RW Double Drabble 2.0.102: Sidekick
This is a Double Drabble, a 200-word story. It was published in Medium’s Fiction Shorts.
The first line will be, “That’s where it all went wrong.”
*
“That’s where it all went wrong. Or it could have if we hadn’t found out before they went up. Pedro doesn’t know Spanish. He’s from Brazil, so he speaks only Portuguese and English. John hired him late Friday. His papers said he was from Brazil, but John assumed he spoke Spanish.”
“He looks comfortable on the edge and in the air. Who’s his sidekickhandling the rope communication?”
“Adriana, his wife. I’ve been watching them for 30 minutes. She keeps him loose.They have three children in school. I think he’ll work out. We’ve got the Catholic and Methodist churches this summer, high and steeply angled.”
“Isn’t Pedro our first Brazilian?”
“Yeah. This morning, we had three Mexicans, four from Guatemala and Carlos from Panama. He was your first south of the border hire, right, Dad?
“A born leader and the hardest worker I’ve ever known.”
“He reminds me of you.”
“On Fridays, I volunteer with Gabriela, his wife, at the Food Pantry. She helps with our Spanish-speaking clients. Do you worry about losing any of these guys?”
“Carlos is a citizen, and the rest have green cards. The local guys can’t keep up. Of course, I’m very worried.”
________________________________________________________________________________________
Note: The title “Americas ” refers to North and South America.
