Sock it to Me...

Yesterday morning I was sitting on my bed in a daze, pulling on my socks, trying to clear the haze of sleep from my head. To be fair, I usually accomplish this around 11:00, but I start working on it around 8:30 (the haze, not the socks). As I pulled on my left sock, which theoretically, could just have easily have been my right sock, I felt a lump down in the toe area. This made me immediately pause, because I grew up with a cat that would leave lovely, little wildlife presents in our shoes. As unlikely as it might be that a decapitated, chipmunk head would be hiding in the toe of my sock, I still wasn’t going to take any chances. Gingerly, I wiggled my big toe and touched whatever was taking refuge in my stockings. Due to the amazing tactile recognition skills of my left foot, I quickly determined that it was a wad of paper. When I pulled it out, I discovered that it was a used and abused, washed and wadded, Ten-Rupee note.

My mood immediately brightened. Imagine if my socks could become a source of income! Of course, at Rs. 10 a day, I wouldn’t exactly be raking it in hand over foot (nyuk,nyuk). Still, I was excited. On my way to work, the fog in my brain cleared slightly and I remembered that two weeks previously, I had gone for some exercise at a walking park near my house. Since I’d never been to that particular park, and since some such parks charge an entrance fee, and since I had no pockets in my shorts, I had stuck 10 Rupees in my sock. End of mystery. I must not have picked this particular pair of socks off the shelf since they had been washed. Even though I was slightly disappointed that the earning potential of my socks was not all I’d hoped it would be, I still basked in the general good-feelings of having found money unexpectedly.

When it came time to order lunch, I gave some money to one of the servants (a little guilty that one of the notes had spent two weeks in a sock) and realised that I was about 5 Rupees short of a meal. I checked my wallet again, but had no more small change. "Does anyone have 5 Roops?" I asked my coworkers, "I just need 5 Rupees." As my coworkers were digging around for coins to help me out, I shoved my left hand into my pocket and discovered a 5 Rupee coin. I was once again astonished. Immediately, I said, "I just need 100 dollars," and shoved my left hand in my pocket again. But unfortunately, magic is a mystery: you can’t force it. This time, I remembered fairly quickly that the last time I had worn those pants I had made some purchases at Agha’s Supermarket and had tossed the coin in my pocket. Excellent.

As I sat back down at my desk, I wondered whether I had any more surprises in store. After all, I had just brought in 15 Rupees, and was now sneaking up on 30 cents Canadian, and when lunch costs me 50 cents, that’s not half bad. I reached into my desk drawer for a pen and my hand fell on an envelope that had been pushed toward the back. I pulled it out, only to discover that it was filled with money that I had left there like an idiot last Friday. Thousands and thousands of Rupees. I had now made a giant leap forward in my serendipitous currency discoveries. I was now up over three hundred bucks.

Now, I realise this was all money that was already mine to begin with. But you have to admit that just finding it in places you don’t expect is great. I think I will begin surreptitiously hiding cash around my room and office when I’m not looking. You just can’t beat the feeling. It put me in mind of back home in Canada, when you pull on the ole winter jacket for the first time that year and find twenty bucks in the pocket. Because of my new found wealth, I left work in a good mood, and I couldn’t wait to see how much more money I would discover.

As it turns out, that was it. But later on, I did find a rock shaped like a duck.