Marcos' Spanish is not up to the task. It's also possible that she may have an accent. Plus she's clearly upset, perhaps using non-standard constructions. Should we have already separated our dirty darks from our dirty whites? Could our underthings be too dirty for this establishment?
It becomes clear that her annoyance is over a particular 20 peso bill: look, look, no watermark, no good. Then something else that could mean "somebody slipped you a wooden peso, my gullible gringo." Then again it could mean "I'm calling the cops right now, you foul foreign forger."
Looked at one way, this is a minor thing, a question of the equivalent of five fake US dollars slipped to us by that amiable taxi driver the previous evening, no doubt a mistake or a friendly prank (great jokers those Argentinian cabbies.)
Then again, what if she does call the police? Can we be convincing with our limited Spanish? And if not, how much trouble can we get into? We all know that the ugly machinery deep in the entrails of a police state usually persists long after a junta falls. Will Melody have to bang on pots at the Plaza de Mayo to get any news of us?
Turns out the Chinese lady is content to receive a proper note and to have had her amusement for the afternoon. The next time we take her some laundry she charges 38 pesos. Something about our darks being too dark, or too many socks in the load and everyone knows that means more detergent, or more labor, or lint. Or simply, if we don't know enough to spot xeroxed money we're probably good for an extra 10 pesos.
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| A pretty good photocopy, but Juan Manuel de Rosa's mug is supposed to be duplicated as a watermark in the white space. Oh well, a friend of ours back home changes currency (we'll call him Paul on these pages to protect his privacy); Maybe we can slip this one to Paul. |
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