fine (noun)

To be honest, flipping onto this word randomly was a bit… off-putting, at first.  My Dad died on Tuesday, and seeing ‘fine’ come up felt almost like the universe was like, “So… are you?”

Universe, remember: This is a purely business relationship, we’re not friends, I am just here for the chance to exist and eat cheese.  Honestly.  So nosy.

Anyway, then I realised that this wasn’t fine as in, “Yeah, I’m doing okay,” or, “Isn’t the weather just lovely!”  This was the mean fine, the nasty fine, the fine you don’t want to come up against in a dark alley with no change on you.  Because this fine… it ain’t playing.

You owe this fine.  You owe it big time.

Definition:

“You were supposed to be watching it.”
“I was!  I just, my eyelids, they were really heavy and they fell shut for a moment, I pushed them right back up but it… it was already gone.”
“Uh huh.”
“I swear- ”
“Sure.  You know what the penalty is.”
“I know.  Here, take it.” (glumly pulls out a fistful of cash)
“Oh sorry, mate, did I forget to mention we changed our definition of ‘money’ the other day?”
“P-pardon?”
“Yeah, cash is so last year.”
(nervous laugh) “So you take, um, credit now?”
“Something like that.”

OR

1. A sum of money exacted as a penalty for an offence or dereliction.