A Kindness

In Duffy Roll's today, the most amazing thing happened.

I was waiting in line to purchase a mini Irish roll, and a woman came up and was helped before me. I didn't mind, and watched as the cashier took a spectacularly long amount of time to transfer her cash into a gift card. The man who'd taken my order placed my Duffy roll on a box of rolls that someone was coming to pick up, and I patiently waited for the cashier to complete the woman's request.

She noticed me waiting and immediately began apologizing.
"I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed. "Did I take your place?"
I assured her that she hadn't, and that I didn't mind.

A few minutes later, as she was about to receive her newly purchased gift card, she looked at me again.
"I really am so sorry!" she insisted.
"It's fine," I assured her.

She turned her attention back to the cashier.
"Could you please charge her order on my bill, as well?" she asked.
My eyes just about bulged out of my head.

"You are sure?" I exclaimed. "It's totally fine--you really don't have to--"
"Yes, yes, of course," she assured me.

I picked up my mini Irish roll from on top of the box.

"Is that box not yours?" she asked me, surprised.
"No, just this one," I said, gesturing toward my little roll.
"You can pick some more rolls if you'd like," she told me. "I certainly would."

I was even more shocked than before.
"This is plenty!" I smiled. And thanked her about a billion times before she left the store.

Little kindnesses like this one are the things that make me remember that America isn't so bad. We have problems with intolerance and gun control and abuse and stereotyping and pressure, but we also have people who pay for strangers' Duffy rolls just because they know it is a nice thing to do. We have people who feel responsible for making more good things come more people's ways. We have people who do nice things when no one would dream of expecting anyone to do them.

I can't wait until I make my own salary and have the ability to shock people into smiling, in the way that that lady did to me today. I'm still glowing from the memory.