The Coyote Under the Table/El Coyote Debajo de la Mesa (12 page)

Juan compró una casa en el pueblo y se instaló en ella. Sus hermanos no sabían qué había sido de él, pero les importaba un comino. Pasaron varios años. Y luego los hermanos empezaron a oír hablar de un hombre rico llamado Juan que vivía en el pueblo cercano. Todos decían que este Juan era muy bueno y bondadoso con los pobres del pueblo. Y decían que el rico tenía un gato con manchas que siempre lo acompañaba. “Dondequiera que vaya Juan, ahí va el gato,” decían. “Todo el mundo conoce a Gato Pinto.”

Los hermanos se preguntaron “¿Será Juan Cenizas? Pero ¿cómo pudo volverse rico, a menos que se robara dinero que debiera ser nuestro?”

Los hermanos decidieron investigar sobre este rico Juan. Conocían a una muchacha del pueblo que vendía loros. La visitaron y le preguntaron: —¿Tienes un loro que pueda hacer preguntas y recordar las respuestas?

—Ése —dijo la muchacha, señalando un gran loro verde—. Ese loro puede hablar como un juez, y recuerda todo lo que oye.

Los hermanos le pagaron para que ofreciera su loro en venta en el pueblo vecino. Le dijeron: —No lo vendas a nadie más que al rico llamado Juan.

La muchacha hizo lo mandado, y un día, cuando Juan regresaba de la iglesia, vio a la muchacha con el loro. Ella se veía tan pobre, y el loro era tan bonito, que Juan se lo compró.

Esa tarde, el loro inició una plática con Juan: —Juan —el ave graznó—, ¿usted no tiene familia?

Juan contestó abiertamente: —Tengo dos hermanos, pero tuve que dejarlos porque temía que me hicieran mal para quitarme el dinero.

—¿Dinero? —gritó el loro—. ¿Dónde consiguió dinero?

Juan le contó al loro todo lo del testamento del padre y del gato escarbando en el rincón. Por supuesto, Gato Pinto estaba pendiente de la conversación. Más tarde, cuando Juan se fue a dormir, el gato subió a la varilla donde posaba el loro. Lo agarró por el cuello y le dio una soberana sacudida que le desbarató los sesos y todo le quedó revuelto en la mente.

A la mitad de la noche, cuando la muchacha vino para interrogar al loro, el ave dijo: —¡Aaakkk! Juan tiene dos padres. Su hermano rascó un papel en el rincón y encontró una caja de vigas. ¡Aaakkk!

Para la tarde siguiente el cerebro del loro se había restablecido y el ave comenzó la misma conversación con Juan. Juan no se sorprendió porque sabía que los loros suelen decir lo mismo una y otra vez. Repitió todo el relato, y le gustó tanto hablar con el ave que lo llevó al dormitorio cuando se fue a dormir. Puso al loro en el marco de la ventana, junto a su cama.

Gato Pinto rasguñó fuerte contra la puerta, pero Juan no lo dejaba entrar. Al fin, Juan se impacientó con el gato y lo echó afuera. Luego, tan pronto se durmió Juan, el loro salió por la ventana y voló donde la muchacha. Le contó toda la historia de Juan, y ella se apresuró a repetírselo a sus hermanos. Los hermanos decidieron prender fuego a la casa de Juan esa misma noche mientras él dormía. Como parientes únicos heredarían todo su dinero.

Pero mientras tanto Gato Pinto había corrido a la iglesia del pueblo. Saltó y hundió las uñas en la cuerda de la campana y comenzó a columpiarse de un lado para el otro hasta hacer repicar la campana. Eso despertó al padre, que vino corriendo para ver qué pasaba.

Por supuesto que el padre reconoció al gato. Todos conocían al Gato Pinto. Se dijo: —A lo mejor le ha pasado algo a Juan. — Salió de la iglesia y se dirigió corriendo a la casa de Juan. Gato Pinto siguió haciendo doblar la campana, hasta que la mitad del pueblo estaba despierto y corriendo detrás del cura.

Llegaron para ver que la casa de Juan empezaba a arder y que dos hombres huían corriendo. Apagaron el incendio y detuvieron a los dos hombres. Y luego despertaron a Juan.

Juan reconoció a sus dos hermanos, pero le dijo a la gente: —Déjenlos ir. No creo que vuelvan a molestarme. —Y tenía razón. Sus hermanos sintieron tanta vergüenza que nunca más volvieron a ese pueblo.

Pero lo más extraño es esto: Gato Pinto tampoco volvió a verse en el pueblo. Nadie sabía qué había sido de él. Algunos decían, “Ese gato de manchas era en realidad un ángel. Fue enviado por el padre de Juan para que lo ayudara y lo protegiera.” Eso es lo que casi toda la gente llegó a creer.

Por su parte, Juan no sabía qué pensar. Lo cierto es que a través de los años Juan adoptaba muchos gatos extraviados, y los quería a todos, pero no encontró otro como el gran Gato Pinto.

 

H
ere is a story about a man who had just one daughter. She was all the family he had in the world. The man worked as a woodcutter, and he and his daughter lived very simply.

One day the girl asked her father to bring home a head of cabbage for her to cook for their supper. Although the woodcutter was very poor, he always tried to please his daughter, so when he returned home that evening, he brought with him a big head of cabbage.

“This big head of cabbage is more than we can eat at one meal,” the woodcutter told his daughter. “Cut it in half, and we can get two suppers from it.”

The girl took the head of cabbage into the kitchen and with a knife cut it in two. And in the very heart of the cabbage she found a little snake. It was shiny and black, with a round head, and it was no bigger than a worm. The girl covered the snake with a cabbage leaf, and then called for her father to bring her a jar to keep it in.

But her father told her, “That animal will hurt you some day. You'd better kill it right now.”

“Papá!” the girl exclaimed. “How could I kill this snake? It's going to be my best friend.”

So her father brought her a jar. She fed the snake each day and held it in her hand and talked to it. The snake grew so fast that in a week's time she had to ask her father for a larger jar.

Again her father warned her, “That animal will hurt you some day. You'd better kill it right now.”

And again she answered, “How could I kill this snake? It's going to be my best friend.”

Her father brought her a larger jar and she put her snake in it. She continued to feed and care for her snake and every week she asked her father for a bigger and bigger container. Finally she asked her father for a barrel for her snake.

For the final time her father told her, “That animal will hurt you some day. You'd better kill it right now.”

“How could I kill this snake? It's my best friend,” the girl said.

The woodcutter brought his daughter a great round barrel to keep her snake in. Each day she would take her snake out of the barrel and spend hours talking to it. It told her many wonderful things. It told her that whenever she cried, she made rain fall from the sky. Whenever she laughed, she made pale flowers grow—blue and pink and white flowers. And when she sang, bright flowers grew—red and orange and yellow flowers. The girl's happiest hours were the ones she spent talking to the snake.

But the snake continued to grow, and one day when she returned it to the barrel, the girl saw that it was too big for even such a large container. That night the snake told the girl that it would have to leave her. She wanted to go too, but the snake said it wasn't possible. She begged and pleaded, and finally the snake said, “This is the best I can do for you. Follow my track in the morning. When you arrive at the end of the trail, make a wish for what you need most. You will receive it.”

In the morning, the girl ran to the barrel and saw that the snake was gone. From her window she could see its trail leading away from the house, and she followed the trail. It led her far away, to lands she had never even heard of before. And then it led her into a dry, empty desert. The trail began to grow more and more faint. In the middle of a barren plain, the snake trail disappeared.

The girl looked all around her and saw nothing but the most desolate country she could imagine. Not a green tree or bush grew in that land. The girl thought of her father's comfortable little house with shady trees all around it. She sat on the ground and covered her face with her hands and began to cry.

From the clear blue sky above her a gentle rain began to fall. It was just as the snake had told her! The thought made her laugh. Pale flowers grew up all around her—blue and pink and white flowers. A song sprang from her lips, and bright flowers—red and yellow and orange—sprang up.

“I wish I had a good house to live in, right here on this spot,” the girl said aloud. And the wish was granted. When she looked over her shoulder, a snug little house stood behind her. The girl began living in the house. Whenever she felt happy and sang or laughed, flowers grew around the house. When she missed her father and cried, rain fell to feed the flowers. Soon the house sat in the center of a beautiful garden with flowers and fruit trees of all sorts.

But the garden was in the middle of a country that was dry and dying. No one could grow anything. No one could find grass for their animals to eat, nor water for them to drink. Not even the king himself could coax a green sprout from the fields that surrounded his palace.

Now, the king owned a flock of sheep. They had once been fat, healthy animals, but they had grown so thin and weak that the king feared they would all die. One day he told his shepherd, “Take my sheep and drive them to the far mountains. There is nothing for them to eat here, and in the mountains some grass may still be growing.”

So the shepherd drove the sheep away from the king's lands. He hadn't traveled a third of the way to the mountains when he saw a little house standing in the middle of a rich garden.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't keep the sheep from running to the garden and eating. He was afraid the owner of the garden would be angry, but the girl who lived in the house just smiled to see the sheep eating so greedily. At the end of the day, she even gave the shepherd a basket of fruit to take home with him.

When the shepherd returned to the king's palace that evening, the king was amazed to see how fat and contented his sheep looked. He was even more amazed to see the basket of fruit.

“Where does this fruit come from?” he asked the shepherd. “And where did you find green food for my sheep to eat?”

The shepherd told the king about the house in the middle of a garden of fruit and flowers, and about the gentle girl who lived in it. “I must meet this girl,” the king said. “Go tomorrow and invite her to have dinner with me.”

The next day the shepherd returned to the garden and invited the girl to dine with the king. But the girl replied, “If the king would like me to visit him, let him come himself and invite me.”