Blog

A Peaceful Repast continued.
I had been eating red snapper fried crispy, still succulent, my beer as per instruction kept under the table and out of site when the police passed. When they drove by for the second time, and without any real provocation as far as I could tell, a garbage bin and an...

A Peaceful Repast.
In years long past, I had often gone deep into the poor, crumbling neighbourhood of El Chorillo to eat fish at a restaurant. I always took a taxi, there was no question I could walk, too dangerous. The restaurant was in reality, a private home. You ate at plastic...

War Zone.
War Zone. Ladiana walked into Coca Cola looking for a fight. She was tolerant of me-only reasonable I thought considering I was paying- but completely rude to Jamie, my new lawyer. Refusing to shake his hand, she fell onto a chair Agua had retrieved for her from...

Coming to Terms.
When I next saw Agua, he was agitated. I could tell, only because he wasn’t grinning. Ladiana had not been happy about my decision to fire her lawyer. It was before training and he was sitting in his room, really Bimbo’s room, slowly tightening his laces, securing his...

The Squeeze.
Agua was deathly quiet. After five years in the country, no one could understand why he was still illegal. He seemed to know everybody: lawyers, police, even judges, all the right people to nudge him along in a place where it was who you knew that meant all the...

Latin lawyers
When I called, Ladiana’s lawyer wanted me to come to her home, something about papers that needed signing. I smelt a rat. ‘Can you come to my house?’ I asked. We waited two and a half hours. She arrived scowling. Obviously, we were putting her out. Our...