I was sitting in the park watching Manos play with one of his little Cuban friends, the cutest little thing, when an older man, whom I always saw, and greeted, came to sit next to me on the bench, and we had a lovely conversation about South Africa, and the states in America that he loved most. It was lovely to speak English, as, except for Brenda and some shopkeepers, just about the whole population of Miami Beach spoke Spanish! He then invited me to dinner at his place one night, and when he saw my brain spinning around to think of an excuse, me not in the habit of going to strange men's houses, he laughed and assured me that he had no plans to make an onslaught at my body, but that he was lonely after his wife died a year ago, and as I have found, English speakers were hard to come by. It was so nice to hear someone actually say 'Miami', and not 'My-yammi' as the locals did, and I decided to go for dinner the next night, as it was Saturday, and I wasn't working.
The Saturday morning Brenda was in a MOOD! I had to work until one, and just after breakfast she told me to take Manos to the park across the drawbridge, and I was surprised, as it was quite far, and the sky across the sea looked black and menacing, with lightning playing hide and seek in the clouds. We went, but about two blocks further it started raining, so I stood on a shop veranda until it stopped, and then went home. Brenda was quite cross, and told me that it was only a few drops, and I should anyway go. I was indignant, but could see that she desperately wanted us out, so I put Manos back in the pushcart, took the basket with our food and drinks, and started again. The rain stayed away, and we made it to the park without mishap. Manos had a lot of energy after I fed him some biscuits of my own, he not wanting his carrots and cherry tamatoes! All this time I watched the black clouds coming nearer, but as it looked to be moving slowly, I gave in to Manos's cries to stay a bit longer. After a little while I realised that we were going to be caught in a big storm, as the wind had started to blow with a vengeance racing the clouds at maddening speed across the now very rough sea! I grabbed Manos and ran for cover, this being the slide, where we sat shielding our faces from the rain that hit like hailstones, but the wind became so strong that I had to cling to the slide with all my might while also hanging on to Manos. I saw the pushcart fly through the air and then it hit the gatepost, wrapping itself neatly around it, while our food basket was blown completely away! We sat under the slide for a long time, and when the storm eventually moved on, I became very angry indeed. The pushcart was a wreck, and I had to pull it with one hand while pulling Manos, who refused to walk, with the other. We were just over the drawbridge when Brenda stopped beside us, and when she saw the pushcart she almost had a kingsize fit, but I was besides myself, and told her that the child could have been killed, and she worried about the pushcart! I told her that I had to keep her child safe by sitting under a bally slide, as we could easily have been seriously hurt if one of the flying things had hit us. I was all for phoning the agent in Greece, and Vassilis, and Brenda was toadeating me something terrible, knowing that her husband would freak out if he knew that she insisted on me taking the child out in a storm!
That night I went to dinner at my aquaintance's penthouse, and had a lovely dinner prepared by himself. I learned that he was sixty eight years old, and his name was Jake, and that he was an ardent cook, whose deepfreeze was packed with all kinds of self made goodies! His penthouse was absolutely beautiful, and from the roof you had a birds-eye view over the whole of Miami.