a strange thing happened to me last night...

i don't quite know what time it was... shortly after 9:30 i suppose, when there was a knock at the door.

i checked out the window to see who it was and a young aboriginal lady was standing on my front stoop. So i opened the door and said hello.

she said she had been to the local aboriginal health place to find a place to sleep, and they said they were only providing services for intoxicated people *weird*
I said I couldnt help her, because i was going out. Which wasn't entirely true, but I wasnt yet sure what she was asking me.

She said that she had found a place to sleep and maybe could she borrow a blanket, and she would return it in the morning, as she was going home to cairns. i asked her what made her come to brisbane, she said there'd been some trouble and that she thought she'd just get away for a bit, but it was a mistake and so she was going back home.
I dont really have much in the way of blankets and stuff, but i said hang on and gave her the big purple rug off of my loungeroom floor. she mentioned several times that she would put it on the door step this morning.
i was going to give her this other blanket that wasn't quite as sentimental, but it wouldnt have kept her warm at all.
thing is, this purple blanket with it's tattered corner and that's constantly sitting on my lounge floor, is a blanket my parents bought when they had their first apartment. It cost a lot of money back then, and it's kind of sentimental just cos we've had it forever.

But I gave up my purple blanket with the thought that it would keep someone else warm.

The girl asked if she could pinch a couple of cigarette butts out of my ashtray, i said dont be silly and went to get a few for her. So i sat on the step and had a chat with someone i'd never met for about 10 minutes or so.... til she said, thanks for this, my names deliah and again that she'd return the blanket, and went off into the darkness.

I felt... well I dont really know what i felt, but i felt í'd found out enough in those brief moments to trust there'd be a purple blanket on my front porch when i woke up... by 7:50 this morning when i left for work, she still hadn't returned.

I mean I kind of hope it's there when I get home, but even if it's not, I hope it kept her warm.

xJ