I go to the Chinese take-out restaurant next door to where we live to get some dinner (they take checks, a good thing, since it is Sunday, and we don’t have much cash in the house). Well, Scott likes Kikkoman soy sauce, so I place my order, and go to the supermarket next door to get his soy sauce. I get a few things and go pay.

At the cash register, I realize I’m very thirsty, and I get a bottle of Lipton Ice Tea with my other stuff, and then when the cashier rings it up, I realize I don’t have money enough to pay for it all. I don’t have another check in my checkbook, so I tell the cashier, “Put the ice tea back, I don’t have enough money, I’m sorry.” While she does this, for some reason, I notice the guy behind me in line. No real reason, except he has an interesting look about him, kind of like “Santa Claus meets biker.”

Anyway, I pay, go get my Chinese food, and head to my car, when out of the corner of my eye I see Santa-biker heading through the parking lot — and he’s going to cross paths with me. I don’t think anything of it until suddenly, he stops to one side and speaks to me.

He holds out the bottle of tea I left, and says, “You forgot your iced tea.”

A startled, “Thanks” is all I can get out before he strides away across the parking lot. I watch him get into a truck, and drive away.

It might not mean much to some people, but it meant a lot to me.

P.S. It was really good tea.

— Eva Grammer, Tennessee

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