Laredo, Texas
“”Laredo, Texas”” follows the interactions between new employee Juan and his assigned mentor, Sam. Sam is supposed to be teaching Juan the trade of the pay phone maintenance man. They go through the motions of the collections process and functionality tests. As they work, Sam makes snide comments about the Mexicans who come across the border and have to use the pay phones to get in touch with those they are meeting on the other side. He gets suspicious and begins asking questions about Juan’s origins, which Juan answers with shrugs and vague gestures. Sam is enraged at the thought that this new worker might be undocumented, and fumes about the “”job-stealing”” citizens from across the border. Juan points out that Sam is Hispanic himself; this accusation only angers Sam further. The two of them have a heated argument about values and the struggle to make a living, no matter your background. In the end, they drive away in near-silence, with Juan asking only one last question about Sam’s full name. “”No Samuel, just Sam,”” is Sam’s curt reply.
On the islands of Hawaii, the lychee tree is a prized commodity. The tree only flowers and bears its decadent fruit once a year. Some have made a livelihood out of roaming around and stealing fruit from unsuspecting neighbors’ yards. Arnie and Ethel, who appear to be fairly recent imports from the mainland, have one of the beloved lychee trees in their garden, and it is bearing fruit for the first time. All of Ethel’s coworkers are covetous of the fruit, and the couple decides it must be picked. However, instead of allowing a native Hawaiian to pick their fruit by hand for a small fee, they contract a team of Caucasians to get down the fruit. In their hurry and prejudice, Arnie and Ethel wind up sacrificing the branches and limbs of the tree, ensuring that it will never bear fruit again.
Easy Made Hard