My Father's Gift 4/5/13

The gift is:  you are somewhere, minding your own business and a stranger approaches you and begins confiding in you as if you were a friend. 

Today Richie was in the pet food store and I was sitting in the car, leafing through a book on hummingbirds he'd gotten from the library.

A soft knock on the window made me look up to see a stranger desiring conversation.  He had sandy, reddish hair, tousled by the wind, enormously thatched eyebrows and was wearing a white shirt under a dark blue crewneck sweater.  He didn't look homeless although the jury was out on that for a nanosecond.  Since he was considerably smaller than I am, I opened my door a crack.

Him:  "I see that you're reading a book on hummingbirds - I once held one in my hand!"

Me (looking surprised.)

He continued, "It had flown up into a skylight in my friend's house instead of trying to go out of a door.  So I got a ladder, climbed up and caught him as began to fall -- right in my hand!  Poor guy was exhausted!  I had a loupe in my pocket so I looked him over -- hummingbirds have eyelashes!  His were gorgeous!"

Cut to Richie opening his door and getting in, looking suspiciously at this stranger at his wife's window.  I said, "Richie, he held a live hummingbird in his hand!"

Richie (interested now) "Did you?" so my new friend told him all about it, tugged at his invisible  cap and went on into the bank. 

And I still wonder if hummingbirds do have eyelashes, but the book had to go back to the library.  I'll ask cousin Wayne - he has a backyard full of them.