Grampo remembers ‘sus maldades’
It was lazy Sunday afternoon después de Misa. Estaba lluviendo and with all of this falling rain, la familia se recogió and they had huddled together by the fogoncito. As they gathered allí cerca del potbellied stove, grampo said, “¿Por qué no tostamos un piñoncito to nibble on mientras?”
“¡Ésa es una good idea, grampo!” Canutito exclaimed.
“Grama Cuca got up de su silleta and she went over to the closet donde guardaba las pine nuts and she poured una copa llena de su saquito and emptied it into a small bandejita de pan to roast en el horno. Mientras que el piñón se estaba roasteando, she went back and sat down by the fogón.
Canutito had been daydreaming allí next to the calorcita pero when grama came back, he looked up and saw que Grampo Caralampio was smiling. “¿Why are you sonriéndose, grampo?” Canutito asked him. Grama Cuca also noticed que se estaba sonriendo, so she remarked, “El que a solas se ríe, de sus maldades se acuerda.”
“What do you mean by: ‘the person who smiles to himself, is remembering his wicked deeds’, grama?” Canutito asked.
“Eso quiere decir, m’hijo,” grama said, “que we have all done cositas que we are not very proud of in the past pero a veces hacemos smile en secreto porque we were able to get away con algunas de ellas,” she concluded.
“Did you ever do algo wicked en el pasado, grampo,” Canutito asked him, “that you got away with?”
“Well,” grampo stammered, “I was remembering una vez cuando yo estaba en la escuela that I did algo that I lived to regret. I was reminded de algo que pasó back when I was in school: It was un día de invierno, much like today y toda la clase estaba trabajando en su arithmetic. Just then, una muchachita, que era una hall monitor, came into our class room y le dio una notita a la mestra. La Mrs. Anaya got up and went out to see qué quería el principal. That’s when mi amigo el Luisito yyo decided to have some fun. Él tenía una basketball que le habían dão pa’ Crismes and so he took it out and he began to bounce it around. Hasta la bounceaba off the walls, haciéndoles chó a los demás de los students en la clase, who were laughing their heads off.”
“Did you bounce la pelota also, grampo?” Canutito asked him.
“Worse than that, m’hijo,” grampo replied. “I don’t know cómo el diablo got into me y me echó por ‘delante. The Devil made me open the top del fogón and made me dare Luisito to shoot a basket toward it. Pues, el Luisito, took aim, shooteó un basket and made it … right into the potbellied stove. We couldn’t fish the basketball out of there. De repente la mestra came back into the room and I closed the top del fogón real quick para que no hiciera suspect nada.”
“¿Qué pasó entonces, grampo?” Canutito asked, already guessing at the answer.
“La basketball hizo explode adentro del potbellied stove and it shattered todos los chiflones. The stove pipes and ashes flew por donde quiera and Luisito and I got a sound whipping del principal,” grampo said sadly.
Just then Grama Cuca returned con el piñón. Canutito smiled y no dijo nada.