Cookie

So I'm on my way to the shelter. It's raining quite hard. I get to where the subway station is and notice a Dunkin Donuts across the street. I hadn't eaten breakfast yet, and wanted to grab something before I got to the shelter. I walk to the door and a woman smiles at me and opens the door for me. She doesn't ask for anything. She smiles and opens. I walk in, get in line, someone else gets right behind me. I look back to where the woman is standing. She is doing that for everyone, and people keep coming by her. I feel that tug at my heart to go speak to her. So I walk up to her and asked if I could buy her a cup of coffee. She said yes. I said, "on the condition that you sit and talk with me. She accepted my invitation. Now, I forgot that I was there to get breakfast, so I offered to buy her a sandwich. We ordered. We went to find a seat to no avail. So we stood. I asked her her name. She said, "Cookie", and I introduced myself. I asked her if she lived on the street. She said yes. I asked her age. She said 42. We got our sandwiches and stood by a counter area to eat them. I could tell by the way she ate that it had been a while. She only ate half, said she wanted to save it for later. We talked about kids, jobs, and life. I told her that I was working down at the NYC Rescue Mission and that they serve hot meals every night. I gave her subway fare to get there. She said she was going to try to go. I asked if she had a place to go tomorrow, because it was going to be cold. She said she could go to a friends house. I said I would meet her at the same place tomorrow. She cried, kissed me on the cheek and we hugged. My parting words were that I would pray for her. I also said that there are people who care about her. She cried, kissed me on the cheek and we hugged.