Food court
Life lessons come from anyone and anywhere
As he sipped his coke Alan saw a young boy staring at him through the window. He had been to the food court many times when he was in Nairobi but didn’t realize that there were windows on the northern side. The hungry prancing eyes stared at his meal. A burger, French fries, and a coke. He was having the typical McDonald’s meal today. Running late for a meeting but was super hungry, so he decided to quickly grab a meal from McDonald’s. He was carrying an executive case that was holding his laptop.
The boy was peeking through the pane. It appeared to be at quite a height from the outside. Maybe 4 to 5 feet. Alan could only see the eyes and dark forehead of the boy. His thick ruffled hair made it clear to Allan that he was a boy. He hated these beggars. So he turned his body to the other side to avoid the prancing glare.
“Nothing is enough for these hungry bastards!”. He said to himself upset with the entire episode of course. “The more you give the more they want. Just hand over everything that’s all they want.”
He glanced back quickly and the boy was still there and staring at his plate. Alan noticed the fat European lady next to the window and was pondering “That fat cow’s having an entire happy meal with Oreo desserts and ice cream too. Why the hell can he not see that and continue to stare at my plate?” He was livid. He just turned his wrist and his watch now read 14:30. “Shit!” He exclaimed to himself aloud. There was loud music playing in the background so no one heard anything anyway. He rushed back to his meal and started gobbling it down at a ferocious pace. He had to rush for his meeting now so he disposed of the leftovers in the trash bin and stacked up the empty tray and hurried towards the exit.
Suddenly a half-naked boy jumped out in front of him and shouted out loud “Sir”. Alan recognized him with his eyes. He was the same boy who was at the window. “I wash your car sir?” He pleaded. “For one dollar only”
Alan was shocked. He had clearly mistaken this boy to be a beggar. Guilt started to pour into his conscience. He now wanted to make it up to him. “Do you want a meal instead?” He bent towards the boy slightly and asked as he pointed to the McDonald’s counter.
The boy’s reply stunned Alan. “I buy the meal for 5 dollars sir. Just need 1 more dollar from you for cleaning your car. Mummy doesn’t like me getting free lunches or extra pay. She says we live off hard work, not sympathy. So I charge 1 dollar for each car I wash. Please sir, can I wash your car sir”
In the middle of the food court 55-year-old Alan got a crash course of morals, ethics, and judgement from a 7-year-old. He was left speechless.
