Lesson in Logic

Suddenly someone bumped into me from behind, and when I turned around, I saw that it was a little black girl about 8 years or so, dressed in her finest white dress and with glittering ribbons in her hair.

She was just sooo adorable as she stood there and excused her clumsiness with a big, bright and cheeky smile.

I gave her a smile back and said “De nada” in my all but perfect Spanish, but after only a second she stretched out her little hand and said “One pesos, please, senor”.

Ambush, ambush… :-)

She had established a relationship, made me smile and made me adore her; so now it was merely a question of wheeling in the catch.

At first I tried to say “No”, but that didn’t sail. She was quite insistent.

Then I gave her my usual discarding remark “Yo no ablo Spanjol…” However that didn’t sail too well either, but I tried it out a second time anyway.

I could see that by now she was getting a little annoyed, and my Spanish was good enough to understand her next remark. She said

“You don’t have to know Spanish to give me a dollar.
A dollar is a dollar.
You started off saying “No” so you know I’m asking you for a dollar.
It has nothing to do with speaking Spanish”