A Curious Event / Rebeca Monzo

A Curious Event / Rebeca Monzo
Rebeca Monzo, Translator: Unstated

It's been several days since I published on my blog due to, among other
things, a big accumulation of work and personal matters that have
affected me. The last thing I published was related to the first of May
and the impact it had on me.

In these days I have had to dedicate myselfthoroughly to my principal
activity, handicraft, due to the heap of orders.Dividing this time with
my usual routine and having to neglect my blog a little. Also as an
extra, my collaboration was requested for a friend's wedding, which I
did with the greatest pleasure. All that leaving me little space for
other activities.

Sunday arrived and far from being able to rest, I had to dedicate myself
to household chores which were piling up, along with exhaustion, by the
end of the week.

In the worst of the moments there appeared on the lower floor of my
building a casual lookingyoungster who screamed my name even with
spelling errors. I went down to see what he wanted and who sent him. He
told me to look for my identification card because he had to deliver
something to me. I climbed up to search for my identification but I
forgot my glasses.

Look, they're going to send you a package from Miami and I must take
your information to make a delivery, he told me. He took notes on a
long, narrow piece of paper like the Committees for the Defense of the
Revolution (CDR) use to cite you to the police, or the famous ballots.
He speaks firmly here, and as tired as I was and wishing to finish at
once, I signed thatstrip of paper without reading it. Take this CUC
(1.00) to exchange for current pesos and you can pay the amount of the
package when they bring it to you, which shouldn't exceed 25 pesos.

When I climbed the stairs back to my apartment with that bill in my
hands, I reacted, but the boy had already left. At first it made me
laugh, but I immediately panicked. Suddenly I realized the error I had
committed. I even came to think he was a State Security Agent disguised
as bum, like they usually do. I ran tosend a message to the friend who I
presumed had sent the aforementioned package of which I still had no
news. What if I have signed on that little strip of paper that I have
received it?

Maybe I even signed a promise to do CDR guard duty for a whole year?

Finally, in spite of knowing that I shouldn't sign anything before
reading it, I clumsily did so. Even more in our case, of the alternative
blogosphere, in our own country we are constantly being attacked and
defamed. What is done is done, it is only left for me to ask God to
protect me and pray that all this has not been more than a curious
series of coincidences.

May 9 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=18211