It was a nice December morning when my mom and I walked into Bruegger’s Bagels. There was snow on the ground and you could feel the holiday spirit in the air. It was about 7:45 so we were going to have to be quick if I was going to make it back home in time for school. I hope our order is ready, I thought. 

My school had recently switched to online learning over the holidays because of the rise in Covid-19 cases. Personally, I didn’t like online learning and I don’t think there were many people who did. 

As we walked up to the door into Bruegger’s there was a man waiting by the door. The man had wrinkles on his face and a cane in his hand. He looked really cold and yet, he was standing outside in the cold holding the door for anybody who came in. As I walked up to the door, I noticed that the man was holding a cardboard box. On the box, in large black letters was “Please Help”. He must need money, I thought. If we didn’t order online, we would have cash. 

“Thank you,” my mom and I said as we walked past the man and into the store. 

I peered into his box and saw only a couple dollars, a quarter and some dimes. I got a bad feeling in my stomach knowing that we weren’t able to help this kind man. I could tell that my mom did too. 

Once I was in the shop I started looking for our order on the self next to the window. Johnson, Olson, Peterson, Mar..tin. Nope. As my mom and I waited for our order to come, I couldn’t stop thinking about the man by the door. As I was watching him hold the door for people, I saw somebody stop as they were walking in. The woman seemed to say something to him and then grabbed something out of her pocket. She wrote something on it, dropped it in the man's box, and walked into the store. I watched a smile spread across the man’s face as he looked into his box.

“An order for Mark,” said one of the employees. “Mark?”

“That’s us,” said my mom. She walked up to the counter to get our food and I met her by the door. 

As we walked out of the store, I once again peered into the man’s box. When I looked in, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There, in the box, was a pink envelope with a twenty-dollar bill sticking out of the top. On the front of the envelope, “Happy Holidays” was written in large joyful letters.

Wow, I thought. As my mom and I walked back to the car I realized that even the smallest acts of kindness can go a long way and that the kindness that you put out into the world always finds a way of coming back to you.