It is all ‘la misma gata’
Era un día muy frío for that time of year. El cielo estaba rather overcast con muchas nubes. Grampo Caralampio was all dormido esa tardecita. He was napping en el cuarto de atrás where it was un poco más warm.Suddenly Canutito came storming por la puerta de la cocina. El muchachito was yelling at the top de su voz :“¡Grampo! ¡Grampo! Granny’s falling! Granny’s falling!”
Grampo Caralampio leaped up de la silleta where he was sitting. “¿Qué pasa, m’hijo? ¿Dónde está granny falling?”
“¡Alla ‘fuera, grampo!” Canutito yelled back and stepping back en el portal.
Grampo Caralampio rushed out por la puerta, looking por todas partes: “¿Dónde está tu grama, m’hijo?” he shouted, todo worried. “I hope que no esté hurt!”
Canutito asked him: “Why would grama be lastimada, grampo?” he asked him.
“You yelled to me que tu grama was falling, m’hijo,” grampo said. “Where is she falling, -en el hielo?” he asked, looking for un patch of ice.
“I didn’t yell que ‘grama’s falling’,” Canutito replied. “I said that granny’s falling.” He pointed over near the trees en el otro lado de la yarda and said: “See, look at all that white stuff en el suelo; that is where granny’s fell.”
Grampo Caralampio looked and saw a few balls of white hail on the floor. “I don’t see nothing, m’hijo,” grampo said, “I see only unas cuántas bolas de granizo.”
“Isn’t granizo called ‘granny’s’ in English, grampo?” Canutito asked him.
Grampo smiled at la inocencia del niño and he sat down en la yarda .“Granizo is called ‘hail’ en inglés, m’hijo,” he explained.
“I guess que I heard wrong, grampo,” Canutito apologized. He helped grampo levantarse del zacate and they both walked pa’trás pa’ la casa. By that time Grama Cuca had come back in de la dispensa where she had been looking por un pedazo de carne for dinner.
“That piece of meat looks muy bueno, grama,” Canutito said. “How are you going to prepararlo, grama?”
“I thought que I would spice up esta carne con un poco de hinojo, m’hijo,” grama replied.
“How can you spice up carne con ‘anger’, grama?” asked Canutito. “Will the meat get un poco más tender if you yell at it?”
“I didn’t say ‘enojo’, m’hijo,” grama said. “Enojo is ‘anger’; I said I would use ‘hinojo’ which is called ‘dill weed’ en inglés.”
“You have to learn how to listen, m’hijo,” Grampo Caralampio told Canutito. “Some words sound muy semejantes a otras pero just because they sound the same, no hace mean que son las mismas words. Learn to escuchar atentamente.”
Grampo sat down en una silla and he leaned en la mesa. “I feel like having un snack mientras que tu grama is cooking dinner, m’hijo,” he said. Entonces he added, “¿Por qué no me traes unos ‘Lucky Strikes’, m’hijo?”
Again, Canutito looked at grampo, un poco confuso .As far as he could tell, los ‘Lucky Strikes’ eran cigarritos. “Are you sure que you want to smoke, as a snack antes de cenar, grampo?” he asked Grampo Caralampio.
“No m’hijo,” grampo replied, “Yo quiero comer de ese cereal con marshmallows.”
“O grampo,” Canutito said, “ésos no son ‘Lucky Strikes’; ésos son ‘Lucky Charms’.”
“It’s all la misma gata, nomás que revolcada,” grampo replied.
Canutito couldn’t understand cómo era the same cat, only dragged through the dust.