Tears of the Virgin by Jamiel Douglas;

Author:Jamiel, Douglas;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Published: 2019-07-31T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

III

Ramon pulled so hard on the rope for the long vertical blinds that they crashed together and rocked back and forth for some time until they came to a standstill, sparing him from a view of the huge crowd on the street below. “Son-of-a-bitch,” he muttered to himself. Only a week earlier there’d been hardly any picketers at all around del Fuego Catering; now there were hundreds. Where did they come from? He felt a volcanic frustration as he read the lead sentence of the newspaper article once again: “Citing poor working conditions, accidents, and allegations of undocumented labor, striking workers at del Fuego Catering are turning up the heat on mayoral candidate and local businessman, Ramon del Fuego.” Ramon plopped into the chair by his desk, fished for a number among the papers. As he waited, Ernesto appeared at the door with the video camera under one arm and a canvas satchel hanging from the other.

“Come in, Ernesto. Sit! Sit!” Ramon urged with a wave of his hand. “I’ll just be a minute.” Ernesto felt impatient and uncomfortable while Ramon spoke.

“So how much is the guy offering? Who is he anyway?” Ramon listened for a moment.

“That’s not bad, Stanley. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not what I wanted, but I’m sick of this bullshit. Did you see the paper today? It’s a disaster for my campaign.” He listened again.

“Well, I’d rather sell it at a loss than give these bastards what they want. If they want a fucking union so bad, they can have one with someone else! Maybe they need to see what it’s like to have no job, eh? Bring the proposal by today and we’ll look at it… Right. Sure. Okay. Later.”

After he hung up, Ramon scribbled for a moment, ignoring his young protégé. Finally, Ramon looked at the video camera on the couch next to Ernesto and pointed.

“Okay, my young friend, do you have anything to show me?”

Ernesto squirmed for a moment, looking everywhere but at Ramon, and then hazarded a response. “Not really, Mister del Fuego.”

“You’ve got nothing?!” Ramon shot back. “Not one single incident? No brawls? No nails in tires? No nothing?”

Ernesto reconsidered his response and felt he should give his boss something.

“I guess there were a couple times when they didn’t cooperate. You, know, when they argued with the guards or something, but they never got… you know, physical.”

This only added to Ramon’s frustration. He looked again at the video camera and gave a quick nod to call attention to it.

“Well, I guess that was a goddamned waste of time, eh Ernesto?”

“I don’t think so, sir,” Ernesto replied in defense of the enterprise. This surprised Ramon, as he sensed the young man’s attachment to the camera. Ramon’s curiosity was piqued and he threw another look at his young friend.

“Well, Ernesto, if you don’t have anything I can use, I suppose we can just chalk it up to experience, eh? Just leave the camera there. Maybe I can get my money back.”

Ernesto looked stunned.

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