My daughter is the one who started naming her cars and encouraged us to name ours. My first named car was a pearly white Infiniti. We named her Pearl. It was a perfect fit. After Pearl there was our Red Chrysler 300 named Ruby. She was my favorite car. What a beauty! I guess it’s ok to have favorite cars since they are inanimate objects with no feelings, right?

So, we traded Ruby for a black GMC truck we just named Jet, and we bought a little Black Kia Niro that we use for delivering Uber Eats and Door Dash. Her name is Olive. She is a hybrid that gets super good gas mileage in town at 44 mpg.

Yesterday, Me and Olive (yes, I know it should be Olive and I) went through the drive-through at Culver’s for a single-scoop Flavor-of-the-Day treat. The total for my order was just over three dollars. I handed my debit card to the bubbly girl at the window. She ran the card, but did not immediately hand it back to me. She got a look of concern on her face and started talking to a coworker.

It wasn’t difficult to guess what happened. She looked my way and apologized. I asked (for confirmation) what had happened. She explained that she accidentally charged my card for an order that was not mine. I asked how much the order was. She said it was just over $17. Gulp!

Behind her, there was a conversation taking place between a young man and an older female coworker. I could hear just enough to catch that he may have been the reason for the mistaken charge on my card.

I turned my attention back to the bubbly but concerned young lady, who was still waiting for a manager to come from the back to help her solve this issue. I said I would just pay for that order. A look of relief washed over her. She asked if I was sure. My thought was, well, either I need to pretend I just purchased a single scoop of ice cream at a county fair price or we wait for who knows how much longer for someone to come to the rescue. I replied that I was sure, asking which car behind me made the purchase I was paying for. (It didn’t really make a difference other than to satisfy my curiosity.) She said it was the car directly behind mine. She then said that was so nice of me! All of her bubbly happiness had returned and was oozing out through that little window. Since i was paying for that order, she was going to give me my ice cream for free!

Just then, the manager appeared from the back. She explained to him our plan, but he put the money back on my card and charged me the $3 for my melted ice cream. The store was not going to lose money on this manager’s watch. Nope!

The people in the car behind me were none the wiser. I am sure their patience was growing thin as they wondered what could be taking so long, not knowing they almost had their meal for free. All because one young man in the chain tapped my order on the screen too soon. 

As Olive and I pulled away, I hoped they were not impatient with the bubbly girl at the window. I also started thinking about how we are all links in chains of events… each link, an important part of the chain….