I'm with the President

I had to go to the school yesterday to sit in on class before training next week. i got sidetracked talking to one of the employees here at the hostel so decided to take a cab to save time and guarantee my arrival. Walking down the street, i hail the first cab i find and give him the directions and landmarks necessary for the school. after a little while, he asks me where i learned to speak spanish and then begins speaking to me in english. I reply that i really dont know how to speak spanish and everything i know comes from high school years ago.

An awkward silence assumes the cab so i then ask him where he learned to speak english. he looks at me very seriously and say, "I really shouldnt be telling you this, so you will have to keep a secret. I used to work for air force one."

I quickly smirk and then cover it up by wiping my nose. "really?" I question, "what did you do for air force one?"

Without looking back at me and keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the road, the slender built middle aged cabby replies, "I was the number one security for the president of the united states."

At this point my smirk is unconcealable and i am wearing it loudly and proudly on my face. I give him a few "wows" and "thats a pretty cool dudes" before i sink back into my chair i then proceeded to ask him once more where he learned to speak english and was answered with the same bewildering story. He then asked him if i believed him which i promptly replied no. "no, im sorry, i really dont believe you." when asked for reasoning, i told him, "first of all, your english is good, but its really not THAT good and secondly, i dont know if you have seen the bodyguards that work for the president, but theyre pretty big guys and youre pretty thin."

He laughs and then shrugs off my rebuttal and lets the silence resume. I then go foreward and ask, "which president did you work for?"

He looks up to the corner of the car and then replies, "kennedy" and brings his attention straight back to the road. he was also going an astonishingly slow speed the whole ride and consequently running up my tab.

"oh you worked for kennedy?" i repeat, thinking then you must have just done a stand up job on that one, but keep those thoughts to myself. I then ask, "do you guys still keep in contact?"

this time he diverts his attention from the road looks me square in the eyes to answer a very confident, "yes. I do."

at this point i burst into laughter and i think he even cracked a smile out of mild confusion due my amusement. Unfortunately, before i could break the heartwrenching news to him, we arrived at the school and i had to leave. All in all, it was probalby one of the better cab rides i have had to date in costa rica... even if was a little more pricey but hey, he put on a show.