Canutito doesn’t understand ‘las costs poor encumbe’
Una mañana Grampo Caralampio estaba en la cocina con todos sus wrenches on top of the kitchen table. Él estaba haciéndole el trai de hacer unplug the drain on the sink. Pero the more that he tried to unplug it, the more he realized que estaba bien plogueão. Besides that, Canutito kept getting in the way, empinándose and trying to look pa’ dentro del drain by leaning into the sink.
“Quítate de aquí, m’hijo,” Grampo Caralampio said sin paciencia, moving Canutito aside. “Siempre estás aquí encima.”
“What does ‘encima’ mean, grama?” Canutito asked her mientras que ella lo hizo lift away del sink and set him down en una silleta away from grampo.
“Una ‘cima’ is the top or height or summit of something como una sierra. Cuando estás ‘encima’ quiere decir que you are on top of things or in the way.”
Grama Cuca was bringing unos scrambled eggs in a pan pa’la mesa en ese momento. Canutito already had papas en su plato .As grama approached con la puela, he said, “grama, put los huevos encima de las papas.”
“No. m’hijo,” Grama Cuca corrected him, “you want the eggs ‘arriba de los huevos’; not ‘encima en los huevos’, porque entonces they would be ‘in the way’ of the eggs.”
Just then they heard un ruido coming del rumbo del sink. They looked over and saw Grampo Caralampio hitting la pipa del drain con su wrenche. He was making such a clatter by banging on the pipes que les dolían los oídos. They put sus manos over their ears.
“Why don’t you work un poco más despacio, grampo?” Canutito asked him. “Entonces maybe que you wouldn’t make so much noise.”
I would rather work más recio, m’hijo,” grampo said, banging en las pipas otra vez .“Entonces pudiera acabar todo and get it out of the way.”
“Well, a veces slow-moving people can be fast, grampo,” Canutito said. “I knew a un hombre que era huevón and he barely moved so le pusieron ‘flash’ como sobrenombre.”
“Eso no es nada, m’hijo,” grampo said, still banging en las pipas, “I used to know a un hombre who was so fast que he used to light his cigarette con un relámpago.” “What’s a ‘relámpago, grampo?” Canutito asked. “It is un lightning bolt, m’hijo,” grampo answered. “And did the man really light su cigarrito con un lightning bolt?” Canutito asked him, todo surprised at the idea.
“That was the story,” Grampo Caralampio said.“Mi amigo was called ‘el relámpago’ porque un day he was leaning en un árbol cuando estaba raining. He was waiting a que la lluvia acabara de caer. He had ganas de fumar. He really wanted to smoke un cigarrito but he couldn’t find any matches en su bolsa. He took the cigarette out of his pocket and he was tapping it on the tree cuando en ese momento, un relámpago struck the tree, igniting the cigarette he was tapping on it.
Pues, de una vez he got una reputación for being faster que un speeding bullet,” grampo said as he tightened the nut otra vez. All the people wanted to light sus cigarritos from his cigarette porque pensaban que since his had been lit with fire from the sky, tenía que ser un holy cigarette.”
“Su cigarrito had been lit por un relámpago from on high, grampo.” Canutito said. “Would it be safe to say que his cigarette had been lit por encima?” Grampo and grama looked at each other and shook their heads. “The way you are saying it, m’hijo,” grama said patiently, “lit por encima’ means ‘barely lit’.”
Now Canutito shook his head. He didn’t understand las cosas por encima.