This Meal Has Kicked The Bucket

I’m eating at a local restaurant that has a metal bucket with a roll of paper towels and condiments on every table. While we are enjoying our meal, I notice a woman moving quickly through the crowd toward the restrooms, dragging a small child by the hand. Just past my table, the kid puts on the brakes, looks up, and starts doing that thing people do when they are trying not to puke but are going to fail.

The man at the next table over shoves a bucket into the kid’s hands just in time. I didn’t even see him move, but judging by the condiments scattered around his table, he must have dumped his bucket and handed it to the kid, and just kept on eating like nothing had happened.