May 30, 2003

The Milky Way and the Canadian Dime

Heather aspired to change her life. She was accomplishing nothing living with her parents and working part time. She had always dreamed of moving to the country and starting over. So she had packed her life away into a little trailer and was driving away from home, heading for the peace of the mountains.

After driving for an hour and a half, Heather needed a break from the road. Luckily, she saw a sign indicating a rest stop was only a mile away. In a few minutes, Heather could see a small wooden building on the right. She pulled over and climbed out of her car. The rest station appeared to be deserted. It consisted of nothing but a picnic table, a parking lot and what looked like a log cabin. The door to the cabin stood ajar. Heather entered it to find only a few vending machines and a restroom.

She was hungry, so Heather searched through her purse for some loose change. All she could find was nineteen cents. So she took out a dollar bill and fed it to the candy machine. The machine spit the dollar out at once. Heather frowned, took the bill and attempted to smooth it out; still the machine would not accept it.

Discouraged, Heather decided to leave. She turned to find herself looking straight at a wildly colorful vest. "Well hello," a male voice said.

Startled, Heather stepped back. She looked up and her eyes met those of a tall young man in a cowboy hat, smiling down at her.

"Need change?" the man asked. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of nickels and dimes.

"Uh, thanks," said Heather.

The man counted out a dollar in change and handed it to Heather. When she held out her dollar bill for him, he waved his hand dismissively. "Happy to get rid of some of this change," he said. He punctuated this statement by taking hold of his pocket and shaking it, jingling the remaining coins inside.

"Thank you," said Heather. She turned back to the vending machine and spotted a single Milky Way bar, her favorite candy. Great, she thought, the last one and it's all mine.

Suddenly she heard the clinking of change to her right. The man in the vest and the cowboy hat had sidled beside her and was putting nickels into the vending machine. Before Heather could even open her mouth to protest, he had pressed the buttons, 'G,' and '1.' Heather gasped as her Milky Way dropped from its rack.

Cowboy Hat Man pulled out the candy, immediately unwrapped it and gnawed off a chunk of milk chocolate, caramel and nougat. "Mmmm," he said. "My favorite!"

Heather gazed on hungrily as the man smiled back, his mouth full of her beloved candy.

"Want a bite?" He grinned. His teeth were brown with chocolate. A speck of nougat clung to his bottom lip.

Heather shook her head. The man shrugged and left the log cabin. Heather stared after him, disappointed, and now even hungrier. She looked at the vending machine dejectedly. "I guess I could get a Snickers," she thought aloud.

She inserted a dime into the machine's coin slot. The dime reappeared in the slot for returned change at the bottom of the machine. Heather picked up the dime and re-inserted it. The machine rejected it again. Heather was furious now. She picked up the dime and looked it over. "Damn it!" she shouted. She tossed the coin to the floor. It was Canadian.