Leaves

9:00am Saturday morning. I was lazily lying in bed reading when I was rudely interrupted by a tap, tap, tap at the front door. I could hear little children talking and laughing. I figured they got their ball stuck on the roof again and needed help (perks of being a giantess). Tap, tap, tap. They wouldn't go away! I was still in my pajamas and hadn't even brushed my teeth yet. Even if it was just kids, I wasn't about to risk letting the ladies in the neighborhood see me in my pajamas. Tap, tap, tap. Go away, I thought!

Finally, they got the hint. But, my lazy mood had been ruined. I figured I better start being productive. I had just finished brushing my teeth when...tap, tap, tap. Seriously kids, go find a long stick! In a huff, I opend the door. There was the lady who lived next door. We both turned about eight shades of red at the sight of my pjs. Oh, I was so embarrassed! She started talking to me in rapid-fire Spansih, "Is your man here?" My man?! "No, my husband is not here." Her face fell, "Really, he's not here?" I was getting frustrated. "No, he's at work. He will be here later tonight. Or you can come back tomorrow." She wasn't ready to give up. She started speaking faster and gesturing. I couldn't really understand what she was saying, "Spanish spanish spanish leaves spanish spanish." She pointed to one of the trees we have growing in the front yard. We have three trees with huge leaves (I would call them banana leaves, bu the trees don't have bananas. Does that still make them banana leaves?). Oh! I understood what she wanted. She wanted some of our leaves! In El Salvador, the women use leaves to make tamales (bit of trivia...in Mexico, the women use corn husks. You can tell by looking at a tamale where it comes from). She must be cooking and needing leaves. Since you cut the leaves into sections and wrap several tamales from one leaf, I figures she would only need a few...probably one or two leaves from each tree. I said sure...go ahead. She seemed surprised I was letting her have the leaves. I was thinking to myself...why did you come ask if you thought I would say no?!

I went back into the house and closed the door. Later, I went outside to put laundry on the line to dry. I looked over at the trees and gasped. She had cut all but two leaves off of one of the trees! The other two trees were still intact. But the one tree was almost totally bald! I laughed...that must be why she was so srprised I said yes. She must have told me that she wanted to take them all but I didn't understand!

I took a picture to try to show you how ridiculous the tree looks now, but it didn't turn out too well. I took the picture from inside the front door (I didn't want her to see what I was doing!). The leaf on the left and the leaf on the back right are the ones she left. The leaf on the front right and the top are actually on the other tree.