"Okay, girl, we're goin' shopping!" she said as she hoisted the half-asleep pup out of her comfortable bed of clothes.

Once inside the store she lined the bottom of a shopping cart with a handful of store sales flyers and set the pup on top of the paper. She pushed the cart up one aisle and down the next while marveling at the selection. The shelf of the cart was soon overflowing with toys and supplies, and since Mae had forgotten to bring her glasses with her, she made a formidable obstacle as she pushed the cart with one hand and held bottles out at arm's length with the other hand while attempting to read the labels.

She surprised a stock boy by handing him an armful of products.

"Honey, this ain't what I want. This is cat stuff! Would you mind putting these back for me? Thank you ever so much," she said as she pushed off in the direction of the dog food section.

The pup was wide awake now and accepted her newest mode of transportation gracefully. She took a tentative sniff at some of the items cascading into the cart around her and yawned with approval.

Mae made her way to the checkout line and picked a few pet magazines off the display rack before arriving in front of the cashier. The young woman smiled and asked "A new puppy?"

"Yes. For my grandson," Mae said breathlessly as she attempted to tug a dog bed out from underneath the cart.

"Why, isn't she just the sweetest thing?" the girl commented and then she noticed the pup's two different ears. Mae followed her stare.

"The Lord works in mysterious ways, child," she said. "Indeed he does." And she said it with such conviction that the cashier just smiled weakly and knew better than to ask any more questions.

Mae pushed the cart out the front door of the store with one hand, trying to study the cash register receipt she had clasped in the other. She doubted Jake had cost her family that much money in his whole lifetime. The pup was starting to get restless in the corner of the cart and began investigating the pile of plastic bags surrounding her. Mae loaded her into the backseat first before dumping her paraphernalia into the trunk. She arranged her ample frame in the front seat and glanced at her watch.

"Gracious!" she exclaimed. "Look at the time - and I forgot all about food shopping. Oooo-weee, Carrie is going to have my head!"

She waved and shrugged "I'm sorry!" several times to other drivers as she cut diagonally across the parking lot and made her way to the intersection. She drove through several yellow lights before pulling up in front of a fruit and vegetable stand in a spray of gravel and hurriedly bought a dozen ears of sweet corn and some tomatoes. The closer she got to her daughter's neighborhood the more beads of sweat accumulated on her forehead.

"I'm in for it this time," she muttered as she turned the car into the alley behind Carrie's house and parked next to the back gate. She turned around and looked at the puppy sleeping on the back seat before gathering up her purse and the bags of produce.

"You'd better be on your best behavior, little girl," she cautioned the pup. Then she rolled her eyes heavenward and said earnestly, "Lord, don't you be takin' no dinner break now, 'cause I'm surely goin' need you in a moment!"

***

"A DOG!" Carrie yelled and nearly dropped the steaming hot pan of chicken. "Mama, have you lost your mind?! Here I've been holding dinner and worrying where you'd got to, and you come waltzing in here talking about a dog? Mama, we can't afford no dog!"

"Honey, just calm down and let me explain," Mae said, holding the produce bags out in front of her as a shield or a peace offering, or both. "You don't worry about the money - this is my gift to Joey and I intend to pay for anything that dog needs 'cause that boy needs a dog. I've never been so convinced of anything in my entire life, and the Good Lord laid it on my heart to do it, so I did it and that's that!"

"Mama, you and the Good Lord been double-teaming me since I was a child! What is Joey going to do with a dog? I can hardly get him off the front porch."

"The dog will get him off the porch, I promise you that." Mae said and set the bags down on the kitchen counter with a force not in the best interest of the tomatoes.

"Now you listen to me, girl. I have stood by and watched your trials and tribulations since that boy was born...and I have tried to stay out of it as best I can. I have offered you money so you didn't have to work so hard and you won't take it because of pride - foolish pride.

"Hasn't a day gone by that I haven't prayed that a good man would come into your life and look after you and that boy. I love that boy with all my heart and when the Lord tells me that boy needs a dog, he's going to get a dog come hell or high water. And this ain't just a dog, it's a special dog and she's going to teach him what we couldn't. Beside the fact that it would be blasphemy to not do the Lord's bidding, and Lord knows, I'm a tolerant woman, but if there's one thing I won't stand for, it's blasphemy!"