ARE YOU OUR NEIGHBOR? | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: ARE YOU OUR NEIGHBOR? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Karen Benoit
08/25/16
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The woman awakened to the sound of two little voices
chattering away in a room down the hall.
A smile came to her face.
She stretched luxuriously. Moments later she sat up, and tiptoed to the
French Doors so as not to wake up her husband.
Walking out onto her deck, she allowed the
fresh, crisp, cool morning air to envelop her.
She inhaled. “Ahhhhhhh…”
She meandered down the steps.
Her bare feet made contact with the dew on the grass.
At first she recoiled, then allowed herself to enjoy the wetness.

“Mom! Mom!”
Two little girls came running down the stairs towards her.
She opened her arms wide and they catapulted into them.
“Mmmmm…”
The scent of shampoo and little girlness tickled her nostrils.
They giggled with joy as she kissed them repeatedly.

“What about me?” said a deep voice coming near.
“Daddy!” squealed the two little voices as they escaped her embrace to
jump into his arms.
There was laughter all around as he planted his kisses.

A little later the family sat around a breakfast table at the local diner.
“I want pancakes,” said five year-old Paige.
“With lots of whipped cream,” joined in six year-old Penny.

They’d just finished eating when a man entered the restaurant.
He was very thin and of average height.
His clothes were tattered and torn.
His hair was disheveled.
His beard was scraggly.
He reeked of a mixture of stale cigarettes, alcohol,
and dirty wet carpet.
Diners immediately began coughing. Some scrunched up
and covered their noses. Others put their hands to their mouths.
People were careful to not touch this man, as they
walked past him on their way out the door.

Penny tugged on her father’s arm.
“Daddy, what’s wrong with that man?”
Paige craned her neck to look around her mother,
so that she could see him better.
“Why is everyone leaving?”
Their mother wished their family had already left.

“Can anyone spare some change for a cup of coffee?”
the man asked of the now almost empty room.
Penny and Paige continued to stare at the man.
“Can we give him some money?”
“I don’t think…” began their father.
Penny dug inside her pants pocket and pulled out a quarter.
Before her parents could stop her, she was off her chair and
heading towards the man.
Paige followed her.
“Mister, I have a quarter.”
“And I have a dime.”
They both reached out and placed the money in the man’s
outstretched hand. He looked at the girls, tears coming to his eyes.
“God bless you both,” he croaked.
They ran back to their parents.
“Can we buy him breakfast?”
“Girls, we don’t think that…”

The man was now at their table.
“You have two beautiful little girls.”
Penny smiled up at him.
“Mister, you want some breakfast?”
Paige tugged on his shirtsleeve.
“We had pancakes with lots of whipped cream.
They were yummy!”
Paige stood at her chair.
“You can have my seat,” she said eagerly.
“Are you our neighbor?”
The man looked a little puzzled for a moment,
then a twinkle shone in his eyes.

Their mother opened her mouth to respond to the question when she heard,
the words of Matthew chapter twenty-two, verses thirty-seven to thirty-nine.
She’d memorized the scriptures as a little girl from the New King James version of the Bible, which is the version she read most.
‘Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

As she looked at the man standing in front of her,
Penny and Paige’s mom then heard the words of Matthew chapter five, verse seven.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

“Sir, please have a seat,” she heard herself saying.
“It would be an honor to buy you some breakfast

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