Who Is Eating, Today?

On the phone with my sister yesterday, I decide to walk across the street and put a couple of bottles in the recycling bin. Phone to my ear, I open the small gate and find myself face to face with a man.

He is the gentleman who walks around the village selling pretty bamboo blinds.

I have seen him before and several times I have considered asking him how much he charges.

Suddenly, here he is, in the process of readjusting his load around his shoulders and now intent on selling me something.

I'm on the phone and in a different mode.

But like I say, he is intent.

Follows a conversation between the two of us, my sister chuckling on the other end of the phone (while correcting my Spanish grammar) - me assuring him that I do not need any blinds, him assuring me that I do.

Knowing very well it wasn't a good strategy, I enquire about the cost.

Roughly the equivalent of one day of my food budget.

While I ponder this fact, he seems to intuitively pick up on the whole food theme because he switches his topic from how much I do need the blinds to how much he needs food. He is hungry. He really wants to eat.

That's when I know I'm done for. He wants to eat. I have food in my fridge. Looks like the next day's food budget is going to him.

Plus didn't I say just yesterday how much I wanted to cover an ugly spot in my yard? Win-win, I guess.

Minutes later, off the phone and still not having dropped off my recycling, I am precariously perched on a chair hanging the blinds using a couple pieces of twine.

That's when I hear him again, over the fence. He's back and telling me what a good deal he would give me if I wanted to buy three more.

This time, I am strong and he hears it in my voice. He says adios and walks away.

My redecorating done, I turn around for a good look and I love it.

I love it so much that I may find him today and buy two more.

I have plenty of fruit in the fridge.