“Mr. Dennis, I got to have some more nails and another caulking gun,” Mario said.
“O.K. Go back to the bodega and see if there’s anything else we need to pick up while we’re at the hardware store.”
I hated to move off of my comfortable front porch but there was no way to avoid a trip. Mario may not be the most reliable helper I’ve ever hired but when he does work he’s the best around. I try to keep him happy.
At the store Mario greeted everyone as we walked around doing our shopping. We turned the corner of an aisle and someone called, “Hey, Mario!”
“Benny!” Mario answered. “Where you been, man. You ain’t come around for a long time. You forget where I live?”
Benny stared at him and said, “I thought you was dead.”
“Dead?”
“That’s what I heard.”
“What?!”
“Yeah. That’s why I ain’t been around. I heard you was dead awhile now. Are you sure you’re alive?”
“Benny, don’t play fool with me,” Mario told him. “Do I look dead to you?”
“No, but you can’t always know for sure.”
“Who tells you I dead?”
“Raul, that works with me up the coast. He tells me for sure you dead.”
“And I’m telling you I ain’t dead.”
“It’s hard to know for sure,” Benny said. “But in most things I would take Raul’s word over yours.”
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