IN THE YELLOW BIG BUS TO CAGUAS CONCRETE COUNTRY ZOO

ONE OF THOSE RARE days when almost everything is perfect deserves one of our
somewhat traditional mock interviews for your reading pleasure or otherwise.

Keyboard Interviewer:
Tell us you humble one what was so perfect, after all, you seem prone to criticise even
in your dreams.

Humble One: Well, that is true. But lets get to the story. I went to the horrendous court building, but not as ugly as the Criminal Court in Manhattan, in Hato Rey.
There I was informed that some documents required were not in their files or computer system. In case you do not know it, here the criminal and civil courts are not separated, just in case, you wonder about the nature of the documents.

KI; So?
HO: Well imagine if you lived in USA and got married in NY, and divorced
in MA, having to make a 100 mile trip to the latter to get a document with the sentence. I had to travel to the concrete country zoo in the tittle for that reason.

KI Are we missing something? What the hell is so perfect about that adventure?

HO: Are you rushing this people's person?

KI: That is a lame joke.

HO: At any rate. The perfection starts.. Leaving the court I walked the one hundred
meters to the train station. Missed it by one minute. Got the next one. Arriving in RIO, the ugly ghost town near by. As I was leaving the station in front of
the ugly church with the two trees tied up with wires to stop them from leaving the
premises, I see the YELLOW BIG BUS.

KI: I gather that is perfection in Puerto Rico.

HO: Damn right. But not finished yet. I arrived to CAGUAS CONCRETE COUNTRY ZOO, They all asked for you, at twenty to twelve. Four people were waiting, including
yours truly. In a situation of 100 possibilities, 99 would have required that our hero
returned after LUNCH, but I got that ONE possibility.

KI: Well know we are talking. NOT only in Puerto Rico, anywhere such luck is remarkable, then what?

HO: Ingrid, the friendly professional employee took care of yours truly in about five
minutes. Believe it or not. THE information required was found, it has only to be
pulled from the thirty years old files. Then I will be called to retrieve it in a lapse
of twenty business days. That is perfection.

KI: WOW, GUAU bilingual ones. YOU conform with little.
HO: Sure. Bureaucracy does not work in the percentages mentioned. To have the fortune of finding a professional courteous employee, anywhere is like the lotto.

KI: Are we there yet?
HO: NO. You fool. The picture is not complete. After the Ingrid affair, I left very happy and who did I find buying lottery tickets? BEBE SOSA, in capital letters.
This smart, educated, with a permanent smile, not seeing in over thirty years was
there. We had a rushed chat for 3 minutes. I still remember his moves while playing basketball in Villa Turabo moons ago.

KI: Then what?
HO: Had a beer with a chaser or otherwise, as you like. Left the premises in the Bus
Terminal, took a leak in the public restroom. Another marvel. It is the first time
in thirty on and off years that I use it finding it impeccable, not smelly of urea an clean.

KI: GUAU, WOW, inverted, you are frightening me now. All these simple events made your day?
HO: When you got the sight I got, these simple things create happiness. But the best
part is coming.

KI: More of the same?
HO: Yep. Human interactions. I took the yellow big bus soon after for the return trip to Santurce, Nueva Kisikeya. Memories of the past/future returned of the times I was a college student in RIO. The bus took off and
half way into it, I noticed this little fellow with a big nose, a pencil draw moustache, dyed black hair, talking to the ladies. I asked, and surely it was him. JULIO CESAR ANDALUZ. A local singer, impersonator, comedian from my old days working in
the now defunct LA SEMANA, a regional paper. We chat for a few...

KI: Can we kill this story, so unusual from your customary editorial stance?

HO: What is wrong with demonstrating that the misanthropy is not chronic, that there is still hope? Once Julius Cesar Walking Light as he reminded me his name
would be translated got off the bus... I noticed two other people engaged in a conversation six seats away from me.

KI: Forgive me, but you have a reputation for being brief...Just in case..

HO: Fine, just for that. The two people engaged in conversation were GUILLERMO
VILLEGAS, another fellow I had not seen in three decades, from SAVARONA, that
former Puertorican barrio in CAGUAS, now a province from LA ESPANHOLA. He was chatting with a 75 year old lady, who had taught dance in the Cultural Center
in Caguas, when it was in Padial street, one of those nice rare long ones in that
Country Zoo. The all asked for you... The tigers ask, the buzzard ask, the dolphins asked.... They even enquire about you... We talked all the way back and went our ways as is all ways the case.
A rare, simple, joyful day down here.

EDITORS NOTE

Keeping with the essence... it is pertinent
mentioning a visit to our Lame Ducks Blogs Puerto Rican Guild
Something fishy like, worthy of mentioning takes
place among these scratch my back and I scratch yours
squad. They are all in the same editorial bag,
wrapped in the flag, giving each other PRIZES, such the
E one, as in excellent.

It is not out of jealousy or envy that I comment, but
what is the merit to offer prizes just to five guild
members
when there are tens, hundred of blogs that are really, original,
good, meaningful, with something to say/write. Endemismo is not worthy of
any prizes yet. When the Trujillo Alto Areces Mallea/Ocampo ecoenvironmental crime and destruction gets published
in paper, then, I will give myself a medal, trophy and certificate...