Hooked on Spanish

I was asked to speak at a Spanish ladies conference in Pittsburg California. I was honored to have been asked although I was a little nervous because I don’t know any Spanish. Just as the meeting was starting, my translator, a young Puerto Rican woman wanted to go over my notes with me to make sure there were no words that would catch her off guard. This made me a little late arriving on stage.
When I got up to speak I felt it necessary to let the ladies know that I had not been late on purpose, but had a very legitimate excuse, so I apologetically said that I was not playing hooky. You could hear a pin drop. Silence swept over the crowd. I looked at my translator and she was staring wide-eyed at me. I knew she could not think of a word for hooky and I couldn’t think of another one either, so I just repeated myself to her a little louder. Motioning to her and me, I said, “we, you and I were not playing hooky.” The pastor’s wife came to our rescue and provided my translator with an appropriate Spanish word so we could go on with the evening.
Afterward, my translator said, “Oh Sister Baughman, you gave me such a fright tonight! I thought you said you were not a hooker! And I was not sure where you were going with that. Then you looked at me and said I was not a hooker either. I knew I was not one! I didn’t know what to say until the pastor’s wife came to my rescue and said we were not trying to be late!