This just happened just a few hours ago.
I have a part time job at a tour company here in Savannah. The last of my drivers was going out the employee entrance to go home tonight after work. I was at the computer, doing my log, closest to the door she was leaving out of. It was a very cold night tonight, and she complained about it all the way almost out the door.
I say almost because as she was leaving she stopped halfway out the door. I saw her stiffen up and so I got up and went to the door to see what was making her uneasy. As I came to the door I saw a man, a Homeless man, dressed in casual street clothes asking for a few dollars from my driver. I interceded and she scrambled out of there fast. The man then asked me for a few dollars. I told him I didn't have any money on me (I generally don't carry cash for a few reasons, this being one of them). He thanked me and started to walk away. I stopped him by asking if he had a place to sleep tonight, because if he didn't, I told him he could stay the night at Grace House…if he hadn't been doing drugs or drinking. He said he had been staying at old Savannah City Mission and knew where Inner City was but was unfamiliar with where Grace House was located. I started to tell him that it was close, just a few blocks away, but he cut me off stating again that if he could just get a little money tonight he might THEN go to Grace House. What followed then was a pretty inane back and forth about me trying to help him get out of the cold vs. his need to garner some cash tonight.
So I stopped bantering with him and got real serious. “Brother”, I said, “whatever it is you are chasing tonight is not worth your life. The few dollars you make isn't going to keep you from dying if the temperature drops too low.” And he stopped…stood there for maybe 30 seconds, battling what was going on in his flesh against the common sense of my words. He then looked up at me and said what I said was right, thanked me for the words and began to shuffle off toward downtown and parts unknown. And I felt that old familiar heartache of ‘We lost another one’ creep over me. I shouted behind him, “May God bless you to be O.K. tonight...” then I closed the door.
No epilogue or tidy, prepackaged Hollywood ending here...I just pray he makes it through until the morning.
