MAGGIE

Day two of my life in Miami, I came into the house to find a Cuban woman sitting at our kitchen table, jabbering away in Spanish.  I go to my room and JJ says, "She is our neighbor.  She just needed to use the phone for a bit, but dude, she is yelling at her husband right now!"  JJ is fluent in Spanish, however Maggie does not know this.  I was unsure if we were supposed to do this or not, that is, let the neighbors in to use our things.  JJ said the other room mates were not fond of the idea, but he thinks we should.  I agreed.  I mean, what is wrong with letting the neighbor use the phone?

Now, only two short weeks later, I feel like I have known Maggie my whole life.  It is now a daily occurrence for her to make an appearance, asking either for water, ice cream, the phone, a place to sit, or just a small donation of $20.  

The saga started off as Maggie wanting to use only the phone to look for apartments because she was leaving her husband.  She just had to get out of this relationship, so why would we not help her?  Could she be being abused?  Possibly, so as Christians we decide to help her out and let her use the phone.  One day as I was getting some ice cream out of our freezer when I heard someone rapping on our door.  Of course I knew it was Maggie, as she is the only person to ever come over.  I answer the door politely and let her in.  "Oh, that ice cream looks very good.  Can I have some?  I have not eaten all day," she says as I without question scoop up another bowl.  I want to be nice to this women so I give her some ice cream and sit down to some friendly conversation.  A long, two hours later, Maggie finally leaves as my room mates have arrived home and we quick her out so we can go to bed.  

The drama continues everyday as she needs to use our phone to look for an apartment.  But this is not all.  She now is asking for ice cream and food every time she enters the door.  We always feed her, but we tell her she now has a time limit on our phone as we need our privacy.  She tells us she has a phone, but she sold it for money, however, she gives the landlords a number that isn't ours and tells them to call it.  We sense fishy things going on, but we just don't know what to do.  We all want to be nice, so we continue to help her out.

The next stage is money.  Lately, she always has a new story of why she needs money.  She comes over quite often lugging something with her that is "such a great deal!"  For example, one day she brings in a bag full of expensive suits.  "They are thousand dollar suits.  They are great suits, but I need twenty dollars so I will sell them all to you for twenty dollars."  "Well Miss Maggie, I am doubting they are going to fit me," I say as I smile big.  "Oh yes they will.  They are big suits.  They will for sure fit you, do you want to buy them?"  I try one on as the shoulders in the coat push my shoulders together, smashing my lungs and I shove my arms through the whole, exposing my elbows at the bottom of the cuff.  Obviously this thing is not going to fit me and neither are the others.  "Well you could just give me twenty to help me out.  I really need medicine."  As I have no cash in my wallet, my room mates go together and get this for her, remembering the day before that we gave her twenty dollars for her brand new DVD player that had no remote and  no buttons to work it.  But kindly we give her more money wondering what it really is being used for.

So, how long do 5 young adults, making two dollars per day continue to show the love of God and support this woman and whatever her habits are.  It is obvious she needs help, but she is always feeding us unreasonable stories that she contradicts every time she comes back.  Do we continue to let her in the house and feel like we are being taken advantage of, or do we continue on?  It really is a tricky question.  Sometimes, it is just hard to be a Christian!!  And then, the door raps again...

We try to talk through what we will say until we HAVE to answer the door because she has been out there for a while.  Before the door is open she says, "can I come in?"  We decide not to let her, as there are only two of us here with no money.  We also had just sat down for supper, so we wanted to eat in peace.  That is when the obvious fake crying came into play.  "My husband just left me!!!  Why do you have to be so nasty to me!!"  I really didn't know giving someone an abundance of food and $40 dollars was nasty, but that is just me.  Maybe it is.  We are to the point that we honestly don't know what to do.  It is obvious we are being lied to and taken advantage of, but how would God handle the situation?  I wish I knew!