The Meeting

“Is it hot in here for October?”

The man fanned himself with several papers that jetted out from all sides of the podium. Seconds later, a loud screech came from a push-latch on a nearby fire door. A gust of warm wind entered the opening and sent his papers blowing off the stand onto the smooth floor of the church hall.

“Oh crap..,” he said nervously.
He gathered the papers and grabbed a nearby Thesaurus from the Sunday CCD class bookshelf to hold them down.
He took a deep breath.
“Hi everyone, my name is Charlie…..I’m an alcoholic.”
“Hi Charlie,” said the group sitting in a closed circle on brown metal folding chairs.
“Eye…arly,” mumbled Evelyn, the local homeless woman who just finished shoving several bites of a powdered donut in her mouth which spewed onto the floor like a miniature snowfall.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” she said as she wiped her mouth on her sleeve. Several members glared at her with disgust as she squirreled away another donut down the front of her bra.
“What?!” She glared back. “I’m saving it for later.”
Charlie let out a small laugh and continued.

“Well everybody, today is my three hundred and sixty fifth day of sobriety.”
The group gave a round of applause which died down shortly in anticipation of hearing his story.
“Aww..shit!” It was Evelyn again shouting from the back of the church hall. She had left the spigot of the coffee pot open and it poured down the church’s white linen table cloth embellished with a dove holding an olive branch in its beak.
“Father’s not gonna like that,” she said unusually loud, again dawning the attention of the entire group. Annoyed, Charlie gave Evelyn a fixed stare and tried to start again.

“Anyway, my first AA meeting was actually three years ago. I was drunk, of course, and a friend dragged me here; literally. My wife Laura left and took my little girl just a week before. I didn’t even remember what happened in those seven days in between. She tried everything to get me to quit. Once she partly emptied my fifth of whiskey and filled it with cider vinegar. Not knowing, I drank it down so fast I never even tasted it. I threw up for two days straight and still couldn’t stop the madness. It was at that first meeting an old timer came up to me and asked if I knew what it meant to ‘Give it to God.’ I said rather sarcastically, ‘hell yea, I give it to God every chance I get!’ ‘God darn it, where’s that effen bottle? I know I had it stashed here somewhere!’ ‘So help me God, if I don’t get a drink soon I’m gonna go effen crazy!’ Then I laughed in his face. I didn’t know then, but that man and my Higher Power would save my life.”

Charlie looked his sponsor.
“Thank you, this one year chip is because of you….and him.” He pointed skyward and paused a moment.
Evelyn, who finally settled down was playing with a stinkbug that was crawling up her ring finger. At that pause, she stood up and started clapping loudly sending the bug flying to a nearby light which made an awful tink sound as its tiny coat of armor hit the fluorescent bulb.

“Oh sorry, thought you were done.” She plopped back down in her seat.
“It’s alright Evelyn, I just want to end by saying to everyone,” he held up his one year chip, “I’m living proof that if you ‘Give your problems to God’, he does give back in blessings. Thank you for listening. ”