Journey to first meeting

Paula was painfully aware of what she would wear that Sunday. She wanted to make her attire as discreet as possible. She was going to a political meeting and she was afraid. When she finally got out of the house, she looked both ways as usual. Only this time she was watching out for police cars. Then she thought if she was going to be followed by police, it would not be so obvious, probably. She walked to the bus stop as usual, convinced that some one was following her. She knew it was all irrational. But she had learned about a political meeting in a public forum after all, and now she was heading there.

Paula could now afford using the underground, but on the one hand the tube station was further away from her house than the bus stop, and although buses were so much slower, she found them cleaner and of course more entertaining to peek from.

The conviction of being followed did not go away when she got on the bus.

She saw a cyclist from the bus and she once again envied how fast they went. She had had a puncture recently and she had not managed to fix it yet. As the cyclist disappeared speedily even in the empty streets, she decided to bring her own bicycle to some shop to have the puncture fixed.

She had to change buses once in central London. She did not see any one person or any one car in her sight for the whole time she was waiting for her next bus, so she relaxed a bit. It was unlikely some one would follow her and take so much pain to remain unnoticed.

The second bus journey was shorter than the first one, but slower, so it took almost as long. As usual already in that city, she had got out of the house in broad daylight and she would arrive at her destination in dark night. At least travelling by bus allowed her to experience the transition. It made her deeply depressed to get into the underground in daylight and find night darkness when coming out.
She double-checked on her A-Z map as she walked. It was the same book she had bought two years earlier and she had been using it daily, so some pages had been inevitably detached from the rest of the book and she had to hold it with both hands to keep the pages together. She was relieved to see that the street that had been announced in the forum actually existed, both in her map and in the street sign she was now seeing.
She turned round the last corner.
And then she saw it.
A police car.
A police car had its car lights on, although in silence, right outside the pub where she was heading. Her heart stopped functioning, and so did her brain. Her legs, however, continued walking at the same pace as before. (“Might as well”, thought Paula, “because it would have been well suspicious if I had stopped back there. What do I do now? Do I pretend I have taken this turn by mistake? Do I walk past it all casually pretending I was not coming here? But I “am’ in that internet forum, they know I know about this place, and I have no other reason to be here. Then, what will happen if I just don’t get in? When will be the next time they announce another meeting? They may never announce it. It took them months to announce this one, didn’t it?”)

Paula decided to avoid looking at the police car and got inside the pub.

Luckily there were no police inside the pub. At least, no police officer in uniform. But then, would any of these punters qualify as a potential police officer in plain clothes? Paula had no idea. She looked at their faces. Which was easy, because now every one of the customers in that pub had their faces turned to her.

The pub was a typical English pub, only not as luxurious as some of the pubs she had worked in. there was carpet all over the pub including some stairs leading somewhere upstairs, but it was so worn out, she thought she could see the wood underneath in some places. Or may be it wasn’t the wood and it was some dark stain. She couldn’t tell because it was pretty dark. There were plenty of light bulbs all over the ceiling, but none of them was bright enough to give the place a feeling of well lit atmosphere.

There were small tables against one of the walls, and back benches perpendicular to the walls. It gave that part of the pub a strange train-like feeling. There were also benches against the walls, with tables in front of them and stools on the other side of the tables.

Three old men sat in one of the train-like compartments. Another old man sat on his own on one of the back-less stools. And three other old men sat on the tall stools at the bar. They all looked at her and stayed looking at her until she reached the bar, at which point Paula managed to ignore the men and centred her attention on the bar tender, a woman younger than the old men but older than Paula.

“Hi.”
“Hi.”
Paula spoke making a huge effort to speak loud enough for the bar tender to hear her, but most importantly, soft enough to not be heard by the old men.
“Is there a meeting in this pub?”
“They are upstairs.”
The bar tender made no effort to speak softly. She was obviously used to this. Also, her glance told Paula that she was not welcome to walk away from the bar without at least a drink on her hand.
“Can I have a lemonade, please? No ice, please.”
“Lemon?”
“No thanks.”

The Metro (newspaper)

Before she found out just how close to her house the bus stop was, and the fact that the one bus on that bus stop had another stop right outside her workplace, Paula learned the long way to the ‘underground’ station to go to work. ‘Underground’ because the train travelled completely over the ground on the whole journey from Paula’s stop to work stop.

Paula was thankful for this. It was definitely nicer to travel by train if she could see the light of day while inside the train. Some days, she even brought a book with her that she had got from the library. But she soon abandoned this practice because the journey was so short. Most of the other passengers had longer journeys, however. Some of them got on the train on the stop where she left, before the train would head for deep, central London.

So most of the passengers fought for a sit so that they could comfortably read their books, which they had brought from home, or their newspapers, which they had bought in the newsagents at the tube station.
Until one day all this changed. Suddenly one day Paula got on the train and the scene she encountered seemed taken from a horror movie. No one was reading any book from home, and no one was reading any newspaper from the newsagents. Every one was reading copies of the same newspaper. Every one was holding it in the same way, with both hands. So she could see the first and last pages, all the same, on the hands of every one now in the train. She looked at the name of the paper.

“Metro.”

The letters were white on a blue rectangle at the top left hand side of the front page. The papers were the same size as a standard European newspaper, known in this country as “tabloid”, as opposed to “broadsheet”, which was various times the size of a normal newspaper and which was impossible to read all spread out, like these people were reading their papers now, without seriously disturbing the people around.

Paula noticed that herself and the very few passengers who had got on the train at the same stop as herself were the only ones without a copy of this new newspaper. She also noticed that, although they were trying to hide it, the other passengers were as scared as them.

She later knew that this was the first free newspaper given out at tube stations (only her own tube station would take ages to be provided with its own stacks of said newspaper). And that this first free newspaper would inspire very similar ones not only in other cities of Britain, but of the rest of Europe too.

But at the time, she felt first scared at the whole surreal scene, then weird and then slightly annoyed that copies of the newspaper were not provided at her tube station and she always had to rely on other passengers abandoning their copies on the train if she wanted to read it herself. There were not that many copies distributed at the beginning and even in the office it became an item of exceptional sharing, on the days when at least one of them workers had managed to secure a copy of the thing.

First move

It took Paula two hours to get to work after her first night staying in her second address in London. The maps didn’t guide her the way they should have and it took her double the time. So she had moved closer, but the train fares were not cheaper and her journey time was not much better. True, she lived in a house now. She would no longer depend on office hours to collect her post. She would no longer have to pay two pounds to use the washing machine. And she only had to share the kitchen with one person – her landlady.

“How is the new place?” Asked her boss.
“It’s good, thanks.”
“Did it take you shorter?”
“Actually, no. But I am planning to get a bicycle and it will take me shorter.”
It was true. She had not been allowed to have a bike in the hostel. She had no idea how she would get a bike, but she would. Somehow.

Coffee delivery

castellano robotizado, más abajo

The van had been in the service of a nuns convent for long enough for a good van. Then, in their words, it got too knackered. But in the priest’s opinion, it had not got knackered enough and he decided to put it to use for the fair trade shop and importer.
In a few months, the shop had become the biggest importer of fair trade stuff in the whole country, and it was still run by volunteers. At least two of them, though, were full time volunteers. All thanks to the local high unemployment rate, especially among under 30s.

When Paula arrived to the shop, ready to see how the coffee was delivered to the biggest chain of supermarkets in that part of the country, Jose was de-attaching some sits from the shop van, preparing it for the trip.
“Hi! Are we late?”
“It is not my fault! Whoever have used this van over the weekend for their personal use, should have taken the seats back out. I expected the van to be empty, ready for the delivery.”
The screws proved to have been fastened tight and it was a tough job to remove them. When they were finally out, they left the seats inside the car park/turned shop. Then it was time to load the coffee packs, three kilos at a time.
Paula was always amazed at José’s ability to place boxes as if they were bricks, each on top of two or more, making the pile so robust. So she went to to the pile on the pallet and passed one box after the other to Jose, so he would place them in the van in the way he knew. When they finished – half a tone of coffee – they got in the van and left.
“One day, we will be able to afford one of those machines that can lift a tone, won’t we, Jose?”; more than a question it was a statement. Jose remained silent. “That way we won’t need to unload containers nor load vans by hand.”
Jose kept his silence for a few moments, and then, as if out of the blue, he responded:
“For some people who make the decisions, something like that would not be a priority.”
Paula could not see the logic of not wanting to make the work of the volunteers easier although she understood that it wouldn’t be a priority to ease tasks that ultimately did not cost any money (after all they were all volunteers) but her mind was in another question already.
“Where are we going?”
“To the centre of the mountains.”, said Jose, not in a mysterious way at all. “The point from where the distance to the three main cities is the same. We are driving a few tens of kilometres, just so the headquarters of storage can process our coffee so it can be then sold in the supermarket next to us.”
Paula understood the irony and smiled.
“We shouldn’t laugh to loud. Some fair trade organisations do that too, and even worse. There is one that receives the goods in the port, by ship, then it transports them to some city in the interior thousands of kilometres away, and sends back some of those goods back to shops in the north.”
“How silly.”
Paula had been in a few industrial estates while looking for a job. The warehouse reminded her of one of them, only it was on its own, in the middle of a valley between mountains, as Jose had said, but the building was like any industrial compound.

Huge lorries were parked, apparently waiting. The shop van, big as it looked when parked outside the shop, seemed tiny next to the big trailers. Men were scattered around, standing in groups talking, or sitting alone. Jose look
ed at his watch.
“Are we late?”
“No, we are actually a bit early.”
“That’s great, we were not delayed after all.”
“I have to go to reception, it won’t be long, you can stay here if you want.”
“Yes, I will, if you don’t mind.”
So many idle people and not a woman in sight was a bit intimidating for Paula.
Jose got off the van and went to the reception desk, which seemed to consist of a window facing the area where the vehicles were parked. He came back with some paperwork and got on the driver seat again. He did not look happy.
“We now have to wait. About half an hour, they say.”
“Can we unload in the meantime?”
“No. Half an hour is before we can even put the van in the loading tray.”
“But you had booked a slot now, right?”
“Yes. But they schedule it to make sure ‘they’ will not have to wait for any one, even if a lorry is delayed, or breaks down and can’t even turn up. So if they all turn up, we all have to wait.”
“OK.”
“It has happened that we had to come back another day.”
“What?”
“The workers have their working hours too. At some point, they stop taking more.”
“And if some one is sent away, it’s the smallest?”
“Look how many lorries, and how huge they are. Do you think we are a priority?”
“Blimey. We have half a tonne, right?”
“Uh-hu.”
“So they may have … lots of tonnes. Of food. Each.”
“Yeah.”
“And among those huge loads, ours. Our tiny little half tonne of coffee.”
Jose smiled.
“Really, it is impressive that you managed to get the coffee to sell here. I’m sure you have done lots of work that the rest of us are not even aware of.”
Jose’s face expression said something in between of “You bet”, “If only you knew”, and “It’s too painful to even get into details.”
“So”, said Paula, “Tell me all about it”
Jose put another face but Paula could not interpret that one.
“We’ve got time, don’t we. You’ve got half an hour worth of story, and then we have the trip back!”
They laughed.
“Well, when we first contacted them, they sent us their standard contract. The standard contract that they send to all these people, all their suppliers.”
“Aha?”
“Did you know that the shelves in the supermarkets have their price, each of them?”
“Yes, I’ve studied that in Uni. The most valued is that on eye level.”
“Gosh, I didn’t know that. Well, and the suppliers need to “pay” the supermarket chain depending on what shelf they want to place their product. Like, they are paying rent for having a place to house their produce!”
“Yes. So I guess this coffee is going to sit on a top or a bottom shelf isn’t it.”
Jose put another face.
“Another clause was that, we had to give them for free, a big chunk of the first delivery.”
“What, as a ‘present’!”
“Yes. As a trial for them to see if it would sell, or as a good will gesture from us for allowing to have the coffee in their premises.”
“This is …”
“Haven’t finished yet. We would not have any say in the price they sell at.”
“Right. So it could either be, more expensive, or cheaper, than the price we have all agree on, and at which every single church group is selling.”
“Exactly. And one of the worse clauses was, we would not be allowed to supply our coffee to any shop within a radius of I don’t know how many kilometres, from any of their supermarkets.”
“And you accepted that?”
“Well, we can’t. That would probably mean we couldn’t even sell it in our own shop. So we sent them a second letter and we managed to negotiate. But they will still sell at whatever price they want. They may well sell it cheaper than us, because they can afford to work with smaller margins in some products while over charging in others.”
“And if they do that, we are stuffed.”
“Yes. That’s the idea, to get every one to buy from them because it is cheaper, then all the groups that buy from us don’t sell any coffee, then they become the only channel through which we can get the coffee out. And once that’s done, we have no negotiating power. But hey, at least we can decide what price we are selling ‘to them’. They wanted to pay us less, saying it would be a marketing effort in their part!”
“But they agreed to pay our cost price?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you think they would do that? Because this is a good cause?”
“On the phone, they said this product would allow them to reach to a market segment that they are not reaching to, at the moment.”
“This is disgusting.”
“It is.”
“And from what you say we even got ‘preferential treatment’!”
“Yes.”
Paula stayed in silence for a moment, looking at the lorries and their drivers, waiting around, sad faces.
“You know, thinking of all these people, these suppliers. They are having to put up with their standard conditions.”
“Yes. The only ones that they can not mess with are coca-cola.”

One of the men waiting outside approached the van and talked to Jose, pointing to his lorry, behind the van:
“Can you move your van a bit please? I have the lorry behind you…”
Jose nodded and started the engine, getting the van out of the lorry’s way. The man got in the lorry and put it next to a platform Paula had not noticed before. Then a fork lift
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=19332
emerged from inside the building and stopped right next to the platform and the lorry. The lorry driver got off and opened the trailer. The fork lift then advanced to get the spikes inside a pallet, took it out of the trailer and placed it on the platform. Then after a few seconds, the fork lifted it again and brought the pallet and its load inside the building. Another fork lift appeared and did the same, and the operation was repeated a few times until there seemed to be no more pallets to bring into the building. Then the lorry driver went to the reception window, did some paperwork and drove the lorry away.
“Now it is us?”, asked Paula. Jose said no just with his head.
“They will let us know.”
“And will that loading machine do our coffee too?”
“No!” Jose was smiling and frowning. Paula put a face that said “What would be wrong with that?”
“We’d need a pallet. And we don’t have one.”
Paula looked at the load. They had only put it directly on the floor of the van. She was not sure a pallet would have fitted in the van.
“Our load is too small for it to be worth it anyway.”
“So, we do it by hand?”
“Yes.”
“It would have been so cool. They “look” cool. They load and transport things so quickly!”
“Yes.”

Another two lorries were unloaded before the amazed glaze of Paula. Then a lift truck came with an empty pallet and placed it on the platform, and then they were called. Jose drove the van to the same place where the lorries had been unloaded and they got off. The men who had been waiting chatting in groups broke off from their conversation and approached the platform. The men who had been waiting sitting down got up and approached the platform too. Within three seconds of getting off the van, Jose and Paula were surrounded by men who seemed curious about these two youngsters, one of which seemed to be the only woman on sight, who had been waiting to be called for about an hour. Jose opened the van, took a pack of twelve quarter-of-kilo coffee packets out of it and placed it on the pallet. Paula took another one and passed it to Jose. Then all the men turned round and went away again, leaving Paula and Jose to it. When they finished, they taped all the packets together to make sure they would not fall out when the truck lifted it.
Paula sat down while Jose did the final paperwork. One of the men approached Paula:
“And they have made you wait for so long, just for this?”
“And we were lucky we managed to deliver it. Some times we are sent back without unloading.”
Jose had finished the paperwork and didn’t have time for conversations. He got on the van with a quick nod to the man talking to Paula and she said goodbye quickly, getting on just half a second before the van started to move.
“The coffee is still on that platform. Are we not staying to see how they take it inside?”
“I think we have been there enough hours. And they have it, it is with them now.”

————–
castellano
————–

La furgoneta había estado al servicio de un convento de monjas el tiempo suficiente para una buena furgoneta. Entonces, en sus palabras, estaba demasiado agotada. Pero en la opinión del cura, aún no estaba lo bastante agotado y él decidía ponerla para utilizar para la tienda – importadora de comercio justo. En algunos meses, la tienda se había convertido en el importador más grande de materia del comercio justo en el país entero, y todavía funcionaba solo por voluntarios. aunque Por lo menos dos de ellos eran voluntarios a tiempo completo. Todos gracias al elevado paro local, especialmente entre los menores de 30 años.

Cuando Paula llegó a la tienda, a tiempo para ver cómo el café era entregado a la cadena más grande de supermercados en esa parte del país, Jose desmontaba los asientod de la furgoneta de la tienda, preparándola para el viaje.
“¡Hola! ¿Vamos tarde?”
“¡No es mi culpa! Quienquiera haya utilizado esta furgoneta durante el fin de semana para su uso personal, debería haber quitado los asientos. Esperaba que la furgoneta estuviera vacía, lista para el transporte de hoy.”
Los tornillos parecían haber sido sujetados firmemente y fue un trabajo quitarlos. Cuando estuvieron finalmente fuera, dejaron los asientos dentro del aparcamiento/tienda. Entonces fue hora de cargar los paquetes del café, tres kilos cada vez. Paula siempre se maravilló de la capacidad de José de colocar las cajas como si fueran ladrillos, cada uno encima de dos o más, haciendo una columna / pila robusta. Así que fue a la pila en el palet y pasó una caja después de la otra a Jose, para que él los colocase en la furgoneta de la manera que él sabía. Cuando acabaron – media tonelada de café – se metieron en la furgoneta y se fueron.
“Un día, nos podremos permitir una de esas máquinas que puedan levantar un tonelada, ¿eh, Jose?” ; más que una pregunta era una declaración. Jose se quedo en silencio.
“de Esa manera no necesitaremos descargar el descargar containers ni cargar furgonetas a mano.; Jose guardó su silencio por algunos momentos, y entonces, sin venir a cuento, respondió:
“Para alguna gente que toma las decisiones, algo así no sería una prioridad.”
Paula no podía ver la lógica de no querer hacer el trabajo de los voluntarios más fácil aunque ella entendiera que no seria una prioridad facilitar las tareas que no costaron en última instancia ningún dinero (después de todo, todos ellos eran voluntarios) pero su mente estaba en otra pregunta ya.
“¿Adónde vamos?”
“Al centro de las montañas” , dijo Jose, no de una manera misteriosa en absoluto. “El punto de donde está igual la distancia a las tres ciudades principales. Está a unos diez kilómetros, para que la central de almacenaje puedea procesar nuestro café para que pueda entonces ser vendido en el supermercado al lado de nuestra tienda.”
Paula entendió la ironía y sonrió.
“Nosotros deberiamos reir demasiado. Algunas organizaciones de comercio justo hacen eso e incluso peor. Hay uno que recibe las mercancías en el puerto, por barco, después las transporta a alguna ciudad a miles de kilómetros hacia el interior, y devuelve algunas de esas mercancías de nuevo a tiendas en el norte.”
“Que tonto.”
Paula había estado en algunos polígonos industriales mientras había estado buscando trabajo. El almacén le recordó a uno de ellos, sólo que este estaba solo, en el medio de un valle entre montañas, como Jose había dicho, pero el edificio era como cualquier nave industrial. Había camiones enormes aparcados, esperando, al parecer. La furgoneta de la tienda, tan grande que parecía cuando estaba aparcada fuera de la tienda, parecida minúscula al lado de los enormes trailers. Había hombres dispersos alrededor, en grupos hablando, o sentados solos. Jose miró su reloj.
“llegamos tarde?”
“No, en realidad hemos llegado un pelin demasiado pronto.” “Bien, no hemos llegado tarde, después de todos.” “Tengo que ir a recepción, no creo que sea largo, puedes quedarte aquí si quieres.” “Sí, si no te importa.” Tanta gente ociosa y ni una mujer a la vista eran un poco intimidante para Paula. Jose se bajó de la furgoneta y fue a recepción, que parecía consistir en una ventana que frente al área donde los vehículos estaban aparcados. Luego volvió con papeles y se sentó en el asiento del conductor otra vez. No parecía muy contento. “Ahora tenemos que esperar. Sobre media hora, dicen.” “Podemos descargar mientras tanto?” La “media hora es antes de que poder poner la furgoneta en la bascula de cargamento.” “pero habías reservado hora, no?” “Sí. Pero la programan para cerciorarse de ‘ que ‘ellos’ no tendrán que esperarn, incluso si se retrasa un camión, o tiene avería, y ni siquiera puede llegar. Así que si todos llegan, todos tenemos que esperar.” “bien.”

“Ya ha sucedido que tuvimos que volvernos otro día.” “Qué?” “Los trabajadores tienen sus horas de trabajo también. En un cierto punto, dejan de aceptar más.” “Y si despachan a alguien sin que descargue, son los más pequeños?” “Mira cuántos camiones, y cómo son de grandes. Piensas que somos una prioridad?” “Ya. Tenemos media tonelada, no?” “Uh-HU.” “entonces ellos pueden tener… monton de toneladas. De comida. Cada uno.” “Sí.” “Y entre esas cargas enormes, la nuestra. Nuestro pequeña media tonelada de café.” Jose sonrió. “Realmente, es impresionante que hayais conseguido vender el café aquí. Estoy segura de que has hecho un monton de trabajo que el resto de nosotros ni somos conscientes.” la expresión de la cara de Jose decia algo entre “puedes estar segura”, “si tu supieras”, y “es demasiado doloroso para siquiera entrar en detalles.” “bueno”, dijo a Paula, “cuentamelo (todo)” Jose puso otra cara pero Paula no pudo interpretarla. “tenemos tiempo, no? Tienes media hora, y luego el viaje de vuelta!” Rieron. “Bien, cuando les enviamos la primera carta, nos enviaron su contrato estándar. El contrato estándar que envían a toda esta gente, todos sus proveedores.” “Aha?” “sabías que los estantes en los supermercados tienen su precio, cada uno de ellos?” “Sí, he estudiado eso en la Uni. El mas Valorado es el que esta a nivel del ojo.” “jo, pues yo no lo sabia. Bien, los proveedores tienen que “pagar” a la cadena de supermercados dependiendo de qué estante quieren para colocar su producto. Como que están pagando un alquiler por tener un lugar para exponer su producto!” “Sí. Imagino que este café va a quedarse en un un estante arriba del todo o en el suelo, a que si.” Jose puso otra cara. “Otra cláusula era que, tuvimos que darlos gratis, una buena parte de la primera entrega.” “Qué, como ‘regalo’!” “Sí. Como prueba, para que ellos pudieran ver si vendería, o como gesto de buena voluntad por nosotros para agradecer que nos tengan el café en sus establecimientos.” “Esto es…” “no he acabado todavía. No tendríamos ninguna capacidad de decision en cuanto al precio al que lo venden.” “bien. Asi qeu podría estar, más caro, o más barato, que el precio que hemos convenido todos, y al que están vendiendo cada solo grupo en las parroquias.” “Exactamente. Y una de las cláusulas peores era, que no ibamos a poder vender nada de café a cualquier tienda dentro de un radio de no secuántos kilómetros, de cualesquiera de sus supermercados.” “Y aceptasteis eso?” “Bueno, no podemos. Eso habría significado probablemente que no habriamos podido venderlo ni en nuestroa propia tienda. Asi que les enviamos una segunda carta y pudimos negociar. Pero aun venderán al precio que quieran. Lo mismo lo venden más barato que nosotros, porque pueden permitirse trabajar con márgenes más pequeños en algunos productos sobre-cargando en otros.” “Y si hacen eso, nos fastidian.” “Sí. Esa es la idea, conseguir que todo el mundo les compre a ellos porque es más barato, luego, todos los grupos que nos compran a nosotros no venden (porque esta mas barato en el super) y entonces se convierten en el único canal a través de el cual podemos sacar el café. Y una vez que eso esta hecho, no tenemos ningun poder de negociación. Pero ahora (despues de la negociacion) por lo menos podemos decidir a qué precio estamos vendiendo “a ellos”. Quisieron pagarnos menos, diciendo que sería un esfuerzo de comercialización por su parte!” “Pero acordaron pagar nuestro precio de costo?” “Sí.” ¿“Por qué piensas que harían eso (aceptar nuestras condiciones que no son las condiciones que ponen a sus otros proveedores? Porque esto es una buena causa?” “En el teléfono, dijeron que este producto permitiría que alcanzaran a un segmento de mercado al cual no están alcanzando, en este momento.” “Esto es repugnante.” “lo Es.” “Y por lo que dices, nosotros incluso conseguimos ‘un trato preferencial’!” “Sí.”
Paula se quedo en silencio un momento, mirando los camiones y sus conductores, caras tristes.
“sabes? pensando en toda esta gente, estos proveedores. Están teniendo que tolerar sus condiciones estándar.” “Sí. el único que no les tose es la Coca-Cola.” Uno de los hombres que esperaban en el exterior se acercó a la furgoneta y habló con Jose, señalando a su camión, detrás de la furgoneta: ¿“Puedes mover la furgoneta un poco? Tengo el camión detrás …” Jose asintió y encendió el motor, quitando la furgoneta de camino del camion. El hombre se montó en el camión y lo puso al lado de una plataforma que Paula no había notado antes. Entonces una carretilla elevadora http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=19332) emergio desde dentro del edificio y paro justo al lado de la plataforma y del camión. El conductor del camión bajó y abrió el container. La carretilla elevadora avanzó para meter las cuchillas que llevaba dentro del palet, lo sacó del trailer y lo colocó en la plataforma. Entonces después de algunos segundos, la carretilla lo levantó otra vez y llevo el palet y su carga dentro del edificio. Otra carretilla elevadora apareció e hizo lo mismo, y la operación fue repetida algunas veces hasta que no parecia haber más palets que llevar al edificio. Después el conductor del camión fue a la ventana de la recepción, hizo sus papeleos y se llevo el camión.

¿“Ahora vamos nosotros? ”, pregunto Paula. Jose solo nego con la cabeza. “ya Nos dirán.” “Y esa maquina hara lo mismo con nuestro café también?” “No!” Jose sonreia y fruncía el ceño. Paula puso una cara que dijo “que habría de malo en éso?” “necesitariamos un palet. Y no lo tenemos.” Paula miro la carga. Solo la habian puesto en el suelo de la furgoneta, directamente. tampoco estaba segura de que un palet habría cabido en la furgoneta. “Nuestra carga es demasiado pequeña para que valga la pena, de todos modos.” “Así que la hacemos a mano?” “Sí.” “Habría sido tan guay. ‘es’ guay. Lo Cargan y transportan tan rápidamente!” “Sí.” Otros dos camiones fueron descargados ante la mirada maravillada de Paula. Después un carro de elevación vino con una plataforma vacía y la colocó en la plataforma, y entonces les llamaron. Jose condujo la furgoneta al mismo lugar en donde los camiones habían sido descargados y bajaron. Los hombres que habían estado esperando charlando en grupos interrumpieron sus conversaciones y se acercaron a la plataforma. Los hombres que habían estado esperando sentados se levantaron y se acercaron a la plataforma también. En tres segundos de bajar de la furgoneta, los hombres rodearon a Jose y a Paula. parecían curiosos acerca de estos dos jóvenes, uno de ellos parecia ser la única mujer a la vista, que había estado esperando para ser atendidos alrededor de una hora. Jose abrió la furgoneta, sacó un paquete de doce paquetes del café del cuarto-de-kilo de ella y lo puso en el palet. Paula tomó otro y lo pasó a Jose. Entonces todos los hombres se volvieron y se alejaron, dejándo a Paula y a Jose. Cuando acabaron, rodearon todos los paquetes juntos con una cinta adhesiva para cerciorarse de que no caerían cuando el carro lo levantase. Paula se sentó mientras que Jose hizo el papeleo final. Uno de los hombres se acercó a Paula: “Y os han hecho espera durante tanto tiempo, solo para esto?” “Y hemos tenido suerte de que hayamos podido entregarla. Algunas veces nos han despachado sin descargar.” Jose había acabado el papeleo y no tenia tiempo para conversaciones. Se montó en la furgoneta con un rápido asentimiento de cabez al hombre que hablaba con Paula y ella dijo adiós rápidamente, metiendose en la furgoneta justo medio segundo antes de que la furgoneta empezara a moverse. “El café todavía está en esa plataforma. no nos quedamos para ver cómo lo llevan adentro?” “ya hemos estado aquí bastantes horas. Y lo tienen, él ahora están con ellos.”