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Friday, December 30, 2011
Squeal
I smiled at the owner of the butcher shop down the street from my office. He smiled back at me.
"What do you have that's good?" I asked.
He raised an eyebrow quizzically and responded in Vietnamese.
"Barbecued pork?" I asked.
His smile got wider but it was clear I still wasn't getting through.
"Oink, oink?" I suggested.
Now his smile was tinged with just a hint of fear. He tightened his grip on the cleaver he was holding.
I glanced around the small shop in hopes of finding a way to communicate.
"Like that!" I exclaimed, pointing at a smoked pig's head sitting on a shelf in a corner.
He looked at the head, then back at me, and said something else in Vietnamese. I'm pretty sure it was, "Are you shitting me?"
I pointed at the head again, shook my own, oinked, and said, "No." Then I pointed to my belly, nodded my head, oinked, and said, "Yes."
"Aaah!" he said as his face lit up with understanding. He disappeared into a back room and I heard him whacking at something with his cleaver. He soon returned with a white Styrofoam box. I handed him some money, he gave me some change, and we smiled at each other and waved good-bye.
"What is that?" my assistant asked when I'd returned to my desk and opened the box.
"Barbecued pork," I said. "I think so, anyway. I got to practice my cultural skills when I bought it."
"Oh, brother," she said. "What did you do this time?"
"I made a new friend," I said proudly.
"Why is it that so many of your 'friends' are people who sell you food?" she asked.
"I am kind of a pig," I admitted.
She rolled her eyes and turned to walk away.
"Oink," I said.
Posted by Snag at 9:34 AM
