As I sauntered into Walmart, I placed my RayBans on the bridge of my nose to protect my eyes from the blazing heat. Once I entered Walmart, the air conditioning felt like a breath of fresh air. I made my way to the “Customer Service” line, patiently waiting to return a pair of $12.99 jeans I had bought for my Appalachia mission trip. Twenty long minutes later, I made my way back to my car. For an unknown reason, I decided to park my car as far as possible that day, in isolation. As I looked both ways and began to cross the street, I heard a distant yell behind me. Of course, my curiosity took over and I had to see where it was coming from. I turned my head over my shoulder to see an older man, who seemed as if he was walking in my direction. I ignored it and continued walking.

“Love, love…hey love.” The distant yell was no longer so distant. In the least obvious way possible, I picked up my pace and stared right down at my feet as I nervously walked back to my car. What seemed like a quick two minutes on my way into Walmart felt more like two hours on the way back to my car.

Questions filled my head. Why was he following me? What did he need? Was he going to hurt me? Should I be walking to my car? If he hurts me, do you think people would help? What should I do? I got to my car, turned around, and there he was, standing and waiting as if I owed him something. My mind went blank. Fear took over.
“Love, love, do you have any cash?” “N..no I’m sorry I don’t have any cash on me,” my words stuttered as they rolled off my tongue.

In my hand, I was holding my keys, my phone, and my wallet. A sudden puzzled look crossed his face. His eyes immediately were redirected to my wallet. His finger pointed straight to my wallet as he sternly said, “Open up your wallet. I’m hungry and I need to eat.” My legs were shaking, along with my fingers as I timidly unzipped my wallet. I knew this man was not going to leave me alone unless I gave him what he wanted, so instead of standing up for myself like I should have, I complied with everything he had asked me to do. In this moment, I felt more vulnerable than ever. There, in my wallet, was eighteen dollars. Eighteen dollars that was no longer mine. The man’s eyes zeroed in on my cash.

His finger pointed directly to the cash as he said, “Give me that money. I’m hungry. I need to eat. Hand over the cash.”  Without question, I handed the money over. At this point, I felt that if I had said “no,” he would have hurt me. I felt used and invaded. He finished off his act by explaining, “Don’t be afraid when people call you love, it’s out of love from God.” He turned around and walked away. My entire body was trembling. I stood at my car, in shock at what had just happened. I waited until he was long gone to unlock my car. 

Still a nervous wreck, I sat in my car and processed what had just happened. Had I been robbed? Was it just an aggressive panhandle? Questions again began racing through my head. To this day, I still wake up in the middle of the night with my heart racing from freaky nightmares about the same man and that day at Walmart.