-^-for posterity-^-

people wanted to buy flags and i knew where to go.

i gave them a brief tour of our favorite place to get frozen fruit drinks and then we walked through the market. i felt like a tour guide and it wasn’t fun. i spent the whole time worrying about where people were and how they would get back if they did get lost and what i would do and this and that and it all was really quite pathetic.

our last stop was the flag shop. it’s a small shop on one of the busiest streets. they sell all sorts of signs and banners. i asked for twelve flags and we waited while they called other shops to fill the order. i sat on a blue chair behind a desk.

someone gave me one hundred thousand dong and i put it on the desk. it was blown off by the fan. people trusted me with their money for some reason.

i laid my head down after securing the one hundred thousand dong bill under a stapler. i was tired and didn’t feel like thinking or watching or doing anything. the lady behind the counter put the flags in a bag and i reached for the money.

it wasn’t there.

i asked her if she took it already. she said she hadn’t. i asked the others in the group if they had taken it as a joke. they hadn’t either. i remembered seeing one small boy walk in with us. he had a pastel colored shirt on and an odd mole just below his lower lip. i went searching for him. one of the older men that also worked at the shop came with me.

we found the boy about one hundred yards down the road. he was standing next to his mother who was selling lottery tickets in a wheelchair. the man asked the boy if he stole money. the boy said he hadn’t. the man asked again and grabbed the boy’s arm. the boy squeeled and held onto his mother. the boy’s mother asked if he had stolen money. the boy denied it.

all the while i was standing to the side. i was the foreigner and i wasn’t supposed to understand the language or know how to respond. i casually said, “i have no problems calling the police.” the boy looked up at me and his face changed. he started to cry. his nose started to run. the snot was thick and brown. he clung to his mother and the man searched him. he found the one hundred thousand dong bill in his left pocket.

we went back to the store and paid.