Timberwood: Short Stories Edition - Vol. 25
Jamaal, a New Orleans Creole Black guy, went to hang out with his Hispanic friends; Eric, Loriano & Roberto. They walked up & down the Las Vegas Strip, unsure of what to do for the day. Loriano was talking about dodging "work" at Timberwood for the day, & he also encouraged the other guys to do the same thing. But the other 3 were off that day. He was the only 1 scheduled to work.
Eric just randomly hopped on a bus, without warning. So, the rest of the guys followed him. Eric looked drugged, but he was just VERY tired. He's always like that. Poor baby just wanted to get himself some rest. He was being overworked.
Eric is 1/2 Salvadoran, 1/2 Cuban, while Roberto is fully Salvadoran. Loriano is from Chicago, but his parents are immigrants from Nicaragua.
Eric kept going in & out of sleep. Roberto kept asking him, "Where are we going, mon?"
The Timberwood cult members jokingly call Roberto, "The faux-Jamaican".
Eric was very groggy & said, "I don't know."
Loriano was in the mood for some pupusas. He said, "Look at that. It looks like a fair going on."
They all hurried up & pulled the string, in unison, to get off the bus. There was a Salvadoran pupusa festival going on. They were all excited. Some of the festival workers had name tags on. Loriano wasted NO time! He went to the 1st booth available, while Jamaal took his time to look all around the area to see what he wanted. The workers were very creative. Some booths had breakfast pupusas, others had traditional Salvadoran pupusas, others had dessert pupusas, & there were also some booths that had fusion flavors, such as Korean BBQ pupusas, pizza pupusas, New Orleans Cajun & Creole pupusas, other types of Asian pupusas, curry pupusas, Caribbean jerk chicken pupusas, & even goat, lamb, rabbit, alligator, seafood & venison pupusas. They even had a booth specializing in Costa Rican gallo pinto pupusas.
Jamaal called up his dad, "Big Doc" to try to get him to PayPal him some money since he realized that he only had $2.48 in the bank. A woman, almost the size of a midget, got Jamaal's attention. She said, "Don't call your dad. We're about to close, anyway. Here! Y'all take these. Y'all better eat these sum' bishes! We don't waste food around here! " She gave them free pupusas before she & her sons were going to throw them away.
She had a name tag on that said, "Marielena". She was also from El Salvador. As little & tiny as she is, she can eat like a hippopotamus & STILL stay short & skinny! Unbelievable! She's about 60 years old with the physical energy & hyperactivity of a preteen. Very jovial personality.
She offered them free horchata & Jamaica hibiscus aguas frescas. The boys dove in. That perked Eric up. Eric was no longer groggy & sleepy. He & Jamaal took their time to eat, while Mrs. Marielena & her sons chowed down, along with Roberto & Loriano. Believe it or not, this woman ate 7 pupusas.
She was 1 of the vendors who had dessert pupusas. Jamaal fell SO in love with the pumpkin pie flavored pupusas. He had 2 of them. Mrs. Marielena's son, Freddie, called Jamaal a sucker for not being able to eat more than 2. Loriano likes the apple pie, cinnamon roll & cheesecake pupusas. Roberto didn't care. Both Roberto & Mrs. Marielena had a little contest on how many pupusas they could eat. Can't you believe that she beat him? Roberto couldn't even eat 5! He had 4 & 1/2.
They chit chatted & exchanged numbers. They planned to hang out again. Loriano received threatening text messages & voicemails & got cussed out for ditching work at Timberwood. They were all plotting to leave & quit, anyway. Timberwood was forcing them to work as low wage janitors. As punishment, Loriano wasn't allowed to take any more off days.
The Timberwood cult was making smear campaigns, lies & false rumors, lying & saying that Loriano is a crazy, homeless druggie who wanders up & down Las Vegas Strip. They did that to ensure that he was blacklisted & could never get another job opportunity again. That's how cutthroat Timberwood is. They fight dirty!
THE END