She dresses in a white choker, high neck, and a bodycon caged mini dress. She had wanted to wear a long jumpsuit romper, but the weather outside stresses a short dress for her upcoming dinner cruise with her husband, Jake this evening. She’s only just finding the time to get a pedicure, so she decides to wear closed flats instead of sandals. It will look sporty with her new dress.  Plus a long walk could be a possibility by the shore of Vancouver after a dinner on a cruise.

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This weekend must start earlier than 5 pm on Friday! It’s 2 pm right now, but it must be 5 o’clock somewhere in the world. Sharon is a beautiful, dark, tanned, slim, and tall 23-year-old Indo-Canadian girl. She is a mix of Indian and Canadian. Biologically, but by birth she is Canadian. Her parents migrated to Vancouver 24 years ago.

She takes out a bottle of Grey Goose and pours some into a coffee mug, already just over half-full of Coca-Cola. The only measurement she considers is that there should be a little more coke than vodka. She closes the lid and drops the bottle in her purse. Then she checks that her Mascara, lip gloss, hand lotion and, most importantly hand sanitizer, are in her bag.

She picks up her purse and car keys and leaves her house. She gets in her car and turns on a new song she just bought that morning from iTunes, called “Crying in the Club” by Camila Cabello. She puts the track on repeat;  liking the song but not necessarily the lyrics. After all, she’s preparing for a pedicure followed by a dinner cruise, not an evening at the club. She locks the house door from her phone, with an app she just installed when she moved into the new house with her Japanese husband.

She starts her car and drives away. After she reaches the salon, she informs the receptionist and takes a chair. An Asian man hands her a set of color samples from which to choose. She looks at all the colors before settling on summer peach. After choosing, she puts the samples away and takes out her phone. She opens up an ebook and starts reading where she left off last time: chapter – 16 bar of gold of CHRYSALIS: A Dark and Delicious Diary of Emergence.

The day is hot and she should be sipping a cool drink.  It’s been two weeks since her last appointment and she needs to change the color. By the end of her appointment, her toes will be painted a beautiful electric blue. Wearing fake nails all year long, Sharon has forgotten what her natural nails look like.  A new color for every season!

She is lost in her thoughts as she reads the book. Like so many others, this book allows her travel without actually going anywhere. The salon is full of customers, however, and it distracts her from reading. It’s not a long weekend, so why are there so many people? An old in her 80’s lady in the next chair asks Sharon a question. She is getting her nails painted red with some shimmer in it.  Sharon smiles and answers, “it’s a sunny day! The sun makes every day feel like a short vacation”.

A lady comes over and asks Sharon to take a chair so she can finally get her nails done. The nail technician then sits down and takes Sharon’s hands on her own.  Sharon wanted to sip on the drink she has made in a coffee mug, but she has to drive to Skytrain. It’s better to just enjoy the life without breaking any rules. You can enjoy for longer!

Just then, Sharon hears a loud voice coming from the door. A man’s voice! She can’t look back to see who it is, but she can hear him clearly.

“This is an Indian 1000 Rupee bill. I sell you for a dollar. Take it!” Says a heavy voice with a thick Indian accent.

Even if she could,  Sharon doesn’t want to turn and look at the man. It would be a very disrespectful thing to do. She keeps her focus on her nails, but then hears more of his loud words.

“Take it! It’s real Indian 1000 Rupee. I give it to you for just 1 or 2 dollars.”

Sharon quickly pulls out her phone and Googles ‘Indian 1000 rupee bill.’ Her search reveals several links to a news story:

“On November 8th, 2016 the Government of India announced the demonetization of all 500 (US$ 7.80) and 1000 (US$ 16) Rupee banknotes in the Mahatma Gandhi series.”

The nail technician keeps doing her work. Sharon is stunned at the news she just read and what just happened. How could money become so worthless as a result of just one person’s command? She doesn’t know who she should pity – the man who is selling his money for next-to-nothing? The Government who doesn’t seem to give a second thought to the people losing their savings? Or the country that has to take such drastic measures to deal with the black market?

Sharon’s summer peach nails are finally finished and she walks up to reception, pays her bill, leaves, and drives away in her car. Her Indian side bothers her little what just happened, but then Canadians have an attitude “mind your own business”. She does the same as she drives towards SkyTrain. She parks her car and makes her way towards the Skytrain, drinking slowly from her coffee mug full of the afternoon’s special concoction…

Sharon is little buzzed when she gets of Burrard Skytrain station. She walks up to her husband’s office building and takes the elevator. She pushes the button for floor 22. The top floor of the building and a lawyers office. Jakes is one busy lawyer. Sharon is standing in an elevator and she takes out her coffee mug and takes another sip, but then her amenities fall out of her purse the lip gloss, hand santizer, and mascara. As she gathers them the elevator stop and a man dressed in a suit enters the elevator. She looks at him and smiles.

“Is it floor 22 yet?” She asks as she is still gathering her things off the floor that man who is very well dressed. He smiles and says, “no”.

Sharon gathers her things off the floor and stands up and then she drops her phone. This time there is a man in the elevator who could help her to pick up her phone and she lets him!

“Thank you,” She says and she walks out of the elevator without noticing the man. Sharon goes up to the reception and informs the receptionist she is here to see her husband. Then she takes a chair. The lady at reception tells Sharon Jake is in a meeting and it might take him while.

Sharon thinks for a while and she picks up her purse and walks out after leaving a message for her husband Jake that he can text her whenever he is ready for the dinner on a cruise? She will be shopping for a while. Why wait? When you can enjoy the day? She takes the same elevator and walks out of the posh office!

She goes out on the street of the beautiful city of Vancouver. She was in a crowd walking; walking alone with many people.  She makes another stop and mixes more coke and vodka to her steel coffee mug and slams it down. After walking around for few minutes she feels hungry. Sharon walks into a local pizza store. She gets herself a medium pizza and walks out of the store. Just then a homeless man outside the store asks Sharon if she had any change?

“Sorry I don’t have any change, but if you are hungry I can share this pizza with you?” Sharon tells the homeless man.

He smiles and says’ “ok”.

They both walk to the side curb and sit down; Sharon in her dress and a homeless guy in his rags.

The man smiles at her. There is a silence in them as they both shared the pizza. After one slice Sharon asked him, “so what is your name”?

“John. Thank you for the food” The homeless man thanks her.

“Oh no. Don’t worry about it. I will have a company too right? Plus it was meant to be this way. Have you ever thought how do the bugs get in a grain? A closed pepper, or peanut? Because it is supposed to be that way” Sharon answers back.

He smiles and focuses on his pizza.

“Can I ask you a question? How did you get here? I mean. What happened? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to” Sharon asks him while she hesitates a little. What could possible he would do? Get mad at her? Sharon doesn’t really care. She wanted to know why this healthy looking man was sitting on the roadside begging for food? There is a disability of limbs and mind, but if you can sit on a roadside and make people pay you for a living? You probably do have some sort of skill and you are definitely know how to work! After all, begging is a work too!

“I use to have a job. I had a family. Two daughters and a beautiful wife, but then I got addicted to gambling and I pretty much lost everything. My family left me. You do have to cut an infected organ if it gets some sort of disease, so they cut me off. ” He kept eating pizza as if he would have not eaten for many days.

Just then a phone vibrates. “Sorry about the wait babes. Where are you? I will come get you”. It was a message from Jake.

Sharon leaves her rest of the pizza with the man and goodbye bye. He thanks her back. It seems like she traveled many miles and years in few minutes. She texts Jake back to meet him in few minutes and she walks toward his building thinking in her mind how money could be so powerful to make a man homeless, ignoring his wife for money, beg in front of a store and sell the 1000 Indian rupee for nothing. She meets Jake and clings on to him like a baby would cling on to his mother! Her heart felt like there was a layer taken off from it and it was bare!