It’s an ordinary apartment in a quiet Havana neighborhood. You have to knock and go inside to find out if owner knows about the recommendation you have been given. There are no introductions. A girl leads you straight to a room in the apartment that is not a room but rather a little store, well-organized and well-stocked, given what it is.
“How much is this wallet?”
“Um, I don’t know if they told you but I don’t sell, I rent,” she says.
Huh?
“Yeah, I have a license to rent party clothes. What you have to do is leave a deposit for the full value of the article. If you don’t return it after ten days, I deduct it from my inventory.”
“Ten days, right?”
I leave with my wallet and a smile. “If you can’t go over, go around.”
9 July 2014
