here.  I’ll take you up to the chapel so you can pray there.”

“I’ve come to get something to eat,” the man said, just like I did yesterday.

“This is the right place for that,” I said.  He seemed ultra polite, anxious not to put us out.  I asked if I might sit with him while he ate, but he said no.

After he had eaten his fill, I ushered him out.  He protested that he wanted to stay, and he told me he was angry with me for not caring about him enough.

True, I will not allow casual visitors to spend the night, especially angry ones who curse me after I feed them.  Well, I wouldn’t allow such visitors to stay even if they didn’t curse me.  I did ask him where he had spent the previous night and he replied he didn’t know.

About that time Louis and Linda returned from walkabout.  Louis told me he didn’t like the rude man who had been cursing me.  Said something wasn’t right “upstairs.”  I agreed the man acted like someone with a mental illness, but I didn’t think he was rude, just angry.