Spanish Lessons Characters: Hayden and Rosa Setting: Afternoon, Block A Spiritual Room
It had been a long time since Rosa had stepped foot inside anything that was churchly and the guilt was kind of getting to her. She’d found her way to the spiritual room and parked it near the candles after finding the things she needed to get started. With the rosary in her hand and a match lit, Rosa leaned in to light the candle and closed her eyes.
“Dios te salve, Maria. Llena eres de gracia: El Señor es contigo. Bendita tú eres entre todas las mujeres. Y bendito es el fruto de tu vientre: Jesús. Santa María, Madre de Dios, ruega por nosotros pecadores, ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte. Amén.”
Hayden was still at the point where he was wandering around the facility, poking his head in places to see what they were. The tour with Ru had been thorough, but that didn’t mean he remembered every place off the top of his head, and sometimes he ended up places he hadn’t really been trying to get to. The spiritual room was one of those places and he might have left if it wasn’t for the sound of someone inside.
His spanish was rusty, but he could pick out a word here and there. Mostly God, Jesus, mother, and amen. Seeing as how it was the spiritual room, that wasn’t all that big a surprise to him. Hayden had never been all that religious, but as he wandered in he wondered if that might have kept him out of trouble.
It certainly hadn't for Rosa, but that didn't mean she didn't feel the prayer in her core. Sighing, she sat up and went to run her fingers over the rosary again, turning to head back to where she'd found it when she saw a new person in the spiritual room. She stared at him for a moment and then started back to the drawer anyway. "Guess you're not the knockin' type…"
“Sorry,” Hayden said, taking a step backwards towards the door. “I was just thinking...” He shook his head. He wasn’t going to find religion now. It wasn’t going to solve any of his problems. “I didn’t mean to bother you.”
"Thinking what? You came to the spiritual room to think and didn't leave when you heard some girl praying in Spanish… gotta be something you're thinking about." She looked back over at him and leaned against the counter, watching Hayden carefully.
“That maybe if I had God in my life, I wouldn’t be here,” Hayden said, looking from her to the contents of the room. It didn’t look like a church to him, but that didn’t mean God wasn’t in there. “But finding him now won’t get me out, either.”
“Didn’t much help me,” She said, shrugging a little as she looked at him. “Never too late to find him, but I don’t know if you want to say your Hail Marys in Spanish. If you do, I can help you out and actually...technically I’m supposed to be wrangling people in to teach them Spanish anyway. You want to learn? Can’t hurt to call out to him in two languages...”
“I would say them in Swahili if it would make a difference,” Hayden said. “But I’m probably more likely to pick up Spanish. I know a few words here and there.” Not enough to pray with, but then he wasn’t used to doing that in English. “What do you mean, you’re supposed to be teaching people Spanish? Is that one of the jobs listed?” He’d seen the listing and didn’t think he’d be applying, not until he found himself strapped for cash, or credits.
Rosa pulled a cigarette out of her pocket and leaned in to light it off the prayer candle she’d lit earlier. Puffing smoke into the air, she turned to look back at him. “It’s a job I gave myself. Figured I knew how to do two things: get into fights and speak Spanish. I wanted credits, so I made it a job. You interested in learning? I could teach you some killer curse words...And the prayer I just did. It’d be a start.”
If there was one thing Hayden had a lot of, it was time. Maybe learning Spanish would help him if he ever got out. “Sure, why not,” Hayden shrugged. “I didn’t realize we could make up jobs. I’ll have to think on that.” He wasn’t all that great at anything, but he knew that eventually he’d want credits as well. “Do I have to pay you? Or do the powers that be do that?”
Rosa considered that for a minute, deciding whether or not to lie to Hayden about it. She ended up going with telling the truth, since smoking in the spiritual room wasn't exactly gonna put her on great terms with the big guy anyway. "They pay me, but I'm not gonna turn my nose up at some tips. I accept smokes, booze, and sexual favors." She was thrilled to have a customer, though, considering she really needed to start doing something with this job so she could continue to get her extra credits. "Guess let's start with the basics, like names. You got one, I assume...”
“Well, then,” Hayden laughed. “I’m new, so I don’t have much in the way of booze or smokes, and I think my girlfriend would frown on the sexual favors, but I’ll think of something.” He wasn’t entirely sure about the girlfriend part, but there was too much to figure out there for Hayden to get into it. He was pretty sure she would frown on it, but whether she was his girlfriend or not? He had some questions he needed answered before he could be sure about that one. “I’m Hayden.”
"Well, Hayden, I'm Rosa. You can bring the booze whenever you get it. I'm never gonna turn down booze. But as for the rest, you can tell your girlfriend she can join us," Rosa teased, picking up pretty easily on the fact that that seemed to be important to him; him and his girlfriend. "We can start with the basics, though. Wanna learn how to say your name or something?"
“Booze sounds good,” Hayden nodded, though he didn’t think he’d be bringing Cass along. He wasn’t going to air his dirty laundry to another person, but he was pretty sure they were not in the best place right now, despite enjoying last night immensely. The more time he spent thinking about the things he didn’t know, the more sure he was that she’d been lying to him, or using him, or possibly both. Taking Spanish classes with her wasn’t high on his to do list. “Sure, we can start with that. I’m not really sure how else to start.”
Rosa shrugged and started over to the middle of the floor, parking it there before crossing her legs and glancing up at him expectantly. "Mi nombre es Rosa. Su nombre es Hayden." She started, figuring it would be easier, for her at least, to just jump in. Immersion, right? That's what all those language teachers said, wasn't it? Immersion was the first way you learned your native language, right?
“Mi Nombre es Rosa. Su nombre es Hayden,” he repeated, but then thought for a second about it before changing his mind. “Mi nombre es Hayden.” His accent was horrible, but he thought maybe he’d made the right choice there. He could translate it directly in his head-- My name is Hayden. Hopefully all Spanish would be that easy.
Rosa waited for him to catch on and when he did, she gave him a quick upward head nod and a grin. "Muy bueno," She said. "Usted es un hijo de puta. It wasn't necessarily the most logical follow up to 'My name is' but 'You are a bastard' would get him further than asking where the library was.
Bueno. He knew that one. It meant ‘good’, which he suspected meant he’d passed the first round. Hayden repeated the words in his head, hoping to remember them. “Usted es un hijo de puta,” Hayden parrotted. “What’s that mean?” This time there were no words that sounded familiar, so hopefully she wasn’t making fun of his lack of knowledge of the Spanish language.
It made Rosa laugh, something hearty that she didn’t normally do. “It means, ‘You are a bastard’.” She said, grinning. “I think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship, Hayden.” She figured they’d settle here for a while, finish out this lesson, and she’d find him later for another one. Either way, she was actually enjoying this.