His life was pretty routine.

He went to school on the weekdays, went out with York and North, his college buddies, on Fridays, went grocery shopping on Saturday and worked in between it all.

Saturday went as normal.

He woke up, got ready had two cups of coffee and headed for the Safeway down the road.

Once at the Safeway, he went straight to produce and began making his way through the aisles grabbing everything he deemed necessary for the new week.

It was only when he got to the frozen section and was approached by a tearful looking toddler did things break routine.

The child could have been no older then 4, Wash observed as the small dark toned kid grappled onto Washington’s legs, one arm around his pant and the other clutching a frozen pizza.

Washington instantly froze, not sure of what to do as the child clutched onto him, sobbing wet splotches into his pants.

When he did act he did so by gently pry I nag the child off of him and kneeled down just low enough to make eye contact.

“Where is your mom?” Wash asked, studying the child who’s sobs had died down to weak sniffles as he clutched the frozen pizza box.

“My daddy,” The child corrected. “I went to get pizza only I can’t find my dad and we can’t even have pizza.”

It was slightly difficult for Wash to make out the child’s words from the lack of vocabulary and all his Zs sounding like Ss, but he eventually was able to decipher it.

“It’s ok,” He consoled uncertainly, having not ever been really good with children, “I’ll help you find your dad.”

The child pouted. “But da pizza.” He whimpered, pitting emphasis on the box in his hands.

“I’ll help you carry it to your dads cart so he can buy it for you.” Wash reasoned.

“But I only have $5.” The child sniffled, opening his fist to reveal a crumpled 5$ bill. “And daddy said we can’t afford to get a treat more than that.”

Wash looked towards the bill and then towards the end of the aisle as a man rushed down.

“Jesus Christ Junior you scared the ever living shit out of me.” The stranger exasperated.

Wash stood up as the man, who he presumed to be his father, took the child’s spare hand.

“Now come on, out that back we gotta get home before Uncle Church starts whining.”

Junior obliged and they began walking away when Wash stopped them.

“Wait,” He called. “I have an extra $10 in my wallet, you can have it to get the pizza.”

Junior smiled and looked up to his dad who looked at Wash wearily. “You don’t have to do that.” He said.

“I want to,” Wash said without hesitation.

Junior beefed as Wash handed him the money.

And seeing his smile made Wash smile.

“I’ll pay you back.” The

“You can pay me back with coffee some other time.”