People ask me what kinds of stories I tell. I tell them that I tell folk
stories, and stories from my Italian family and stories from many different
lands and cultures and times. I tell stories I made up myself. I tell all
kinds of stories, but the one thing that is the same about all the stories I
tell is that they are absolutely true. When I say that sometimes people
don’t believe me so I explain. You see, every story I tell is absolutely
true because all stories are absolutely true. When I say that sometimes
people don’t believe me so I explain. If I tell you a story, even if the
things in the story didn’t exactly happen that way, it will tell you
something about myself. And if I tell you a story from a different land or
culture or time, even if the things in the story didn’t exactly happen that
way, it will tell you something about that land or culture or time. And if I
tell you a story. And you listen. You listen with your ears and your heart
and your soul, even if the things in the story didn’t exactly happen that
way, it will tell you something true about yourself. So, I would like to
tell you an absolutely true story about two friends of mine.

Antonio and Rudolpho were good friends. They were good friends but they had
not seen each other for a long time. Antonio lived in the big city of
Seattle where it is very busy and noisy and there is always something
happening. Rudolpho lived in the country where it is quiet and slow. One
day, Rudolpho decided that he would like to visit his friend Antonio. When
Rudolpho knocked on Antonio’s door Antonio was so glad to see him. Antonio
wanted to show Rudolpho all the wonderful things in Seattle.

Where do you think Antonio took Rudolpho? Antonio took Rudolpho to see the
Space Needle. They went all the way to the top. Rudolpho had never seen
anything like that before and he was amazed. They went to the Pacific
Science Center and Rudolpho was just amazed by all the interesting things he
saw. He had never seen anything like that before. They went to concerts and
museums and they went to a Mariner’s Game.

Then one day Antonio took Rudolpho to one of his favorite spots, The Pike
Street Market. The Pike Street Market is a very busy place. There are people
playing music and people reading poetry and people buying things and selling
things and kids running around and these guys throw fish around. It is a
very busy, very noisy place.

Rudolpho was fascinated. He had never seen anything like this before. All of
a sudden Rudolpho stopped. "Listen."

Antonio looked, "Listen to what? How can you hear anything in here is so
noisy. There’s children running around and music and poetry and guys
throwing fish, how can you hear anything?"

Rudolpho said, "No, Listen!"

Rudolpho listened for a moment and then said, "A cricket."

Antonio was astonished. "That is not possible. There is so much noise in
here, there’s music and poetry and kids running around people buying and
selling things and guys throwing fish, how could you possibly hear a
cricket? Besides, I’ve never even seen a cricket in Seattle!"

Rudolpho listened and then he bent down towards a planter and picked up a
little cricket. "See, a cricket." Then Rudolpho put the cricket back.

Antonio said. "That’s amazing, how did you do that? Teach me how you did
that, I want to trick my friends too!"

"There’s no trick."

"There’s got to be some kind of trick!"

"No, no trick, watch," Rudolpho took three brown pennies from his pocket and
in the middle of the Pike Place Market with people buying and selling things
and music and poetry and kids running around and guys throwing fish,
Rudolpho dropped those three brown pennies on the ground, PLINK, PLINK,
PLINK. And the music and poetry stopped. People stopped buying and selling
things. Kids stopped running. And guys stopped throwing fish. Everyone was
looking at Rudolpho, Antonio and those three brown pennies.

"See," Rudolpho said, "You just have to know what to listen for."