The Rest of the Story.......

So the rest of the story as it turns out should be entitled "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me, Fool me again and I'll shoot you in the knee cap."

Oh Jessica you are so harsh. Yeah but you don't know the whole story.
SO.... when I left you last time our homeless man (we'll call him Clark) and his family were going to come over for dinner. well Clark did but his family was a no show, He said that they had a previous engagement. So we got to know Clark and we feed him and loaded him down with groceries (two days after we had given him groceries at the store)and a little bit of money and took him home. Over the next week or so Clark became a near permanent fixture around our home, always needing money and never with his family. then the next Sunday he comes with two of his children and a nephew to our home fellowship. I had a good time and the children seemed to enjoy themselves. at the end Clark told us how well the kids were doing in school and how he had planned on taking them to the bowling alley and out for pizza that day, we were rushing off to my cousins house so it seemed to me that everyone had plans. Then he pulled bobby aside and asked for the money to do the things he had promised. That made me mad, especially when he raided my fridge and pantry looking for snacks and liquor.(it's then I got a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach). Two days later he calls while we are out looking for a Christmas tree. He is frantic because his infant was at the hospital and had bronchial asthma and needed medicine that night. he needed $60. We didn't have it. We did have albuteral and a nebulizer that we use with Isaac. He declines but says he has to have the money for the meds or his wife won't let him come home. Sorry we say, we literally have spent all our savings on him. we are pulling from our food budget to get a Christmas tree (yes it's that important).
The next day our neighbor three doors down comes over and says that Clark had come to him and he had given him the money. (the feeling got a little stronger).  the Next Sunday finds us again having fellowship at our house. Clark comes sans kids this time (still haven't meet wife) and he sleeps through fellowship. then our three doors down neighbor brings over lights and the men all hang lights until it's time to go to the little church across the street's Christmas play. Clark comes and sleeps all through it. but is wide awake for the reception dinner that follows. He then meets with the pastor (unbeknowkst of us) and asks the pastor to set up an offering for his kids for Christmas. the pastor kindly refuses saying that they have a lot that they are doing for other families and that it isn't do able right then. But gives Clark bags and bags of groceries, some money and a ride home. A few nights later he comes to the pastors house (how he figured out his home I do not know) after dark and asks for money for medicine. It seems the baby is sick and need a Rx and his wife won't let him go home until he has the money for it. The pastor says he will pick him up in the am and get the Rx but Clark says thanks for offer but I don't trust people, can I just have the money. Pastor forks over $60. hmmmm. I don't know anything about this until,
One day Bobby comes home with Clark. He says he has a side job to do at a friend of ours house. this particular friend is very affluent and as soon as I heard that he was going to take Clark with him I was immediately alarmed. I asked him not to take him and he said ok. instead he left Clark with me. He had him move some wood. Clark dutifully moved the wood and it took about 10 min. Then he stood around smoking cigs and talking on his cell phone. Finally I asked if he would do the dishes. 15 mins later he was done. He had called Bobbys cell phone 5 times already wanting to know when he was coming home. Finally I told him it would be about 2 more hours. At this he was highly agitated and asked me to take him to where his son was. To make a long story a little shorter I ended up taking him to a bad neighborhood with two of my children in the car. so he could run up to his apartment to "grab his phone charger" and then I took him to a rundown  motel where a woman (not his wife) waited in the doorway for him. hmmmm. The feeling was even stronger and I was furious. In fact I had been in similar situations numerous times and it felt just like I had taken this man to pick up drugs and then to see a hooker. When I told Bobby all this (very loudly) I told him I never wanted to see him again and that he was playing us for a fool. Bobby defended him. then went and talked to him. by now I had talked to the pastor and found out that Clark had called his cell phone no less than 20 times a day since meeting him. And when the pastors car broke down and he was no longer able to give Clark money, Clark got indignant and mad. From that moment on I knew we were going to have trouble. when we tell him that we will no longer help him he'll turn. I've seen it happen before and I read the newspaper. Again Bobby defended him and I got a sick feeling in my stomach. See when a man won't defend and protect his family his wife has to. And as Kipling as aptly put it, The Female of the species is more deadly than the male. So Bobby talked to Clark and got his "story" upon taking him home he meet the lady hes staying with (not the wife) her two kids and his two kids (baby and wife are in Atlanta) and they didn't have a Christmas tree or presents. That pulled at Bobby's heart strings. So he and I got a tree and presents for the kids. but I told Bobby. I will shoot the man in the knee cap if he comes around here. Then the 22nd. my next door neighbor came by. He said that Clark had come by two or three nights before after dark, when we weren't home and had asked for money for a Rx for his infant. He needed $60, his wife wouldn't let him come home till he had it. hmmmm..... I called Bobby at work and he talked to Clark. Again, Clark had a good excuse and Bobby believed him again. I however do not. I'm now afraid for the safety of my children but I feel alone in that fear; and that is a dangerous place to be, for him. Bobby is a good man who is very smart, keenly so. He is a godly man and my best friend. Clark is now an issue we don't discuss. What will happen now is any one's guess .But that, friends, is the rest of the story.