I stopped the bike to sit out the rain at Marcelo’s hot dog stand next to the old whorehouse in Praca Lido. Standing under the black plastic tarp it’s a shoving match of the usual Friday night pimps and whores and half-drunk working types and locals out for a pre-midnight stroll.
  Everybody’s crowding around the plastic ketchup and mayonnaise bottles on the stainless steel counter, trying to dodge each other’s elbows and greasy fingers and the big drops of rain water rolling off the tarp as it comes rolling down from the early summer night sky.
  I get my cheeseburger and stand there in the mix, squeezing the plastic bottles of red and white goo onto the burger.
  The big fluffy black dog sitting at my feet looks up. I don’t know if he’s looking at my burger or my shoe. I move a couple of steps away. The whore standing beside me sits down on her haunches and begins petting the dog. Her girlfriend watches in amusement as her short skirt rides up around her ample black ass.
 ”I think he can see my panties,” the first whore giggles.
 ”Him and the rest of Copacabana can see your panties, girl,” the second whore says. “You should get right in front of him… Dogs like to look at the pussy!”
  The first girl ignores her partner and keeps petting the dog. She’s really massaging it now, kneeding its big fluffy mane with both hands like it was bread dough. The dog seems happy enough with the arrangement.
  “Here, lemme show you,” the second girl says, coming around in front of the dog.
  She hikes her skirt up and gets down on her wide black haunches, flashing the dog. The dog jumps right up and starts barking at her.
  “Damn! You musta scared him with that ugly black widow spider!” The first girl howls with laughter.
 ”Fucking pussy hating faggot dog,” the second girl cries, wagging her finger at the confused animal.
 I finish my burger and wander off in the rain, looking for something to do.

Copyright Jonathan Shaw 2008.