Tone: relatable

I went to the grocery store for some bread, milk, bacon, eggs, and I ended up getting a couple things that were on sale because apparently I now get excited about discounts.

The store was packed and the self checkout lane was down to one machine. Luckily there was a spot behind this little old Asian lady with a cart piled dangerously high with groceries. We started making small talk while we waited.

Out of nowhere she smiled at me and said, “You look just like my son.”

I laughed because… I’m very obviously not Asian.

She laughed too and said, “Still, it would make me very happy if you said ‘Bye Mom’ to me when I leave.”

Honestly, she reminded me of somebody’s sweet grandma, so I figured why not. It costs me nothing to be nice.

A few minutes later she finished paying, waved at me, and started heading toward the door.

So I smiled and called out, “Bye Mom!”

She turned around grinning and yelled back, “Bye son!”

A couple people in the line beside us smiled. One cashier even said, “Aww.”

Then it was my turn.

The cashier started scanning my stuff. Bread. Milk. Bacon. Eggs. A frozen pizza I absolutely did not need. Total seemed to be climbing pretty fast, but groceries are expensive now so I didn’t think much of it.

Finally the cashier looked at me and said, “Okay, your total is $487.63.”

I nearly had a heart attack.

I said, “WHAT? For this?”

The cashier looked confused and said, “Well… your mother said you’d be paying for her groceries too.”