LUPE
Ponk Vonsydow
 ponkvonsydow@gmail.com  
CHAPTER 3

That morning after Lupe got another candy bar for breakfast Carlos took Lupe aside.

"Okay Lupe today you're with me! You're going to learn how to play a new game called: Pickpocket!  Now come with me because it's always too dark in here to do anything important. We'll go outside to the alley behind the theater where the sun shines."

Lupe fell into step behind Carlos and both boys climbed out the bathroom window then stepped out into the alley. Carlos was ready.

"Okay Lupe. In case you're still too little to know about it, most men carry their paper money in a billfold or wallet like this one I'm holding that they usually stick in their back pants pocket. They keep their spare change in a front pocket. The big money is in those dudes wallets right? We'll they almost never take out their wallets to give a boy a peso in bills, but we know how to take their wallets from them and get all their money that way! What I mean is we can steal their wallets!

"Now maybe your mother told you never to steal things from other boys or people, or maybe she liked to steal things and taught you how. Tell me Lupe, have you ever stolen something?

Lupe nodded no.

"That's okay. If you're going to run with El Uniqos you're going to have to learn how to steal things and we're going to start out be teaching you how to steal a man's wallet right out of his back pocket! Just remember, a grown up is taller than me so you'll have to figure it out as soon as you try it on them. Now see here. I've got the wallet in my back pocket now.  Look which one it's in. That's the pocket most dudes put their wallets in, so remember that because you'll only get one try to snatch the man's wallet out of that pocket.  Now what you do, is when you see the man walking down the street coming towards you, you walk over to him and bump into him. Right when you bump into him you have to try and stick your hand in his back pocket to steal his wallet and after you snatch it from him you have to quickly stick the wallet down the front of your pants to hide it so he won't see you just took it! If you do it right usually he won't even know you just stole his wallet! But it's not easy to do this the right way without that person noticing. Today you're going to practice how to do it until you learn how to do it right.

"Don't worry how long it's going to take you to figure out how to do it. It takes about a week for a boy your age to learn how and we'll be practicing all day long until you do. We'll take a lunch break and I'll get you a taco later on.

"We'll start out by having you practice getting my wallet in-and-out of my back pocket as quickly as you can and until I can't tell when you took it out. Now come over here and start trying to take out my wallet and see if you can do it so I can't tell you're trying to do that."
****
By the next Monday Lupe had learned how to pickpocket a wallet from out of Carlos back pocket. It was time to see if he could actually steal a grown mans wallet! Carlos would have to leave Lupe alone at his spot so he could try his new skill without other boys standing around looking suspicious. Lupe by then knew how to find his spot by himself and he took his place where he usually stood looking for a short man rather than a taller one. Eventually he saw a short fat one walking down the sidewalk coming his way. When the man was getting near to him, Lupe walked towards him then did as he knew to do and bumped into the fat man. Lupe however was unable to get into the fat mans back pocket because he was so fat his wallet was stuck in his back pocket too tight to come out!

Lupe watched the fat man walk off with his wallet then he waited for another short man, but the next time he wouldn't try to pickpocket a fat one. Lupe found several more short men to try and rob, but he was unable to get his hand into their pockets either. He was starting to feel discouraged.  It was about ten minutes later when he saw two men coming down the sidewalk and one of them on one side was shorter than the other. Lupe went towards the short one and bumped into him. His hand slid into the man's back pocket and Lupe snatched his wallet! He tucked it down the front of his pants and then watched as the foolish man ignored the classic pickpocket's trick and he walked off without his wallet and money! Lupe ran with his booty to find Carlos and Roberto to give them his prize. When he got there Roberto, Carlos and Enrique were in the park nodding off after smoking some midday heroin. Lupe tugged on Carlos' shirt. Carlos woke up to see it was Lupe bothering him. Lupe held out the brown leather wallet for Carlos to see. Carlos nudged Roberto. 

"Wake up bro! Lupe just scored a dude's wallet!"

Roberto yawned and reached over to take the wallet from little Lupe.

"Well let's see if the mark was a high-roller or what!"
 
Roberto opened the billfold and looked in then saw there was bill's inside. He took them out and began to count them.

"That's why you gotta wait till payday to be a pickpocket! This dude must have just got paid because his wallet has $2,000 pesos!" ($100 American dollars)

Roberto patted Lupe on the top of his head.

"You did real good today, Lupe! I think you deserve to get a present for doing good today. We'll take you to the store and get you a backpack your size and a toy. Carlos will take you there. Here's your share of the money, Carlos."

Roberto handed Carlos a $500 pesos in five $100 peso bills. An hour later Lupe got his little red child-size backpack and that was where he put his new Batman action figure. Only Lupe didn't know who Batman was, he just liked the toy and that was why he picked it out. Carlos also bought Lupe a baseball and some cheap slip-on white canvas shoes his size. Lupe never had a cap or shoes. He was grinning like a fool when Carlos put the shoes on his feet.
****
It was in the coming weeks that Carlos and Enrique taught Lupe how to shoplift small food items from convenience stores to supplement what he got to eat most days, but the older boys didn't like to shoplift too often because they were already old enough to end up in jail for stealing because Mexico will put a nine or ten year old boy in jail along with all the rest. If a five year old boy like Lupe got caught shoplifting the shopkeepers just thought it was cute and let them go and half the time they gave them for free whatever the child wanted to steal in the first place!

Lupe occasionally successfully pickpocketed a wallet full of money and if he did that Carlos always let Lupe get a new toy! Lupe had several different toys in his backpack now. He learned how to do his new yo-yo and liked to play with his yo-yo while panhandling. Carlos showed Lupe how to do tricks with a yo-yo and Lupe liked to run in front of passersby doing yo-yo tricks for them when he begged for spare change.

By then, the six year olds, Bean, Pepe, Luca and Juan were Lupe's best buddies and in the hour before bedtime they could run around the theater playing tag or hide-and-seek. The old dark theater was a great place to play hide-and-seek because there were lots of places for a boy to hide from the seeker and it was hard for the seeker to find them in there. Lupe also learned how to play checkers and cards. Roberto, Carlos and Enrique liked to play poker and there were card games at night with adults they could join if they had enough money to put in the till. They frequently lost most their money gambling, but there was always more where that came from as soon as one of the boys stole another fat wallet, as well as the always accumulating panhandling money. The younger boys understood how to gamble while playing cards too because the older boys showed them how. They sometimes gambled with their toys if they were willing to risk losing one in a card game. Lupe refused to gamble with his toys.  
  On to Chapter 4>

 






















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