Randy (Lurch)

Last Thursday, I was hanging out in Pasadena after being dropped off at Trader Joes so I could buy some cereal (thankfully, I'm gonna be able to store cereal and milk at the after school program I volunteer at so that I don't have to spend as much money on food), and I decided to see whether a certain 3$ theatre trully existed. I got off of the gold line train at the Lake station, had dinner at a teryaki place, and waltzed down Lake, until I hit Colorado. I knew it was somewhere along Colorado, and found it a while later. I was shocked how cheap it was, but also how old the movies were--about 2 months old or so most of them, but it was still a great deal--only two dollars for matinee, and three for evening tickets. I was waiting for the showing of Iron Man, (though I had seen it before, I was quite bored) and a guy walked up to me and sat down on the bench next to me. I asked him how he was doing, as he looked a little dirty, and tired. He told me not so well, and that he was hungry. I told him I could help him out with a meal, so we walked over to the other side of the street, rather dangerously, as he boldly crossed without the signal of the little walking white man. He wanted to get Mexican food, so asked (more like told me) to go inside and order something for him while he would meet me outside across the street. I went in and found out the cheapest thing was seven dollars (and I only had five) so I met up with him and told him that I could instead buy him something from the Chinese place I had seen a couple blocks away. He waved his hand, motioning for me to let him think, and he asked whether I could use a credit card, and I told him yes, if they'd let me. Then, knowing I only had five dollars cash on me, he asked whether I would let him hold on to the five dollars while I went and used my credit card to get him some shrimp fried rice. Apparently, he distrusted that I would actually come back with the food. "Alright, I'll let you hold onto it as a promise that I will be back, but I expect you to give it back to me when I come back." (I knew that there was a very good chance that the five dollars wouldn't be there when I got back, but I wanted to show him that I trusted him). Sure enough, when I came back fifteen minutes later with the fried rice, and asked for the five dollars, he apologized and told me that he had given the money to another guy to whom he owed money. (I had seen him with another guy before I came back.) "I'm pretty upset--you promised that you would give me back the five dollars. I don't really care about the money itself, but you broke my trust." We talked it over, and although I had a pretty good feeling that he still had the five dollars on him, and was lying to me, I decided not to ask the man who he was talking to earlier whether Randy had truly given him the five dollars. I wanted to convey to him my disappointment, but at the same time, I knew I wasn't really talking to Randy, but to the need for crack in his system. So I let it go and he asked me what I wanted to do. I suggested we go see a movie at the theatre, and he visibly got excited. We were about twenty minutes late to the movie, and we found out that they didn't accept credit cards, so I asked the lady behind the counter whether she would let Randy in without pay and I would come back with enough money for the two of us--and she allowed it! The movie was an experience--Randy kept on talking out loud and laughing uproariously, until he calmed down a bit when another moviegoer asked him kindly to keep the noise level down. Two thirds through the showing, he was asleep, and I woke him up to leave the theatre. I hung out with him for a while outside, and he shared how he saw his father shoot his mother in front of him when he was only 7. He still hasn't forgiven his dead father for what he did and who he was. By the end of the conversation, Randy had confided to me that he didn't really have anyone else that he considered a true friend--they were all other crack addicts or prostitutes. I gave him my number, and he promised to call me the next day. He did finally call about a week later--and I asked him how I could pray for him. He asked for prayer that God would save his soul! The conversation was quick because he was borrowing a phone from someone else, but I'm hoping and praying that God will save his soul, and more.