On Guns and the Bypass (for Rosemoon)

I gave a very old man a ride to Asheville once the day after Thanksgiving in my old doo-doo brown 1979 Pontiac Catalina. He was hobbling down 25/70 very slowly in the rain on the bypass. I couldn't bear to see it, so I pulled over and asked him where he needed to go. Asheville. I was going anyways. He had his hand inside his coat holding something which I couldn't see, presumably to protect it from the rain. I said to the man, "sir are you armed?" He squinted, rain in his face, and loudly replied, "What?" I repeated myself one or two times, very loudly. He said, "no ma'am, I ain't armed," to which I politely informed him that before I would give him a ride to Asheville, I needed to see what he was holding inside his coat. 

He pulled his hand out to reveal a light bulb. "I found it on the road. It's still good" he told me. 

I told the man I would give him a ride to Asheville, but then he would need to find another ride home.

During the ride, I asked him how his Thanksgiving was. I gathered that it hadn't been much of a to-do, what with his wife being old and bed ridden. I couldn't verify if he celebrated Thanksgiving at all. When we got to Asheville I asked him where he wanted to be dropped off. He told me he needed to go to the Sheriff's station downtown to get his gun back. As I dropped him and his light bulb off, he attempted to insist that I take $5 from him for gas. I refused thinking he might need that later.