Pass It On

Off I went to one of the many excellent fruit and vegetable stands here in Vacation City.  I like food and I like to cook, and it's a real treat for me to go to these places stocked with stuff that's harvested daily.  My eyes were big.  I stuffed two big sacks full of stuff and took it to the counter where the very nice counter lady weighed it and tallied up a sum.

"$24," she said.

I stood there holding my wallet.  SuperK and I had discussed the contents of my wallet just this morning and 24 was not a figure that was mentioned.  The fruit and vegetable stands are cash on the barrel head.

"I've got $14," I said.  A humbler man would have been embarrassed.  We started divvying and sorting and came up with a smaller pile.

"$15," she said.

"I've only got $14," I replied.  She waved me off, cheerfully, and I picked up my fruit and vegetables and made for the door, forgetting I had brought my own environmentally conscious, locally sourced bags hand-sewn by blind war orphans in a 3rd world country for a fair and sustainable wage.

She was unloading the fruit that I couldn't pay for back into the bins.  She handed me my bag and bid me farewell.  When I got to my car I saw that there were 4 pieces of fruit in the bag.  I'm not sure but I think that she left the fruit in there for me to have.  I was too discombobulated at this point to go back in.  I drove off.  I was not in my Very Expensive Car but I was in SuperK's ride, which is not too shabby in its own right.

This woman doesn't look like me.  People like her work in the hot sun picking the fruits and vegetables for terrible pay so that incredibly blessed people like me can eat incredibly tasty, fresh food for a pittance.  Maybe she made a mistake and didn't see the last pieces of fruit.  Maybe it was a kindness.

I'm going with kindness.  Made my day.