Loose change
I grabbed some jeans from the clothes rack hanging over the door in the closet. There were coins in one of the pockets. They fell out when I flipped the pants over my forearm. Most of the loose change hit the carpet and bounced once or twice before settling down into a predictable distribution of heads and tails on the floor. One coin, a quarter, dropped through the air and landed, strangely enough, between the second and third toe of my right foot. It stuck there. Stood straight up and down between my toes as if it had sliced that space all on its own. I didn’t see it happen. I was aware of the other coins falling. I anticipated the soft landing on the carpeting. I thought briefly about how I would probably have to crawl around to retrieve a few coins from under the dusty shoe rack. But just like that – thwip – there was a quarter between my toes. I didn’t move for a while. (Did I mention that I was naked, having just gotten out of the shower?) I just stared down at the coin sticking out from my toes, at first shocked that it had gotten itself wedged there, and then, equally shocked that this had never happened before. I started to wiggle the coin, but the dexterity between the second and third toe on a foot is not particularly useful. Still, I could move the quarter up and down a bit, tilt it left and right, rotate it round and round. I watched George Washington’s face disappear to the underside of my foot and then reappear. Was he gasping for air? I had a good chuckle over that. And then it occurred to me that this could be the high point of my day. Standing naked in my closet with a quarter stuck in my toes. Some days are like that. Some days I’m thankful for the small moments of laughter like this one. (Honestly, would you rather be trapped at the office working late photocopying and collating documents that no one will ever read or at home naked performing tricks with a coin between your toes?) When I got tired of playing with the quarter attached to my foot, I decided to try and retrieve it without bending over. The goal was to catch the coin by flicking it forward and upward. On the first attempt, the quarter didn’t budge from my foot. It was really lodged in there. The second time I kicked much harder and concentrated on spreading my toes for the release. This time the quarter shot out from my toes and hit me squarely between the eyes. Then it fell to the floor and rolled into the dust field under the shoe rack. Oh yeah, I thought, as I rummaged around on my hands and knees, picking up all the coins on the closet floor, this would be the highlight of the day alright. Possibly the entire week.
11:30:34 PM  Stories
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