The story you are about to read is completely true. Not even the names have been changed to protect the innocent… or the guilty.

She wanted some time to spend with her adult son and their favorite spot was a nearby pub. As they sat at their meal, a young woman, in a disheveled white dress and obviously drunk, came over to them. "Can I schitt down wif you?" she asked, plaintively.

Adrienne explained, gently, "I want to spend some time with my son."

"Yesh," the other replied thickly, with tears finding the tracks of her cheeks, "but they won’t let me schitt with them over there."

This time, Adrienne’s response was a bit more firm and the young woman turned and walked toward the door. Oddly, there was no stagger in her steps, no wavering or listing or leaning. Just before she reached the exit, she turned slightly and looked directly at Adrienne. As the young woman nodded and lifted her hand in a slight wave, Adrienne was hit with a sudden memory of scripture: "Be careful to entertain strangers for some have thereby entertained angels unawares."

She leapt to her feet and ran to the door, reaching it before it had even closed behind the young woman, and burst outside. The woman could not possibly have taken more than three or four steps from the door. Yet, she had vanished.

Adrienne looked up and down the street, then rushed to the corner. Looking up and down that street, she saw no one. No one.

Remembering the white dress and the straight, unwavering walk toward the door and the sweet sadness in that last smile, Adrienne could not shake at all the utter conviction that she had just been visited by an angel.

And turned her away.

H. Arnett

2/15/11