I of the white hair and pensive look am sitting in a Japanese restaurant, tucked in at a small table away from the hordes of the lunch crowd soon to come. I have a book open in front of me though I am not reading it. I am considering what may be the results of the test I am waiting for. Could be unpleasant.
There is a small commotion at the table next to me. The waitress is seating four fellows who are obviously on lunch break from a meeting. Happy folks. The tables are very close; one of the guys says to me, “Are you going to read to us while we eat? A little entertainment?”
To which I reply, “Sure, shall I start now or would you like to order first? And I recommend the miso soup. It is really good. If you look on the back of your menus you will see the lunch specials, you get more bang for your buck, to coin a phrase.”
So we laugh and I return to my own meal as the guys slurp their miso. At one point I ask what they think. We all agree it is pretty swell.
And so it goes. At the end of my meal, I wave over the waitress and she waves back toward the front of the restaurant. I say, “Oh, pay in front?”
“No, they pay for you,” indicating the table next to me full of guys formerly slurping miso.
I am very restrained; I do not burst into tears. I just ask if it is Christmas early.
“I never had miso before and it was worth a meal to experience it,” says the fellow with the credit card. “Plus a sense of humor, well it’s just great a blessing these days.”
You just never know, do you? And what that young man can never know is the lift that kindness gave me. Gosh. I can cry now in front of my computer where no one can see me. Guess what? The test was OK. Reckon there is any connection?
