Cocaine Blues

Maybe I haven’t mentioned this, but I work at a Deli in the south area of Charlotte now, were all the ridiculously rich people buy their ridiculously expensive sandwiches and salads every weekend. My co-workers tend to vary every month as people come and go in these types of jobs, but my favorites are two girls from Central America called Silvia and Susan who work with me in the afternoons, and two guys born and raised in North Carolina who have graduated from college and remain undecided about their careers, they are called Will and David and they help me in the evenings. As different as my co-workers are from one another, I seem to get along with all of them pretty well. I communicate in one language with the first set and in another language with the other. Although Silvia and Susana think that Will and David are lazy, while David and Will believe Silvia and Susana are extremely annoying, they all seem to like me a lot. As hard as it is to believe, there IS something that unites them all despite their disparate lifestyles, and this is Religion (yes, how peculiar.)

Silvia and Susana were raised Catholic in Latin America, witch means that they go to church every Sunday to avoid sin and they mention God a lot. Will and David are Methodists for what I know, and they don’t go to church as much but they also mention God a lot, only that in a different way. I’ll give you an example of how God is a constant presence in Will’s life.

Two weeks ago Will gave Mike, a guy who used to work at the Deli with us, one hundred dollars so that Mike would get him cocaine.
We all know over here that these transactions are usually based on trust, given that there is no receipt one can print out for the purchase of a bag of coke, or no specific manager one can complain to if the coke the dealer got you was bad. So Will had trusted Mike with his one hundred dollars and had expected his coke pretty soon.
But it happened that Mike got a better job as a waiter last week and quit the Deli without telling anybody. He left a cell number that got disconnected three days ago and, according to Will, it is impossible to locate him. Tonight as I was sweeping the floor I asked Will,
“So, did Mike ever get you what you paid him for?”
“No. I am so upset Carolina. I trusted Mike you know. It’s not like I have all this spare money or anything. He’s such a piece of dirt, leaving with my hundred dollars and not even responding to my calls.”
“Yeah, well, doesn’t he wait tables at Upstream now? Just go talk to him personally when he gets out of work.”
Will looks at me calmly and answers, “Nah, I don’t have the time Carolina. And I’m not upset anymore you know, I’m a believer, and I know that God will make him pay for this somehow.”
“Oh. Ok.”

I am left somewhat speechless and decide to change to subject, sending Will off to get me more French baguettes from the bakery. God will punish somebody who ripped you off from your cocaine purchase? C’mon! What else will God do for you Will, hook you up with a chick? Pay your car insurance? Turn bread into cocaine for you? And I guess that for some people it all comes down to having tons and tons of inexplicable Faith. So cheers to that.