Have you ever been desperate for a coffee? Really desperate? Like so desperate that you would risk missing the last of the commuter trains, getting to work late and diving into the unknown that lies under the car floor mats?
Little did I know that the series of events that would lead me to this desperation started with a lemonade stand.
Saturday was a beautiful sunny day so the kids and I stopped at the neighbourhood convenience store for some Slushies. Stuck on the wall outside the store was a handwritten sign letting people know that there was a lemonade stand from 8am to 4pm with all proceeds going to Sick Kids Hospital. I looked at my watch and it was 3:53pm, I had to get to the lemonade stand. I had never been to a true lemonade stand and I wanted to contribute what I could. I drove around the neighbourhood and found the stand. Two young kids and mom were still outside. Turns out though, that in this age of “debit” I didn’t have any cash on me. I scoured my purse and the car ashtray and was able to put together $1.65. This got me one cup of pink lemonade and 4 brownies. What a deal! I went home feeling good about doing a good neighbourly deed.

Fast forward to this morning. I went to the gym at 6 am, came home, got the kids ready and gulped down a smoothie for breakfast. When I got to the train station my inner caffeine monster woke up and she was cranky! I needed a coffee and nothing was going to stop me. I looked in my purse. Nothing. I looked in the ashtray. Nothing. Dam kids and their lemonade stand!
Then, like a star in the sky, I caught a glimpse of something shiny by my feet. A dime. I knew there had to be more where that came from. I got out of the car, lifted the floor mat and Ahoy! “Treasure me mateys.”  I found 55 cents. A small coffee is $1.30 so I had to keep looking. I opened the back door. Initially,I couldn’t even see the floor and for a moment I thought “don’t go in there” but that caffeine monster spoke. “Don’t give up now..it’s not so bad..so what if you’re late?” I dove in throwing a sweater in the back, then a water bottle, two or three Happy Meal toys, a perfectly round rock covered in white powder that I think must have been a Timbit a long time ago. Then alas I could lift the floor-mat. What lay beneath was a like a hidden vault. There where nickles and dimes all over the place along with straw wrappers, crumbs in all the colours of the rainbow and a strange and sticky substance I don’t care try to identify. Was it
worth it you ask? Absolutely!