13 December 2011
My grandfather had a large farm. I would eat unhealthy amounts of fruit from the cold mornings thru the hot summer days. He opened a fruit stand and one day asked me to watch it for a minute. I was nine, a very nervous nine, but I agreed.
I noticed a shaggy old man walking down the road with his donkey. We made eye contact and he approached the stand.
He asked about one of our smallest papayas and offered me one peso. It was marked at two. He could've taken it and not paid at all, but he didn't. He just walked away. Rosa, the neighbor lady, sprayed him with her hose and called him some dirty names.
I explained what had happened to my grandfather and he said I should've just given it to him.
Johnny sat next to me at school. He asked for my homework and went on to tell me that the man with the donkey had died over night. I never looked at pesos the same.
Two Pesos • Opuss № I