You could see some things, aye? This fella says I still owe him! Lemme explain.... years ago, right? I was at the window of one of the local fast food eateries orderin' us some bamboo shack specialties when this fella walked up to me and asked if he couldn't borrow a dollar to make up to buy him one snack too. The cashier behind the window wasn't speaking loud enough, the car behind me making unnecessary noise with a distorted speaker system and he interrupting my train of thoughts. I had to ask "pardon me?" twice before I heard the total amount because the fella probably thought I meant him and so he kept repeating what he was saying too. Now, anybody in their righ mind would ask if they could 'have' a dollar to buy one snack. But he asked, "if I 'couldn't'... now, I wasn't really sure whether or not I had enough for my orders so I told him he'd have to wait. He went away mumbling some incoherent words that need not be repeated. Annn-nywaaay, after I got served and collected my change, I looked around for him but he must have left. My change was exactly .25 cents. Now, common sense will tell you that with crime all around, you should not carry large sums of money on you. And I do just that.... just in case someone who have nooooo intention of working, decided to pull up on you and say, "hey! Gimme all ya get!" You can give him "all ya gat!" because that een "all you gat!" see?
And you can forget 'crime watch' ... Crime watch is only a program designed to do just that! Watch crime! You hear me people? Watch crime!
You go up to them and ask, "did ya see what just happened?"
And they'll tell you; "sure I see what just happ'n... but we een gettin' in dat! We only dose watch it... not get involved!"
Anyway... after waiting for what seemed like an eternity. ..they finally called my number. It was ticket number 74... and you know sometimes you get served after the people who came after you! As I walked away, the fella appeared out of nowhere! I mean... he... I don't know where he came from... all I know is that he was there!
"Hey boss!" He said to me, "you can't len' muh a dollar aye? I wanna make it up to buy some bamboo shack."
"Well," I said to him, "all I have now is 25 cents... you want...?"
Before I could finish, he interrupted me and said, "gumma dat! Yull jest owe me 75 cents.!" And he walked away. That was in 1990... the year we got married!
Now, years later 2016.. same fella ... same bamboo shack!
"Hey boss! When you ger pay me my money whacha owe me?"
I was like.... huh?
"You remember years ago right here when I beg you to lend muh a dollar and you short me 75 cents... an' I tell you, you could owe me? You did only gimme 25 cents... you still owe me 75 cents!"
I had forgotten aaaall about him and his 'declaration' of "gumma dat! Yull jest owe me 75 cents!"
The people standing by looked on in total disgusted disbelieve as though I had actually borrowed money from him.
I heard someone from the crowd say, "I carn see how he could live with himself, owing him money and he begging for food!"
Some one else said, "that ain't right!"
And another even still... "he owe you plenty interest...!"
I couldn't believe what I was hearing! The begger wanted to 'BORROW' money from me which he couldn't pay back. I gave him my last 25 cents... he tells me I owe him 75 cents. ... and now years later the people say I owe HIM interest on 75 CENTS!
I just carn win!
By J.M.B. Sat.16th July 2016.
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