Billares

For the past couple months, I have frequented with marked frequency a Bar in the Jewish neighborhood where I used to live. I play pool for a couple hours each time I go. Occasionally, I order a cafe con leche with tres medialunas. I believe that the coffee they serve here is the best I have ever had. The medialunas are pretty awesome as well.

This bar is pretty ridiculous. It´s full of retired old people. They are all playing cards or dominoes. I´ve become friendly with a number of people there. Perhaps the most interesting character is Oswaldo. Oswaldo and I began playing pool against one another about a month ago. Oswaldo is a little better than me, but for the most part, our games are pretty even.

Over the past month, I have grown increasingly suspicious that Oswaldo is part of the mafia here. First of all, he´s not all that old. I would say that he is about 40 years old. You will notice that although Oswaldo and I have built our relationship around pool, there is not much more to our relationship besides this game. I am fearful of asking him questions because I am scared he will kill me if I know too much. So I don´t know where he works, though he always seems to be wearing clothing from the federal ministry of health. So for a while, before I realized he was pretty much always at the bar in between the hours of 11 and 5, I thought that he might work for the ministry of health. But I realize now that this is pretty much an impossibility.

Anyway, Oswaldo seems to know everybody, and I have noticed that people are often coming to him with their problems or stories or such. I can´t be sure of this, but there seems to be money riding on a lot of these card games. It seems Oswaldo has a hand in this action.

It´s also possible that Oswaldo is not in the mafia, but rather I am just judging him by the stereotypical appearance of mafiosos (he looks like he would be in the mafia - greased back hair, leather jackets, etc.). Anyway, he´s a really nice guy and I enjoy playing pool with him.

There are a handful of other interesting characters. The guy who occasionally plays pool against me and has a squeaky voice and who I think may have early stage Parkinsons because he shakes a lot. This plump dude named Fernando who likes to speak in English with me. Siro, who is always wearing a marroon sweater under a sports coat. Lito, the guy who works behind the counter. Eduardo, the sole waiter in the joint. Samuel, an old dude who used to work in perfumes and who likes to wear jumpsuits. Some dude who knows a lot about pool and who likes to teach me some things, which I appreciate.

Okay, well I´m gonna grab some lunch and then meet Oswaldo for a bit of pool.