I waited in a line behind middle aged men choosing tattslotto numbers on a Sunday morning. When my turn came, I poured out my coins and exchanged them for one blue note. I always feel cheated after these transactions. I arrive with a heavy bag of currency and leave with a weightless rectangle of paper. I took the blue note to the supermarket to buy breakfast delicacies for my hosts. Croissants, artisanal marmalade, and a box of Ferrero Rocher. At this stage of the day, the sun was shining, arriving home, we enjoyed breakfast and unfolded the table tennis table to burn some calories whilst ping ponging. The birds in the walnut tree were whistling above, the dog, locked in it´s space, was crying with desperation to bite the ping pong ball, and a neighbor, probably naked, clicked his nail clippers on the other side of the fence. I was openly impressed with my top spin forehands and the accuracy of my lobs, which I was landing deep in Renata´s court. Renata too, was striking some marvelous down the line backhands. While collecting one of her winning backhands from under the settee, I decided that today I would go and perform two shows for Rancagua. One in the Plaza de Armas, and the other in the same location as yesterday. We packed up the table tennis and I went and published on Facebook my anticipated performances. After polishing clean my lunch plate with bread, I went to take a rest before heading out. During this brief siesta, the day took a turn, and the sunny weather that had inspired many to buy tattslotto tickets, clouded over. While staring at this out the window, Ramiro the cat entered the room. He said “Tito, the window is shut!”. I replied “Yes, Ramiro, you are right, the window is shut”. Ramiro responded “Tito, open the window, I want to go outside” and I said “Yes Ramiro, I will open the window so you can go outside”. I opened the window and Ramiro skipped out. Whilst waiting for a thankyou from Ramiro, I realized that Ramiro was a cat. And that cats don´t say thankyou. They just order humans about. And that I am a human. And humans have to have money to buy delicious breakfasts. And cat food. And so I better stop doubting and should leave now to perform. I packed my things and approached the door and said “Door, you are closed. Open yourself” and the door didn´t reply. So I opened the door and went outside and began the journey to downtown Rancagua. The Plaza de Armas was practically deserted. Just a fairy floss man. I approached him and said “Fairy Floss Man, where are the people?” he replied “Don´t ever call me Fairy Floss Man again or I will envelop you in Fairy Floss”. I apologized and assumed the people had gone home due to the overcast weather. I went to the same place as yesterday. On the way I crossed paths with two people that had seen my show yesterday, they wished me well, they promised me that I would do well again today. So I returned to the same place and installed. Today there was no man with his puppets. There was no Venus either. It was pretty much deserted. I cranked the music, and began getting changed, but the people glanced briefly without stopping. As I was about to give up some children saved the day. Children are good at saving the day. I´d say that most superheroes probably feel threatened in the company of children. The children, like cats, also order humans around. And these children ordered their parents to stay and look at the tall, skinny, white weird guy swing on his rope. And with their presence, more people came and there was now a small audience! Today the show started much better, the audience was more generous from the get go. It was going much smoother. But after a few minutes the audience began approaching me, giving me money, and leaving. It was late. It was cold. And I was not entertaining enough to distract them from these two facts. However the show made it to its conclusion with an audience. On the way home I found the equivalent of a Bounty bar on a step, and it was still sealed in its pack. And then a drunkard stopped in front of me, and offered me a bag of bread, which I accepted. And in the restaurant where we were eating the waiter said to me “you are better off buying your drink at the supermarket than buying it here from the restaurant, so I went out and bought it from the supermarket, came back, drank it and ate the Italiano prepared by the restaurant in the comfort of the restaurant. The Italiano is a hotdog which has Tomato (Red), Avocado (green) and Mayonaisse (White). A hotdog coated in the Italian flag. It was yummy. After these three events I commented to Renata “The more I perform in the streets, the more the streets give back to me”. And listed off to her all the things I had found in the street in the last week “ten thousand pesos, a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes, a fridge magnet, a kite …”.
