2020

"Do you want a cold bottle of water?" he asked, holding it out to me like a carrot. He was standing next to a pickup with Kentucky plates. I took the bait. "What do you do?" I asked after taking a sip. "Hang out at rest stops and pass out bottles of water?" "No," he said, smiling, grabbing another bottle out of the cooler in the back of his truck. I waited for him to tell me about Jesus, thinking this was a brilliant evangelistic technique. After all, Jesus did tell us to give a drink to the thirsty. And that when we come to Him and drink of the Living Waters we'll thirst no more. "I saw a pretty girl and I offered her a drink," he said instead. "Oh!" I said, too surprised to be embarrassed by my naivete. He told me about the 30-year-old dragon tattoo on his meaty forearm and then invited me to dinner. (Apparently he wasn't concerned that I was 3 when that dragon first appeared.) I politely declined. ...