That said, let me tell you about his day yesterday. It started off simply enough, with him waking me up before he left for the day to ask if he could raid some money from my purse. It was cute of him to ask, but he's very lucky that I woke up enough to actually hear the question and not just roll over mumbling "no, the green bunny is mine..." since he would have then been left with either a) feeling like he's stealing from me or b) having no way to pay for his bus fare. (Side note: I'm leaning towards "b" since he's still incredibly creeped out by going into a woman's purse. I'm not sure what he thinks I keep in there, but it must be BAD.) Money obtained, he bought himself a juice box on the walk to the bus so that he would have correct change.
Up until about 1 pm, Keating's day was pretty basic. The commute was uneventful, as were his Pronunciation and Spanish classes. He paid back Odin, the guy with the snacks kiosk at the Spanish school, for a bottle of water he had been given the day before. (Never having met Odin, I'm envisioning someone who looks like a tan, short version of the Norse god.) Then he went to Salsa class. It turns out that, at the august age of 33, Keating will be performing in his very first dance recital. As the salsa class was divided into two performing groups, Keating looked around nervously. He figured that if he was going to be in a dance performance, he wanted to make sure that he at least had a decent chance of being paired with a partner who had a clue. He watched with dismay as the random "1-2" count-off placed the best female dancers in the other group. This dismay was nothing, however, compared to what he felt when he was told that they would be dancing in costume. In the other group, guys would dress in jeans and a button-down while the girls would have to wear little nurse's outfits. (I'm not making this up, I swear!) In Keating's group, the girls would wear long dresses and the boys would wear slacks and shirts...and luchador masks. (There is a widely publicized sex show coming to town next month, with pictures everywhere of people in kinky costumes. Could this be related???) I'm unclear on how he accomplished it, but in his desperation Keating successfully managed to get into Team Nurse. Once there, he was paired off by height with one of the Russian girls, a good dancer. He breathed a sigh of relief. Moments later, however, Keating's hopes were dashed when the teacher switched the Russian girl with a new girl in the class who didn't know any of the steps. Worse, new girl holds Keating's hands in a death grip when they dance, nearly wrenching his arm out of the socket during turns. He has three days to teach her the choreographed steps.
While salsa class went later yesterday with preparations for the performance, Keating was elated to have an excuse to escape before class ended: he had a meeting in another part of town with his new employers. Sweating profusely from dancing in a hot room, Keating ran for the metro line (which was also stifling), trying to make up for the time he had lost by class running over. After reaching his stop, Keating decided that he could walk quickly instead of running the last 10 blocks and still make his appointment on time. He hit green light after green light, making good time. His luck eventually ran out, and he finally had to wait at a red light. While there, he felt a tap on his arm. Turning, he saw a Mexican man with his hand extended to shake hands.
Mexican (in English): "Hi! I'm Ricardo. I work this street."
Keating (removing earbuds from ears): "Uh, hi."
With that, Ricardo released Keating's hand and dove for his feet. Keating gasped as he realized that Ricardo had just smeared something all over his right shoe and was about to start polishing it.
Keating (trying to back up while still having a man attached to his shoe and trying to figure out how he's going to get the mound of goo off his shoe before his appointment): "No! Stop! I am in a hurry. I am late for a meeting. I do not have time for this."
Ricardo: "No problem! It will only take a few minutes!"
Keating: "No! I'm actually late. I don't have two minutes. I do not want you to shine my shoes. I do not have any money on me!"
Ricardo (diving for the left shoe and ignoring Keating's attempts to flee): *whistling* ("finishing" second shoe) "Ok, that will be 45 pesos."
Keating(looking vaguely frantic both over the time and the situation): "I told you that I don't have it! I have almost no money with me! I didn't ask you to shine my shoes, and I tried to stop you."
Ricardo: "How much do you have?? You look nice. I will give you a discount."
Keating (thrusting the 4.5 pesos in his pocket at Ricardo): "Here, just take it."
Ricardo took the money and wandered off, looking irritated at only getting 10% of his price, while Keating took off at a run to make up for lost time. It was only after his meeting that Keating remembered about the 4.5 pesos. It was his bus fare for the trip home, the remaining change that he had snagged out of my purse that morning.
Fortunately for Keating, he found a 50 peso bill (about $4 USD) in his wallet. He bought himself a candy from the corner store to make change for the bus and made his way home. At the end of the day, his tally wasn't so bad:
1) He was no longer in debt to Odin.
2) He had escaped having to dance in a luchador mask.
3) He was now armed with his teaching supplies, including an umbrella, two work shirts, and a collection of pens and lighters to pass out to his students.
4) He had managed to only lose 4.5 pesos on his semi-shoeshine-mugging.
5) He now was the proud owner of one pair of incredibly greasy looking black shoes.
No comments:
Post a Comment