The boss approaches the table with a drink in his hand. Diego Armando is eating pleasantly, he looks at him out of the corner of his eye and ignores him, while he continues to enjoy the rich dish: stewed chicken with spaghetti bathed in the chicken sauce, cooked salad and some fried plantains that were sweet.
The boss sits next to him, watching him eat in such a grotesque way; typical of people who lived in deprivation during the early stages of their development. And it seems to be so, since he is not very tall and is not very muscular. He lifts up the prey and with big bites, he takes it off the bone, while without making a bolus, he gobbles it to hurry up other bites that help him to finish it soon. He did it as if hungry, desperate; as if waiting to be asked... and obviously, he does not want to share "his well-deserved lunch", earned by right in the working day of each worker, as stipulated in the collective contract that protects them.
His boss has a certain discomfort caused by that peculiar scene between people trained for years for a job in a company with rules, procedures, codes of ethics and various policies that guarantee an acceptable organizational culture, and the one who has only been in the company for three years and finds it difficult or does not want to accept different ways of acting. Even so, he forces himself and starts a pleasant, though annoying, conversation: Is it good? - And Diego Armando answers: Yes (with a slow and steady shake of his head). - The boss tries to mitigate his emotions when he sees him and continues the conversation: Why do you do things that make your colleagues uncomfortable? - And this one answers: "Me?! And why aren't they aware of their own sheath, then? - And the boss says: Ah! So you come to bother the work team? - And Diego Armando with disdain: Ah well! They don't tell me anything - And the boss, surprised and in a bad mood: "If you ate, why are you eating my lunch? - Diego Armando, surprised, turns his head and with his battered face says: Is it yours or are you fucking with me? - The boss replies, trying to save oxygen, so as not to yell at him justly, "That's wrong, Diego Armando: If you ate yours, why do you have another one? - To which he answers very normally: "Because I thought it was Ayala's." The boss then calms down again and says: "Friend, if you have already eaten, you should respect the food of others. Everyone here comes to work and that food is mine, so.... - Diego Armando doesn't let him finish talking, when licking his fingers and pushing the food in the direction of his boss he says: Sorry, boss. I didn't know it was yours... - The boss rejects her saying with irony: No, son! Finish eating it... - Which our friend did not hesitate to do...
At other times...
Diego Armando comes out of his hiding place where he hides during the workday. He is clumsy and thinks no one notices his absences. He likes to work, but in something that generates good dividends. And although he has a good salary at the largest and most important steel company in Venezuela, he is not satisfied and goes around other areas that do not correspond to him in search of business: selling tools; hiding material from the company to later take it out and sell it outside; even supplying illicit substances to other vicious workers like him.
He works in the iron and steel company, once the largest and most important in Venezuela, and entered it because a late president with a well-intentioned policy of giving opportunity to the "dispossessed and handicapped", made it possible for him to get a job in the company as a truck load securing: the one in charge of fastening the company's products to the 12mts platforms of the trucks (steel rods, wire rods, steel sheets, etc.). He entered as handicapped, because as an infant, he bit an inflated balloon that burst so violently that the knot became embedded in his left eye, irreparably emptying it. He was one-armed because, as a teenager, he tried to steal a gas cylinder and was shot in the ankle, which made him fall on his face. Drugged, he got up and fled to escape death. He did not lose his foot, but was left walking on the outside of it.
Diego Armando was so named because his father was a soccer addict and cocaine fanatic; unlike the former Argentinean star, who was a soccer fanatic and cocaine addict. He had many shortcomings, as his parents were very adolescent when they conceived him. His father was proud to have a son who could play professional soccer someday, so that he could take him to travel the world and drink champagne like the rich. From a humble family. Well, no. He was born into a family lacking in many things, both in pleasant qualities of personality, manners and abundance of good manners; as well as materially.
They lived on the margins of the urbanism of a community in progress. That is to say, they had a roof, but in a plot of land that was less than 50 square meters. With zinc sheets as walls and separated from other houses by sidewalks and rough improvised alleys, to accommodate other "needy" families who did their own thing to have their own space, in the same vacant land within an urbanization that had projected there a welfare center for families living in the 3,896 houses with which it was originally built; but now add the dens of at least 100 more families, who decided to take them in claims of a supposed right to dignity.
Our Diego Armando was a clear person, he did not mince words when it came to say what he thought, because he was scarce of linguistic resources. He was not sincere. He was always up to something and was very attentive to the belongings of his companions.
It is said that one day a classmate went into the bathroom and happened to notice, from under the door covering one of the toilets, that our friend seemed to be having an epileptic seizure; his bad leg was shaking and he was complaining; his classmate called him by his nickname - "Misaligned", are you all right?, but he got no answer. Immediately, he peeks through the top of the door and indeed sees Diego Armando with his eyes turned upside down, well, with one eye (the only one) turned upside down, the empty one, open; his mouth unhinged, drooling; and with his body spasms, due to the handjob he was having in the company's bathroom. The guy couldn't hold his laughter and ran out of the bathroom and behind him Diego Armando, furious and running, semicolon style, after the colleague who peeked out. The other coworkers grabbed him with force to control him, because he could not contain his rage and when "the snoop" told them what had happened, they let him go, especially those who grabbed him by the hands. And everything was more laughter and jokes against Diego Armando.
The supervisors began to distrust him and to refer to the human talent department, every incident of his friend, Diego Armando.
Diego Armando used to ask his coworkers for food scraps for the puppies that swarmed the company; until one time they observed that it was a lie. Everything that was given to him as leftovers, he would take it to one of his hiding places to be gobbled by him and the crushed bones were thrown anywhere that, in case the dogs came to eat it without any taste.
It took many years to get him out of the company, because politics and the union protected him.
Today our friend Diego Armando, lives from the opportunities offered by circumstances, doing what he learned since he was a child, in his small isolated world of good society; pending of others to take it, negotiate it and thus satisfy his vices. Without thinking about a long term tomorrow, because he never learned to do that... His mind was left working in reptilian mode, survival mode and at the mercy of God's charity... Who is the only one who keeps him alive, without this little friend suspecting it...
_I hope you liked it, and I look forward to your feedback.
_😉
Note: The designs or visual elements in this publication were elaborated by me; those that are not, will be linked to the space or site where they correspond.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
Keep on beautifully beautiful.
Greetings and blessings.
Always alummno in all my social networks.
El jefe se acerca a la mesa con una bebida en la mano. Diego Armando está comiendo placenteramente, lo mira de reojo y lo ignora, mientras sigue disfrutando del rico plato: pollo guisado con espagueti bañado en la salsa del pollo, ensalada cocida y unos plátanos fritos que estaban dulcitos.
El jefe se le sienta al lado, lo mira comer de una forma tan grotesca; típica de personas que vivieron en carencias durante las primeras etapas de su desarrollo. Y pareciera ser así, pues no tiene gran estatura y no lo acompaña gran musculatura. Levanta la presa y con grandes mordiscos la descarna del hueso, mientras sin hacer bolo, la engulle para apurar otros mordiscos que le ayuden a terminarla pronto. Lo hacía como hambriento, desesperado; como esperando que le pidieran... y obvio, no quiere compartir "su merecido almuerzo", ganado por derecho en la jornada laboral de cada trabajador, según estipula el contrato colectivo que los ampara.
Su jefe tiene cierta incomodidad causada por aquella escena tan peculiar entre gentes formadas durante años para una labor en una empresa con normas, procedimientos, códigos de ética y políticas diversas que garantizan una aceptable cultura organizacional, ante aquel que lleva tres años apenas en la empresa y le cuesta o no quiere aceptar formas diferentes de actuar. Aun así, se forza a sí mismo y comienza una tertulia amena, aunque molesta para él: ¿Está buena? - Y Diego Armando le responde: Si (con un vaivén lento y firme de su cabeza). - El jefe intenta mitigar sus emociones al verlo y prosigue la conversa: ¿Por qué haces cosas que incomodan a tus compañeros? - Y este le responde: ¡¿Yo?! ¿Y por qué ellos no están pendientes de su vaina, pues? - Y le dice el jefe: ¡Ah! ¿Entonces tú vienes a incomodar al equipo de trabajo? - Y Diego Armando con desdén: ¡Ah bueno! Ellos no me dicen nada - Y el jefe sorprendido y mal humorado: Si tú comiste, ¿por qué te estás comiendo mi vianda? - Diego Armando, sorprendido, gira la cabeza y con su maltrecho rostro le dice: ¿Es suya o me está jodiendo? - El jefe le replica, intentando ahorrar oxígeno, para no gritarle justamente: Eso está mal Diego Armando. ¿Si usted se comió la suya, por qué dispone de otra? - A lo que responde muy normal: Porque pensé que era de Ayala - El jefe entonces vuelve a calmarse y le dice: Amigo, si Usted ya comió, debe respetar la comida de los demás. Todos acá vienen a trabajar y esa comida es la mía, entonces... - Diego Armando no lo deja terminar de hablar, cuando chupándose los dedos y empujando la vianda en dirección de su jefe le dice: Perdón jefe. No sabía que era suya… - El jefe la rechaza diciéndole con ironía: ¡No, hijo! Termínatela de comer… - Lo cual no dudó nuestro amigo…
En otros momentos…
Diego Armando sale de su escondite donde se oculta durante la jornada laboral. Es torpe y cree que nadie nota sus ausencias. Le gusta trabajar, pero en algo que le genere buenos dividendos. Y aunque en la Siderúrgica más grande e importante de Venezuela, tiene para ese entonces un buen salario, no se conforma y recorre otras áreas que no le corresponden en busca de negocios: vender herramientas; esconder material de la empresa para luego sacarlo y venderlo afuera; hasta suministrar sustancias ilícitas a otros trabajadores viciosos como él.
Trabaja en la siderúrgica, otrora más grandes e importante de Venezuela y entró a ella, porque un difunto presidente con una bien intencionada política de dar a oportunidad a los “desposeídos y discapacitados”, hizo que pudiera hacerse con un puesto en la misma como amarrador: el encargado de sujetar los productos de la empresa a las plataformas de 12mts de los camiones (cabillas, alambrones, láminas de acero, etc). Entró como discapacitado, pues siendo infante, mordió un globo inflado que estalló con tanta violencia, que el nudo se le incrustó en el ojito izquierdo, vaciándoselo irremediablemente. Era manco, pues siendo adolescente, quiso robarse un cilindro de gas y recibió un disparo en el tobillo que lo hizo caer de bruces. Drogado, se levantó y huyó para escapar de la muerte. No perdió el pie, pero quedó caminando con la parte externa del mismo.
Diego Armando se llama así, porque su padre era adicto al fútbol y fanático de la cocaína; al contrario del otrora astro argentino, que era fanático del fútbol y adicto a la cocaína. Tuvo muchas carencias, pues sus padres eran muy adolescentes cuando lo concibieron. Su papá estaba orgulloso de tener un hijo varón que pudiera llegar a jugar fútbol profesional algún día, para que lo llevara a viajar por el mundo y beber champaña como los ricos. De familia humilde. Bueno, no. Nació en una familia carente de muchas cosas, tanto en cualidades agradables de la personalidad, modales y abundancia de buenas costumbres; como en lo material.
Vivían al margen del urbanismo de una comunidad en progreso. Es decir, tenían un techo, pero en una parcela que no llegaba a los 50 metros cuadrados. Con láminas de zinc como paredes y separada de otras viviendas por veredas y callejuelas improvisadas toscamente, para dar cabida a otras familias "necesitadas" que hicieron lo suyo por tener su propio espacio, en el mismo terreno baldío dentro de una urbanización que tenía proyectado allí un centro asistencial para las familias que habitan las 3.896 viviendas con las que fue edificada originalmente; pero que ahora suman las guaridas de al menos 100 familias más, que decidieron tomarlas en reclamos de un supuesto derecho a la dignidad.
Nuestro Diego Armando, era una persona diáfana, no se andaba con ambages a la hora de decir lo que pensaba, porque era escaso de recursos lingüísticos. No era sincero. Siempre andaba tramando algo y estaba muy pendiente de las pertenencias de sus compañeros.
Cuentan que un compañero entra una vez al baño, y casualmente observa por debajo de la puerta que cubre uno de los wc, que nuestro amigo pareciera tener un ataque epiléptico; su pierna mala le temblaba y se quejaba; su compañero lo llama por su apodo - Rin dobla’o, ¿estás bien?, pero no obtuvo respuesta. Inmediatamente, se asoma por la parte superior de la puerta y efectivamente ve a Diego Armando con los ojos volteados, bueno, con un ojo (el único) volteado, el vacío, abierto; la boca desencajada, botando baba; y con sus espasmos corporales, debido a la paja que se estaba haciendo en el baño de la empresa. El tipo no aguantó la risa y salió corriendo del baño y detrás Diego Armando, fúrico y corriendo estilo punto y coma, tras el compañero que se asomó. Los otros compañeros los tomaron con fuerza para dominarlo, porque no podía contenerse de la rabia y cuando “el asoma’o” les contó lo sucedido, lo soltaron, sobre todo los que lo agarraron por las manos. Y todo fue mas risas y chanzas contra el pana Diego Armando.
Los supervisores, comenzaron a desconfiar de él y a remitir al departamento de talento humano, cada incidencia del amigo, Diego Armando.
Diego Armando le pedía los residuos de comida a sus compañeros para los perritos que pululan en la compañía; hasta que una vez observaron que era mentira. Todo lo que le entregaban como sobrante, se lo llevaba a uno de sus escondites para ser engullido por él y los huesos triturado eran tirado en cualquier lugar que, si acaso lo perros lo llegaban a comer sin sabor alguno.
Pasaron muchos años para poder sacarlo de la empresa, porque la política y el sindicato lo amparaban.
Hoy nuestro amigo Diego Armando, vive de las oportunidades que le ofrezcan las circunstancias, haciendo lo que aprendió desde niño, en su pequeño mundo aislado de buena sociedad; pendiente de lo ajeno para tomarlo, negociarlo y así satisfacer sus vicios. Sin pensar en un mañana a largo plazo, porque nunca aprendió a hacer eso… Su mente quedó trabajando en modo reptiliano, modo supervivencia y a merced de la caridad de Dios… Que es el único que lo sostiene vivo, sin que este amiguito lo sospeche…
Espero les haya gustado, al igual que espero sus apreciaciones al respecto.
Sigan hermosamente guapetones.
Saludos y bendiciones.
Siempre alummno en todas mis redes sociales.
Si, con doble "m".