His face was pale.
He looked sick.
Liam didn't know why.
What he didn't know was that the bikers had lost a saddlebag somewhere along the highway.
Inside it were their wallets, food, emergency supplies, and Tommy's glucose medication.
They had been riding for hours without a proper meal.
Tommy was diabetic.
His condition was becoming dangerous.
Duke had already gone inside the gas station twice.
Each time, he had asked the clerk for something simple.
Food.
Water.
Anything they could repay later.
The clerk refused.
“No money, no food.”
Duke explained Tommy's condition.
He offered identification.
He offered contact information.
He promised payment.
The clerk didn't care.
He looked at the leather vests.
Then at the motorcycles.
Then back at Duke.
“If you don't have money, get out.”
Liam heard everything.
He stood beside the air pump, holding his bicycle.
Then he remembered the twenty-dollar bill inside his backpack.
His mother had placed it there six weeks earlier.
She had wrapped it in masking tape.
Across the tape, she had written four words:
Only if you really need it.
Liam had protected that twenty dollars like it was gold.
He didn't spend it when his shoe split.
He didn't spend it when food became scarce.
He didn't spend it on textbooks.
He didn't spend it when walking home at night would have been easier if he had taken a bus.
That twenty was for an emergency.
And now Liam looked at Tommy's shaking hands.
He understood.
This was the emergency.
Four Bottles of Water
Liam walked inside.
He went straight to the cold case.
Four bottles of water.
Four packages of peanut-butter crackers.
He carried everything to the counter.
The total was $14.18.
Almost an entire evening's wages.
Phil, the clerk, recognized the young man.
He watched Liam place the twenty-dollar bill on the counter.
Then he noticed the masking tape.
And the handwriting.
Phil counted the change and pushed it toward Liam.
Liam took the food.
He walked outside.
Duke initially thought the kid had bought something for himself.
Instead, Liam placed the food in front of them.
“Here.”
Duke stared at him.
“What's this?”
“You need it more than I do.”
Nobody spoke.
Tommy reached for the water first.
His hands were still shaking.
He opened the bottle and drank.
Then Ray tore open a package of crackers.
Sal followed.
Duke waited until everyone else had eaten before opening his own.
“What’s your name?” he finally asked.
“Liam Foster.”
“You go to school?”
“Cedar County Community College.”
“What are you studying?”
“Mechanical engineering.”
Duke glanced at the battered bicycle.
“Figures.”
Liam smiled.
Then Duke noticed everything else.
The patched jeans.
The worn shoes.
The broken backpack.
The old bicycle.
His expression changed.
“That twenty,” Duke said quietly. “That was emergency money, wasn't it?”
Liam hesitated.
“My mom's.”
“She gave it to you?”
“Yeah.”
“For emergencies?”
Liam nodded.
Duke put down his crackers.
He looked at the nineteen-year-old standing in front of him.
“I've ridden more than forty thousand miles raising money for homeless children,” he said.
His voice became rough.
“I've watched people write checks for ten thousand dollars without thinking twice.”