“Hey, Charlie,” I said. “I have to go to Belize City this week. You want to come along for the ride?”
“Sure. Let’s go.”
It only took me an hour to take care of business at my lawyers and return to the taxi.
I said, “Charlie, we have plenty of time. Is there anything you want to do while we’re here?”
“I’ve heard a lot about the Tourist Market,” he said. “I think I’d like to go there.”
“Is that the one for the cruise ship tourists?” I asked Steve, our taxi driver.
“Yes, but they’ll let you guys shop there,” he said.
At the market we had been walking around awhile when Charlie said, “Check this out.”
A little old man at one of the stalls was pouring milk into a bowl for a mangy looking yellow tomcat.
“What?”
“The bowl!” Charlie said. “Look at the bowl! That’s a priceless piece of Mayan pottery. I know because Art Picou used to have one just like it.”
“I’m going to buy it,” I said. “That old man doesn’t have any idea what it’s worth. Watch me do some wheeling and dealing.”
“Excuse me, sir,” I said to the little old man. “Will you sell me that cat for twenty dollars?”
“Si, señor,” he said, and the money changed hands.
“By the way,” I said. “I’ll need to feed him. Why don’t you sell me that old bowl for ten dollars?”
“Oh, I could not do that,” he said. “That’s my lucky bowl. Already this week I have sold thirty two cats.”
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