The Canadian "Loonies"

The $1 bill in Canada has been nicknamed a "Loonie" because there is a picture/drawing of a common loon bird on it.  But the "Loonies" in Canada are not limited to the one dollar bill...

Recently Richie and I and our adopted nephew, Rafael, were in Cabo San Lucas to celebrate my birthday. 

On this night, we'd been out to dinner and had returned to our hotel which shares a patio with a restaurant.  It was a lovely, balmy evening and we decided to have a nightcap before the restaurant closed for the night.  I settled into a chair on the hotel patio and the men went to the bar to get the drinks.

On the way back to our patio, they were waylaid by a pair of ladies at a table in the restaurant.  Apparently one of them had asked them something.  Richie is one of the world's most obliging people and he looked to be fully engaged in answering whatever the question had been.  Rafael stood slightly behind him, smiling pleasantly.  It's all very well to make new friends, but not, in my opinion, while you are holding my drink as the ice turns to water.

Finally Richie came back with one of the women following him.  My eyebrows rose speculatively as I appraised her.  Frankly, she didn't appear to be much of a threat to marital security.  My first thought was, "She's a librarian -- that unassuming hair-do; the glasses, the slightly meek mien..."   She was one of those women who are "average" all over.

Beaming, Richie said, "Nina, this is Sue.  Sue, this is my wife Nina."  I gestured to the chairs and she set down her half-full Irish coffee and half-empty glass of red wine.  She was prattling away as she reached into her purse, pulling out a pack of cigarettes.

"You can't smoke down there" - gesture at the restaurnt - "But then I looked up here and saw you smoking so I asked if it was okay to smoke here and your husband said it was so here I am.  Thank you so much!"  As I'd had nothing whatsoever to do with Mexican smoking rules and regs, I thought her gratitude was somewhat misplaced.

She downed her coffee in one long gulp and started talking.  Within seconds, we knew that she'd had a bad first marriage, a bitter divorce and had decided never to re-marry even though the man she'd been living with for the past 25 years, did want to get married. 

She waxed eloquently about her late dog "Teddy" while patting the hotel cat, Ma Moochie, lovingly with adoring eyes.  She said she and her sister were visiting Cabo and that her sister never shuts up.  'It's driving me crazy!" she said with irritation.  She said that she lives in Edmonton and her sister in Toronto, Canada.

Rafael, somewhat resignedly, had sat down in Sue's empty chair and was listening to this sister.  Chairs began scraping on the tiled floors and the restaurant began to close.  So they joined us.

To Be Continued