by Edinaldo Benicio

translated, from the Portuguese, by Sheila Thomson

Hey, Mister! Mister! Hi, tell me! Do you know of anyone who needs someone to do housecleaning, by any chance?! No. I don’t. You don’t happen to have a yard that I can weed, a tree to cut, something that I can do? No, I don’t. I don’t even live around here. It’s just that I’ve spent the day looking for work and nothing. I’ve just talked to the priest here at Candelária, but he doesn’t have anything either. I don’t understand life, I really don’t! I’ve been looking for a job for a year and a half and there’s not a single soul that can find me a real job. I have four kids and only one of them gets this money from the government. Eighty reais. That’s all for one of the kids. Can anybody support a family with this kind of money? No way! But I do miracles. If a person makes a lot of money, it’s never enough. But a poor person has to do miracles everyday. I don’t know where this world’s going. I’m a family man, an honest man, and nobody wants to help me. I’m sorry, but I can’t help you now. I know, that’s OK! That’s life. I need sixty reais to buy a popsicle cart and nothing. But it’s not your fault. I went out and my wife said that she was going to pray for us to get this money. Now, you see how things are, sixty reais for a popsicle cart and the guy gave me until today to get this money. Try to tell him to wait until tomorrow! No, he put me ahead of a guy who’s got the money already. Did me this favor. Today, when I left the house I went to Chapinha’s. Those popsicles, you know? Yeah, I know! Well, the owner told me that I could put two hundred popsicles in that cart. I could sell everything on the beach, the street, at parties, schools, everything really. Look at my wallet to see I’m not lying to you. What’s this?! Of course I believe you! Look, Mister! I opened my wallet and took out five reais. Take it! I can’t give you more. Even if it doesn’t look like it, my life is hard too. I’m still a student and I know it’s complicated to make money. I know that you can’t buy your popsicle cart with five reais, but I think it helps a little. It sure does. I won’t buy the cart, but I’ll buy food. How much food do you think you’d buy with five reais? Two kilos of rice and two of beans. My wife can cook one kilo of beans and that’s enough for two days and the rice lasts a little longer. I’m happy, then. Thank you, you made my day. What do you mean?! Don’t do that! Go try and get some more money. I hope you can get more. If God doesn’t get me sixty reais it’s because it wasn’t meant to be. He told me to go with God, too, and went away walking quietly, head down, maybe thinking about telling the same story to some other person he met on the street.