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Pablo
by Luke Dalton

Pablo was a laborer on a building site I once worked on. When I was introduced to him, he seemed fairly ordinary. I suppose he was at heart. But one thing set him apart from everyone else: Pablo had a real passion for riddles. Sitting in the canteen one morning, he sidled up to me and the other apprentices. 

‘I’ve got a question for you, lads: what comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years? I’ll leave it with you,’ and he promptly swaggered off. By the end of the day, everyone had forgotten about the riddle. Pablo received bewildered looks when he walked up with the simple words ‘the letter ‘M’.’ 

A few days later, I was helping a site engineer. He’d worked out some coordinates and I was spraying a line on the ground to mark them. About halfway through, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Someone was leaning right over me. 

‘I have a mouth, but cannot speak. I have a bed, but never sleep.’ I dropped the spray can, which rolled away noisily, and looked around. Pablo was already walking away. He looked over his shoulder. 
‘I’ll see if you got it at lunch!’ 

Around this time, a crane supervisor was fired for drinking on the job. Somehow, Pablo was promoted. I still don’t know how. Maybe it was in exchange for leaving the site manager alone. I saw him sauntering around in his new orange uniform.  

I had a lot of free time during this period. One idle afternoon, up on the roof level, I watched a crane operator, controlling his tall machine. It must be a fun job to do, I thought. He was lowering sand onto a pickup below. I became aware of shouting from the ground. I looked down. Pablo was frantically waving up at him. He was gesturing for him to stop. The operator switched off the crane. He put his radio to his ear. Pablo yelled into his own from below. 

‘YOU LIVE IN A BUNGALOW MADE ENTIRELY OF REDWOOD. WHAT COLOUR ARE THE STAIRS?!’ 
It was one thing on breaks, but this was a nonsense. At lunch time, I became aware of shouting again. 

‘OH, SO THE MAN REALISED HE DIDN’T HAVE HIS WALLET, AND NOW I’M MEANT TO START BELIEVING IN GOD?! WHY DON’T YOU LEAVE ME IN PEACE?!

Pablo held his hands up and walked away from the irate foreman. He approached us in the corner. 

‘Man’s walking to the shops. Halfway there, he realises he doesn’t have his wallet. Never even checked his-’

‘I CAN STILL HEAR YOU, PABLO! I GET A HALF HOUR FOR LUNCH. I DON’T WANT IT FILLED UP WITH THIS CRAP!’

He left the canteen and disappeared into the cloakroom. When I went to put my boots back on, I saw him, hunched over his phone. He had his back to me and I could see the screen: ‘This year’s best riddles: get the brain working.’ With the number of them he’d looked at, you’d think he might have achieved this.