Do you speak English?

 

Manuel was leaning against a wall on the quay. He was thinking about the problems to find a flat in the city centre.

 

There was a boy a few steps straight along him, he had been fishing and after he managed to catch a fish. The boy looked shabby and he was watching the fish gasping on the ground.

 

Afterwards a couple, who seemed strangers, approached they boy. They seemed to be lost.

 

Manuel understood they were American.

 

The woman looked at the fish and then at the boy. She was worried about the fish and wanted the boy to throw it in the water.

 

She tried to talk to the boy but he wasn’t able to understand, so she spoke to Manuel.

 

Manuel reported to the boy what the woman was saying to him, speaking Spanish.

 

The boy didn’t want to throw the fish in the water, but he was going to sell it for he and his family were very poor.

 

The woman was not satisfied and so she asked the boy how much could she pay for the fish.

 

The boy doubled the usual price, but she had a note that was the double of the price the boy pretended. So she asked him if he had the change but he hadn’t.

 

The woman looked at the fish and gave the note to the boy. She took the fish and threw it into the water than she went away with her husband.

 

The fish was floating.

 

The boy waited they had turned the corner, then took the fish another time and put it in his pocket. He smiled at Manuel and went away.