They Don´t Move That Fast

Earlier I´d shown Walter how to adjust his camera for actions shots. He was trying to get a shot of a moving man. No explanation needed.

About 5 minutes later

"Later, I want to get a photo of a fast moving whore."

Silence. Another beat of silence. Third beat. And one that makes it just a bit too long without a response. He looks at me. I look at him at the same time. Simultaneously, without a word be both start laughing. Hard. Belly laughs. It was an odd moment of realizing that I had misheard what he had said and he guessed by looking at my face what I thought he had said and I could tell by looking at his face that he didn´t say what I thought he had said.

It was a good 10 minutes until I found out that he had said "horse" and not "whore."

When we were explaining later to Carlos what I thought he had said Walter replied, "Whores don´t move that fast anyways."

Another round of laughter.

We laugh. But these poor young women. I´m told that in Spain the age of consent is 16 years old. No wonder they look so young. In Britain it´s 14 years old. Walking down Grand Via toward the offshoot that brings me to this internet cafe they are around 24 hours a day.

A few days ago I was walking in my brown crop pants, these wacky yet preppyish stripped socks, brown Keds, and my black jacket with purple scarf--headed toward the internet cafe. A youngish man is talking with a hooker, as I´m about to pass he jumps in front of me and propositions me in Spanish. I respond with "Hunh?" and a look that communicated across the language barrier enough for him to move out of the way. The young woman said something to him behind me that I interpreted as You´re mistaken, she´s not one of us.

Okay, I know I´m a bad dresser. But I am so not giving off a hooker vibe. The next morning I ask my travel companions about it and they agree that I neither dress like a hooker nor give off the vibe so the kid was high, drunk, or thinks all women are hookers. Great.

Overheard, "Hola ______(fill in the Spanish word for whore here)"

"Did she just say `Hola ______?´" one of my friends asks the other as we continue to walk past.

"Yeah."

They look at each other incredulous. I´m taking in a scene of one woman dressed to the nines greeting another woman with a male companion and a dog. They do the standard European air kisses on both cheeks. Neither of them look like whores. Instead they look like well to do older women.

" EEEE holay" I don´t know how to spell eee holay but that´s what it sounds like. That´s what came out of Carlos´mouth. It seems appropriate.

eeeee holay