Sickness.

One night very late at the one (Thai) restaurant where I work now, this one (bearded) (orthodox) priest comes in by himself, one who would show up every few weeks for lunch with another priest and this (young) (big-nosed) (trusting) (ethnic-looking) (white) college kid who I had just assumed was a priest in training.

And, while he's there, my one (newer) (taller) (Thai) coworker tells me that that priest has been coming every night to the restaurant, since his son is sick, and he goes to the hospital all day and then comes to our restaurant for food, since he lives in the city that I used to live in and he had always come here when he came down for the day and visited his son at college, but otherwise he doesn't know the college town and other restaurants there, and so he just comes here now, every day, while his son is in the hospital.

And, they had been at the restaurant for lunch, and the son just did not look well, my one (chubby) (Thai) coworker said, he almost looked yellow, he looked that bad, and they ran out without even finishing the meal, to get him to the hospital, where he started vomiting blood and they discovered that he had been eating a lot of spicy food and not drinking enough water and somehow all of that ate the entire lining off his intestine.

. . .

. . .

. . .

(I asked a few weeks later and he recovered, and they're back to coming in for lunch again.)