On the map is Food Court Rincón, halfway between Superdescuentos Morales, the big Morales grocery store, and Comercial Florida, the hardware store. In the States, I loved food courts, and I’ve been wanting to get to this one for a long time.
Friday, on the way to the fruit truck, I took care to locate Rincón on the way past and then to identify some landmarks I’d pass on the way back: a slight hill, an orange house on my right, then the food court across the street.
So first, the fruit and veggie truck, then Florida (Flor-EÉ-da) to shop for a board to use to build a plant shelf under my window, then on to breakfast.
Newly confident because of my functioning rearview mirror, I turned left and parked. The court was outdoors. There were four trailers turned into larger-than-average food trucks, although one looked dysfunctional, so maybe only three kitchens. There were also some shaded areas with tables and chairs or benches. Only the kitchen near the road was open, and a sign said it closed at 11:00 a.m. I waited in line, placed my order, and found an empty table. Half an hour later, my food was ready. It was so-so. But later, Nancy, my hair stylist, told me that the next trailer has food she has often gone back for. I asked when it was open. All she could do was shrug in ignorance.
As I was eating, a man drove right into the courtyard in his motorized mobility chair and yelled his order at the man in the trailer. A baby goat that had been sitting at his feet hopped off when he stopped. It was on a leash, calm and tame, and evidently comfortable with this mode of transportation. The man dug a baby bottle out of his pack and gave the goat a few gulps. When his coffee was brought out to him, he stowed it in the cup holder and pulled in the leash. The goat hopped up onto the footrest platform, and they were away.
My tricycling has been curtailed lately by an inordinate amount of rain, and it’s all my fault. I have asked the elementals* here to re-create a fresh-water aquifer (a body of permeable rock that can contain or transmit groundwater) on the island. There used to be one before the U.S. Navy bombed it into oblivion. I feel that no land is self-sufficient without a source of fresh water. There ought to be springs and streams and ponds… Apparently it takes much rain to make a water table. When it rains, I smile and say, “Thank you.”
When the sun comes out, I ride.
*Elementals—Beings of earth, air, fire, and water; nature spirits who are the servants of God and man in the planes of Matter for the establishment and maintenance of the physical plane as the platform for the soul’s evolution.