Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

I Resolve...to Never Try to Speak Spanish Again

I resolve to never try to speak Spanish again. There's a girl where I work who I only see mornings before we open. Mari cleans up but it's only a temporary gig for her until she earns her degree in photography. She barely speaks any English but me, Mr. International, I like to pride myself on my language ability. It was a cold morning and Frank hadn't arrived yet to let us in. To pass the time we went into our routine.

"Es Frio."
"What?"
"Frio. That's what you say in Spanish when it's cold."
"You mean like 'it's freezing'"

She had a beautiful smile. Once we got inside I had some hurricane shutters to set up on a skid and she had her array of things to attend to. Frank was upstairs answering some e-mails. An hour later I was getting a second cup of coffee when I noticed she was still wearing her coat. It was a nice suede one.

"How do you say jacket?"
"Jaquito."
"I like your jaquito." She laughed graciously. Suddenly around the corner came her man who sometimes helped her but on this particular day I thought was absent.
"Tien un corte."
"What did he say?"I demanded of Mari.
"You have a cut."
"Necesita puntos."
Again Mari translated.
"You need stitches."
"Que pasa?" I demanded, defaulting to the most overused expression in the Spanish language. He shrugged and walked off. When Mari resumed sweeping I went back to my task too. That was weird I told myself as I fired up the forklift. I'm done trying to speak Spanish. Next time I'm going to know what I'm talking about.

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