This has happened before. However, this experience is a new record in terms of expansion! Let me tell you the story.
Saturday morning of the long weekend. It’s a quarter past eight! Mr. Bibi went to have coffee. The nearest Tim Hortons to the house. Thirteen minutes walk. But I did not want to increase the pressure on the half-century knee. So I took the car.
Plan to go a little further in the afternoon. Opar means across the border. I will visit Fingers Lake in New York. Not as far from home as abroad. Google says that one can reach the ‘Del Lago’ resort of the lake in three and a half hours. The town where the resort is located is called Waterloo. There is a Waterloo near Toronto. Fairly big city. The ‘University of Waterloo’ famous for engineering and IT is the icon of the city. Waterloo in New York is a small town compared to that.
I left the driveway of the house and entered the Tim Hortons drive thru. Went out with plans to dine-in. But on the way the decision had to be changed. The wife said, fresh breakfast can be taken for the children at seven in the morning! Canadian breakfast!!
I bowed my head and accepted the decision.
Long lines at the drive-thru. It took a long time to come before the ordering microphone. Two regular coffees, one each French vanilla and hot chocolate. All medium size. With HelloPino Pastry, Honey Crawler, Everything Bagel Toasted with Garlic Cream Cheese. Some are more than one. Finally a creamy chill for the girl with Farmer’s Wrap Egg and Cheese, No Bacon. The fleet of orders seemed quite long. The number that appeared on the order screen was $34 to the left of the decimal point. Not as bad as Tim Hortons’ boonie.
I was blowing in my heart. Asif’s beef is in the fridge. I brought the dress from Adenos. You could eat hot food sitting at home. But no one wins an argument with his wife. If you win, the change can be like Bill Gates or Trudeau! So I wisely (!) read his prompt list drive-thru customer service without participating in the sure-fire debate contest.
And when another car leaves the front, I point to the window. It’s my turn to take delivery. A blue BMW was standing at the window counter for a long time. I saw fair white hands coming out. Anthropology of the hand says she is white. Seems like a senior citizen. hands are shaking Points card given. Payment card given. Several seconds passed. not taking food Nothing is being delivered to him from the counter.
I’m cheering at the back. Ankle’s legs are banging on the brakes. Can stay like this for so long? What is chattering again! i can hear He speaks English. The word is not clear.
After a long time a hand came out from the counter. A large coffee and a muffin. I thought there was so much chatter about these two items! I said to myself, please, aunty, you grow up first!
Aunty seems to have heard the plea. He quickly left with the car. We are in front of the counter.
The driving side window was open. I added the points card and payment card from the phone app. At the window point a punjabi lady said good morning and said your payment is done. The woman in the previous car paid everything. I went to say, this is a big order…
I could not finish speaking. He handed over many packets one after another. I passed the wife sitting next to me. Have a good day punjabi woman looking at the car behind.
I can no longer feel the pain of the ankle. I felt uncomfortable inside. I looked for the blue car in the distance. Couldn’t find the blue car on a cloudy day. Such incidents have happened before. But as far as I can remember none were over ten dollars. But this time it’s about thirty-five dollars. Calculated in Bangla Taka, it is close to three thousand.
This money may be nothing to those who looted 3000 crore rupees in the country. But I have never seen anyone pay a stranger’s food bill like this.
