The Face-wash incident

   It happened on a certain Thursday evening. I was alone at home enjoying a cup of tea, when I remembered that I had to take an important printout. Since I did not own a printer, I decided to go to the printer shop. As I was walking back from the shop, I stopped and observed my reflection on one of the glass panes of the building. I took one look at the reflection of my pimple-covered face and decided to go to the supermarket nearby right away, since buying my face-wash had now become the most urgent thing in my to-do list. 'Perhaps it must have been the dirty spotted glass pane and not your face' suggested a tiny voice in my head. But c'mon, who are we kidding?

   I headed straight towards the ‘toiletries section’ and began to search for the only particular face-wash that helped remove the pimples from my face. There it was, sitting on one of the shelves – its vivid green colour unmistakable. My face brightened up the moment I set eyes on it. However, when I read the price of the item, my face fell. “Twenty-three dirhams and fifty fils!” I exclaimed. The sales lady beside me threw me a dirty look. I rummaged my purse to see how much money I had brought with me. There were more coins than notes. I had precisely Twenty-two dirhams and seventy-five fils with me. Not a dime (here, fils) more.

   It was appalling. ‘If only I had one more dirham’ I said to myself wistfully. And then an idea struck me. Although it did take some guts and shamelessness to do it, I decided to give it a try. I went to the sales lady standing next to me and asked if she would lend me a dirham. I explained my predicament and she listened to me intently. After I was done, she pointed to one of the other products in the shelf and suggested perhaps I should buy something that was within my budget. But I was stubborn and once again reminded her that only this particular product helped me get rid of my pimples. She then said, “I’m sorry, in that case I can’t help you” and left. I threw her a look of disgust and called her a b**** in my head.

   Now there were only two options left. The first one was to pickpocket someone. However, I dismissed the idea since it didn’t seem like the right thing to do and there was a camera right above my head. Moreover, I was no skilled pickpocket and I lacked the guts and ‘guiltlessness’ to do it. The second option – now my only choice – was to go all the way back to my house, get some more money and go back to the supermarket and buy my face-wash. A tiny voice in my head then suggested, ‘Can’t it wait?’ However, I was now bent on buying it and I could not go on without my face-wash another morning.

   So I resorted to the second option, but instead of going all the way back to my apartment, I borrowed ten bucks from the generous security guard of the building. Then I went all the way back to the supermarket and along with my face-wash, bought some chocolates and an energy drink with the new found money. The chocolates and the energy drink somewhat compensated the happiness and energy that had been wasted in the whole process.

   When I went back to my building, I thanked and promised the guard that I will return his money back tomorrow and made my way upstairs to my apartment. I fumbled in my pant pockets for my house key; and here is where something went wrong - my fingers stumbled across the soft surface of a smooth piece of paper. Suddenly something struck in my mind and it felt as if somebody had punched my face. All this time I have had it in my pocket, and like a fool I had run up and down the place twice searching for what I had needed the most – a solid note of twenty bucks!

   That day, I realized something after going over the whole incident again in my head. We often search everywhere around us desperately for something we really want, but often we forget that the thing we are searching for might be lying with us all this time. That day, I learnt something: Always check your pockets.

   But what I was really proud of at the end of the whole incident, was that I managed to simply laugh it off.