The Bean Burrito

The drive-thru speaker crackled, and I barely looked up from the screen. "Welcome to Sol's Tacos, what can I get started for you?" The voice on the other end was quiet, hesitant- a woman, probably around my mom's age, ordered a single bean burrito and small drink. I punched it in, took her cash at the window, and handed her the bag without thinking twice. It wasn't until she had already started driving away, I noticed her bag and receipt was still on the counter. I'd given her someone else's order- the big order, three quesadillas, two loaded tacos, a nacho supreme, and a large drink. I grabbed her bag and was about to toss it when I saw her car pull in the parking lot. She wasn't going to leave, she was just sitting there, staring at the food like it was something she had never seen before.

I picked up the bag with her bean burrito and her drink and went to her car. "I'm sorry to bother you ma'am, but I accidentally gave you the wrong bag." That's when I saw that she had already eaten half of one of the loaded tacos. "That's okay. I think I needed this more than the other." She said with regretful eyes. "My son is in the hospital. He only has a couple days left and the nurses made me leave to get myself something to eat." Tears started to fill in her eyes.

That's when I did something that if my manager saw, I would be fired. I got in the passenger side of her car, handed her the burrito and said, "Tell me all about him and here's the bean burrito you paid for." She let out a forced laugh and grin. "Thank you. He's 23. He had his whole life ahead of him. He was going to a top college on a full academic scholarship. He was going to be a doctor."

I didn't have the right words, so I just sat there and listened. She talked about the way his laugh brightened up a room, his favorite subject in school, the way he used to argue with her over the last tortilla. After a while, she wiped her eyes and looked at the burrito in her hands. "Thank you," she whispered. "For this. For sitting." I told her I'd keep him in my thoughts, and she said his name was Mateo. I watched her drive off, and I stood there for a long minute before going back inside. I never did tell my manager about the mix-up. But I think about her, and him, more often than I'd expect.