Picture Prompt
Zabina looked across the road at a man picking
vegetables that her mom had carefully put out for display on the front porch.
The fat man was carelessly throwing tomatoes here and there.
Zabina lived in Mexico in a small house. Her mother
earned her living by selling vegetables. She was ill so Zabina had to take care
of the shop today. The shop was just a small display of vegetables outside the
house on the front steps.
The wall outside the house had been painted mustard
yellow. It was beautiful when her mother had first bought it but over the years
as people started drawing on the wall the paint had worn off. Zabina’s mother
had tried covering the numbers but Zabina had only found lemon yellow in the
market. “It won’t make a difference,” her mother had said, but now the numbers
still showed and the wall looked worse then ever.
Zabina sat there painting maracas as local people and
tourists passed by the house. She was wearing her best clothes so that more
people would want to buy vegetables. Her top was peacock coloured and her
tights were red and black.
Zabina looked over at the vegetables beside her. There
were chillies, brinjals, cabbages, radishes, onions and much more. Hanging on
the wall was garlic.
Just then an American tourist came over.
“¡Hola!”said Zabina politely.
“Hi!” replied the tourist.
“¿Que puedo hacer por ti?” asked Zabina.
The tourist looked perplexed. “¿Ingles?” asked Zabina.
“What....vegetable....want....you?” Zabina struggled.
“ Chillies and garlic” replied the tourist.
Zabina picked up a blue bag and filled it with chillies
and garlic.
“Triste” said Zabina as the tourist left.
After that, Zabina closed the shop for the night and
went to sleep with her mom. She dreamt of English tourists teaching her
English.
