Five Thousand Lempiras
“So your brother Mario is buying the car.”
“Yes. For five thousand lempiras.”
“And we sent him only fifty dollars. Let’s see. The car cost three hundred dollars. So he had
saved two hundred and fifty dollars. Not bad.”
“No. He spent three hundred dollars. Five thousand lempiras. Have another hot dog.”
“What I’m saying is that if he spent three hundred dollars, and we sent him fifty, the other two
fifty came from his savings.”
“He didn’t save anything! He spent it all on the car. Three hundred dollars!”
“I know he spent three hundred. All I’m saying is that he put in the other two fifty from his
pocket. No thanks, I already had two hot dogs.”
“He spent three hundred dollars. Five thousand lempiras. With the car he can load up platanos and bananas and take them to Trujillo and sell them.”
“I’m just trying to do the math. Three hundred dollars minus the fifty we sent him is two fifty.
He came up with that money somehow. Maybe from the money we sent to start up his butcher’s shop.”
“He’s losing money in the butcher’s shop. That’s why we had to send him money for the car.
Eat that last hot dog, or else I will, later on, watching television. “
“You shouldn’t eat that last hot dog. It’s too much for you.”
“But it’s OK for you?”
“Two hot dogs are too much for you, but alright for me.”
“But it will be three hot dogs for you, not two.”
“We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you.”
“Why are we talking about me?”
“We are talking about you and Mario. To stop you from eating twice as many hot dogs as you
should have, I’ll eat one, leaving none.”
“So how many hot dogs is that?”
“Just one.”
“But you already ate two!”
“You can’t count them because they’re already gone.”
“Oh. How many, then?”
“Just one.”
“I see. And Mario?”
“Five thousand lempiras. One car.”
“Entendido. Let’s clear off the table.”
Paul Smith lives near Chicago with his wife Flavia. He writes fiction & poetry, sometimes doing poems at an open mic (Green Mill, original home of the Poetry Slam). He believes that brevity is the soul of something that should be cut in half immediately.
