“Don’t say that,” Jeremy said, laughing. “Jesus wouldn’t like it. It’s his house, and he lets everyone in. That’s just the way he is, ya know.”

The girl shook her head. “It was a mistake. I was just travelling for so long, and I hadn’t had hot food in weeks. I thought it would be safe, but it wasn’t.”

Jeremy’s blood went cold. “It’s always safe in here,” Jeremy said, slowly, calmly. “The bad things outside can’t get to you here.” He knew that as bad as life on the streets was for men, it was ten times worse for women. He’d heard the stories of the rapes, the stalkers, the pimps who would beat the hell out of any girl who wandered into their territory. He couldn’t imagine the hell she had been through.

The girl shook her head again. “Some bad things can get to you anywhere,” she whispered. She looked down at her plastic spoon in its styrofoam bowl, stirring her now-lukewarm soup. “You’re a good man,” she said, “and you do good things. You don’t deserve what could happen if you keep trying to help me.”