something to understand later

Had a strange night last night. I will spare you how I got there, but I ended up spending most of the evening driving with an old stranger. He was talking with a slight stutter when he got in my car. A pair of long john bottoms was wrapped around his neck for warmth, an old Orioles baseball cap on his head and fingers as thick as my thumb stuck out the bottom of his white coat.
I drove to Sears. While purchasing a car battery he plugged in his cell phone charger to a wall socket for all of 2 minutes. He stammered about how his son had written him a 22 page letter and how much good it had done his heart.
We didn’t find his car, I am not sure it was even there. Soon we were driving back toward where I live and he was talking on and on about his family. His eyebrows twitched and he sniffled occasionally as he changed the topic from his beloved son to his frightening wife.
“She hit me right in the spine! Knocked me down and got the kids to beat on me. That’s no Christian thing to do,” He repeated.
It got worse from there. He ignored anything I said to stop him talking about his terrible wife, until he drifted to sleep in the middle of his rant. It was really quiet, just the hum of highway 70 and him breathing into the long johns as his head slumped.
When he awoke he told such terrible stories about his family that I wanted to cry right there in front of him, but my tear ducts don’t work. His monologue spanned most of the 2 hour car ride and I was not surprised when the ever-changing directions finally led to a homeless shelter. The people there were friendly even the guy who was strung out and jittering was nice. I got lost in the hallway trying to find my way back out to my car. When I finally started the engine and the drive for home, I thought about how unimportant and powerless I am in myself. A car ride was all I could give him, I couldn’t help his wife, or his kids, or his mind. I will have to leave it to God to help Bob.