“I don’t know,” Juan searched for a clean spot on the desk to set down his coffee cup. Failing that, he set it down on some older papers that didn’t look vital, “I guess I’ve just been thinkin’ about my life, y’know?”
Richard made a show of removing the papers from beneath Juan’s cup, shaking them off, and then stacking them unceremoniously on top of another pile. “Thinking about how you’ve been victimized and oppressed by white colonizers?”
“What are you talking about?” Juan scowled, “Seriously, Richard, I don’t know where you come up with some of this stuff.”
“I thought that’s what all you Mexicans talked about at your parties.” Richard huffed.
“You come to every one of my parties and drink all my beer!” Juan objected, “Do you ever hear any real Mexicans talking like that?”
“I guess not,” Richard confessed. “But I can’t help it if my whole social life revolves around your family’s next quinceañera.”
“We think about the same things you do,” Juan waved one hand in the air, “When I’m thinkin’ about my life, I’m thinkin’ I gotta good house, a beautiful wife, a big family," Juan raised both hands in the air and made a motion in the air like he was dismissing Richard. “I even got a great job.”
Richard looked down as his eyebrows went up, his head rocking back and forth slightly in a silent acceptance of the back-handed compliment.
Juan leaned forward and pointed a gnarled, calloused finger at Richard’s face, “And you know everything I got is from workin’ hard.”
Richard nodded. "You're the hardest-working man I've ever met."
Juan leaned back and rested his chin in his hand, savoring the point he scored. “A lot of people coming here now, it’s not the same.”
“What do you mean?” Richard asked.
“Well, you know,” Juan was scowling again, “when we try to hire new guys, they’re lazy!”
A guffaw barked explosively from Richard, “Ha! I never thought I’d live to see the day when I’d hear one Mexican calling another Mexican lazy.”
“What do you know about it, Richard?” Juan’s lips pursed as if he were trying to spit a bad taste out of his mouth. “You stay in this office all the time. You’re the laziest person in the company!”
“I invite you to come and do these taxes anytime you want.” Richard sniped back.
“Most of these new guys ain’t even Mexicans,” Juan ignored Richard’s comment. “But it doesn’t matter to me what color a guy’s skin is. Lazy is lazy. If they don’t do the work, then I’m gonna have to do it.”
This last comment brought Richard up short, and a strange emotion clouded his features. He placed a hand on Juan’s arm. “I don’t say this enough, but I’m not going to be around forever,” Richard said in a gesture totally out of character. He held Juan's gaze for a long moment. “You know we all depend on you around here… I depend on you.”
Juan turned away, somewhat embarrassed by Richard’s display of emotion. “You never say nothing nice. Are you sick or something?”
Richard took a deep breath, maintaining his grip on Juan’s arm, and said, “Juan Torres, you’re the best American I know. This country is a better place with you in it.”