Every so often, the generosity of complete strangers astounds me. As I drove into the grocery store parking lot today, I noticed six Mexican ladies, all wearing flowery aprons, getting out of a van carrying small cardboard boxes of various sizes, each heaped with dark red cherries.
"Where did they get those cherries?" I asked aloud. "I want to ask them!"
I was about to drive by, when my companion said, "Well, why don't you?"
I started to roll down my window, then stopped. "I wonder if they speak English..." then answered myself, "Of course they do."
"Where did you get your cherries?" I asked, hoping to find a new source for local cherries.
Blank stares from most of them. They didn't speak English after all. But one lady got all excited and started shouting after the van, then turned to me. "Pescamos," I think that's what she said, though I think pescamos has something to do with fishing, and I may be remembering her syllables incorrectly, "Pescamos at house of my boss," and she gestured picking motions in the air. She ran to her car and brought back a Snickers box. "Here, you take," she said, and showed me the cherries deep down in the bottom of the box.
Surprised, I said, "Oh, thank you!" and put my hand into the box, thinking she was offering me a handful.
"No, no, you take," she said, and pushed the whole box at me.
"Wow! Thank you, thank you!" I exclaimed, and took the container of lovely cherries home. Now it's pay-it-forward time. This is going to be fun.
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