Un bad joke hace deserve un otro
It was getting to be late en el mes y estaba muy windy to go outside. Grampo Caralampio was sitting en la cocina jugando a la baraja and saying to himself: “¡Qué mes tan loco!” as he listened to the viento soplando outside the house. He peered through la ventana de la cocina looking hacia el cielo and he said, “Es un cielo aborregão.”
“What does it mean when you say que the sky is all ‘aborregao’, grampo?” Canutito asked him.
“It means que the wind está haciendo a los clouds drift by como un flock of sheep, m’hijo,” grampo replied.
As he was thinking about el cielo aborregão, Canutito’s mind drifted over to un chiste que había oído back en la escuela. He asked grampo :“Grampo did you hear about el hombre que tuvo una operación y los doctores had to remove todo el left side of his body?”
“No, m’hijo,” grampo replied, todo surprised. “¿Qué le pasó?”
“Nada,” said Canutito. “From now on el hombre is going to be ‘all right’… Do you get it, grampo?”
Grampo smiled at Canutito’s bad joke. He picked up las barajas again. Mientras que he played cards, comenzó a hacer sing una cancioncita real softly. He would entone: “Allá en el Mont Horeb la zarza ardilla. Allá en el Mont Horeb la zarza ardilla. No se sabe por qué la zarza ardilla; ‘No se consumía,’ decía Moisés. ‘Quita, quita las sandalias de sus pies, porque el lugar que pisas, santo es’.”
“That’s a strange tono, grampo,” Canutito said. “¿De qué está talking about la cancion?”
“It is about la vez long, long ago,” grampo said, putting down las barajas ,“cuando Moses climbed to the top of Mount Horeb y vió un burning bush y luego del medio del burning bush, una voz called out to him to remove sus sandals porque he was standing on holy ground.”
“Who taught you esa canción, grampo?” Canutito asked him.
“Una vez when I was a little boy, yo estaba en la sierra watching las borregas de mi papá. There was an old pastor with me who watched my dad’s sheep. His name was Mardoqueo pero we just le llamábamos ‘el Morty’. In any case, el Morty told me la historia de Moses en la Bible que subió to the top de una sierra y allí, él vió un burning bush. As he was watching a la zarza ardiendo, a voice called out to him desde allí. Moses got real scared porque the bush se hacía burn pero it wouldn’t consume in the fire.”
“What would you have done, grampo?” Canutito asked him, “if you have seen aun burning bush when you were up en la sierra con el pastor de borregas?”
“Well, actually,” Grampo Caralampio said, “un día I did see a una zarza ardiendo.”
“Where did you see el burning bush, grampo?” Canutito asked con curiosidad.
“Una tarde,” grampo said, “cuando yo era niño, I happened to be walking por la sierra looking por las borregas. Just as I went around un rincón, suddenly I saw aun burning bush que estaba ardiendo really bright. Just as I was thinking que yo era como el Moses, I heard a una voz speaking to me. It said: ‘¡Caralampio! ¡Caralampio!’ I asked the voice, ‘¿Quién es’? and he answered ‘Soy yo’!” “I AM!” Canutito tradujo. “Era la voz de Dios, grampo?” “No, m’hijo,” smiled grampo. “It was just el Morty who had been burning hierbas and he was calling for me to go a ayudarle.”
“Ah, grampo!” said Canutito todo disappointed. “I thought que you were going to decirme about un encuentro that you had con Dios.”
“Nope!” replied grampo. “I was just thinking de tu bad chiste del hombre who was going to be all right and so I decided que un bad joke hace deserve un otro.”
Ahora era el turn de Canutito de hacer smile at grampo’s bad joke …