An adventure in kindness

 A while ago I consulted a neighbour about available internet in Warwick. R is a young fellow, probably in his mid twenties, and was helpful and friendly. This morning when I went out to walk Brio, R was out walking his dog and recognized me and asked which internet company I had ended up going with. A brief chat and I went on my way.

When I got back to the church, I tied Brio to a post and shoveled the snow from the front walk. I got overheated doing it and pulled my winter hat off, setting it on the front steps. I finished shoveling and took Brio in, then went back out to get my hat. As I came out of the church, a woman in high-heeled boots was just coming from around the corner of the church, walking a huge black dog. I said hello and she didn't acknowledge me, but kept walking, so -- suspicious that she hadn't realized this was a home -- I peeked in the side yard and, sure enough, there was a tidy bag of dog poop lying there. She had scooped but left it there. I went back to the front steps, disposed of the bag in my ceramic container where I collect these things, and went back for my hat. And it was gone. And there were the high-heeled boots' prints on the step. She had walked off with my hat!

Bemused, slightly worried about being here for a month without a hat, I went out to the sidewalk and looked up and down. Saw R just going into his house. He stopped when he saw me and said "That was weird." He had seen the woman and didn't recognize her. I told him she apparently left the poop and took the hat. Strange!

I went back in the house and my Hubby, who was about to go back to the city, offered to leave me his hat, since he had another at home. Problem solved!

A few minutes later, R knocked on the door. He said he had found the woman walking down toward the conservation area and had confronted her for me about the hat. At first she denied it, but when he said, "Look, we saw you, and people don't do that here. We're a tight-knit community" she apologized. He said she didn't give the hat back, and he suspected she was maybe high. R said he didn't tolerate that kind of thing here in Warwick, and that he had moved here to get away from the drug scene in town. A friendly chat, I thanked him for being noble and confronting the woman for me, and that was that.

A few minutes ago, he came to the door with a hat he said he owned but had never worn, and I was welcome to it. I thanked him for his kindness and told him Hubby had left his hat for me. But wasn't that a sweet gesture? What a kind person! It changed the weird experience with the woman into a heart-warming interaction with this young man.