Hunger: In Wilmington Delaware on the way to the movies...

We stopped in the left lane a few cars back from a red light. A woman, perhaps forty or maybe fifty years old, wandered between the vehicles. Her thin gray shoulder- length hair, clean but wispy refused to stay tucked behind her ears in the light wind. Her clothes, worn but unstained hung loose on a frame that once was not so painfully spare.The gray eyes in her tanned, weathered face peeked into each car.

My husband and I both scrambled for our wallets. He extracted a five dollar bill and waved to her. A smile blossomed in her lean, lined face as she approached, grabbed the bill and clasped it to her chest.

“Five dollars. Oh, thank you. I can eat. I am so hungry.”

She hesitated and looked at me.

I glanced at the light, ready to drive when traffic began to move.

“Do you have another dollar? I am so hungry.”

I did. The light changed. The cars before us started inching forward as I scrambled to extracted the bill.

“With six dollars I can get McDonald’s. I can eat.” She leaned down to see my face. “I am so hungry.”

I passed the bill to my husband who slipped it into her waiting hands.

She giggled happily and shook her two scrawny arms with delight. “McDonald’s! Thank you! Thank you!”

As I drove off, both happy for her gleeful exuberance and sad for her hunger, I wondered, what about tomorrow?

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