You never know when a simple hello might lead to something unforgettable.

So, what would you do if a child who rarely speaks suddenly lit up in conversation with you? Would you brush it off as a passing moment? Or would you realize you’d just witnessed something deeply special?

In the following story, a retail worker finds herself in this exact situation and will never forget the interaction. Here’s what happened.

A conversation about Pikachu

It’s true there are a lot of bad stories in retail, but I wanted to share one story that, even today, about six years later, still warms my heart.

At the time, I worked in the electronics section of a big-box toy store. It was late summer and very slow, so I used my free time to talk with my guests.

A couple and their son walk into my department, and I greet them. The kid is wearing a Pokémon shirt. I exchange usual greetings and the father goes and looks at the games in cases while the mother and son are looking at Nintendo DS accessories.

She wasn’t giving up on him.

I say to him, “Hey there! I like your shirt!”

The kid looks at me in silence.

So, thinking he must be shy, but noticing he’s paying attention, I continue, “Who’s your favorite Pokémon?”

Now, he looks like he’s really thinking and fidgeting. He points to his shirt, happy, and says, “Pikachu! I love Pikachu!”And he giggles and runs to his dad.

The mother was left speechless.

Now I notice a shocked look on his mother’s face, and thought, oh no, should I not talk about Pokémon? (He was wearing a shirt, so I thought it would be okay)

The mother leans close to me and I notice she’s in tears as she says, “My son is severely autistic and he barely talks to us, but for him to talk to a stranger is a miracle. Thank you.”

It’s the most stand-out moment in my retail history thus far, and to think that if I had just gone about a usual “script” of “Hi there, how are you? That’ll be $X.00, please. Thank you,” it would never have happened.

It pays to talk to people sometimes.

Wow! It’s so wonderful to hear about retail associates who enjoy talking to people!

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit have to say about the story.

This person loves what she did here.

She sure did!

Here’s someone who loves stories like this.

The story brightened this reader’s day up.

What an incredible story!

It’s so wonderful to hear heart-warming stories coming from retail, because you don’t get that often!

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.