martes, 25 de diciembre de 2012

Miguel Túñez Cobas, 2nd Intermediate

The winter sun was setting and Christine was getting home. She came down the mountain way between the old oaks looking forward and down to the two cows and the dog. She raised her head and could see her daughter playing near the houses and continued walking. - What are you playing at, Cath?- She asked.- I was just jumping this stones – answered Cath. - It’s too late, come in! The house was like the others in the village. Small houses but big at the same time, because each year fewer people were living there. Christine kept the cows on the ground floor and then they and the dog went-up stairs. She opened the door and in the background was grandma Chloe close to the fireplace. She smiled as when Christine had found Cath a few minutes before. – Is everything alright? – Yes, it is. Mother and daughter sat too while Cath was thinking: Tomorrow is the day, tomorrow is the day... Always the same thought, waiting for tonight and next morning. She was really excited. – I am hungry! – but she only wanted to go to bed. – Outdoors it is cold as ever and tomorrow everything still being in the same place – said grandma Chloe. Christine said nothing. The old woman added three new potatoes to the stew. They had been eating the same food for all the week. That was de difference between poverty and misery, and at home hunger didn’t exist. That night they were eating some cookies to celebrate. They started dinner and Cath still thinking the same: dinner, bed and tomorrow... The light was dim in the kitchen because the few candles were not enough, but that night food tasted really good and the three women felt a little happiness. They finished and looked to the fire. – Time to go to bed – ordered Christine who continued in the kitchen while Grandma and Cath were going to their bedrooms. That night only Cath believed in her prayers before sleeping, prayers that immediately became dreams. Tomorrow morning. Cath listened to the church bells ringing, she touched her eyes and said – today is the day. She looked at the floor and there was a small doll made of wood and a handful of chestnuts, but she ignored them; then Cath ran all over the house and could see that nobody new was there. One more time, the man who brings things had not brought daddy home.

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