Canutito ‘estaba bien’ terrorized ‘por la vecinita’
Una mañana Canutito was coloring en su coloring book. He stopped de repente and he asked Grama Cuca, “Grama, did you ever go to Headstart?” “Oh m’hijo,” she replied, “en mis días there was no such thing como el Project Headstart. Cuando yo era chiquita, my mom enrolled me en el Pre-Primer. I remember que yo estaba muy scared by the one-room schoolhouse; I thought que era muy grandotota!”
“I didn’t like Headstart very much,” Canutito mumbled as he continued coloreando. “Oh, I kind of liked jugando con los otros muchitos pero I didn’t like caminando pa’la casa después del Headstart.”
“Why didn’t you like caminando after Headstart, m’hijo?” Grama Cuca asked him. “Were there perros malos or muchitos who threw rocks at you?”
“No, grama,” Canutito said, “no habían mean dogs nor boys que me tiraban piedras; I was afraid to pass adelante de la casa de los neighbors.” “What did los vecinos ever do to you, m’hijo?”
“La hija de los neighbors tenía un gato named Sheba,” Canutito said. “It was a mean cat y a veces it would hiss at me and then I would yell at it, ‘Quítate, Cheeva,’ to scare it away. The daughter of the neighbors also thought que I had killed her dog, la Chara, porque she couldn’t find it en ninguna parte.
But honest grama, I didn’t! I think que la perra nomás hizo run away porque la vecinita era muy mala with her. I know that’s what I would have done.
“In any case, cada vez que I would walk past su casa, she would come out to the porch y me gritaba: ‘¡Mata-perros! ¡Mata-perros! ¡Mata-perros!’ and I would just yell back at her que I hadn’t seen su perra.
“She would terrorize and insult me ansina todas las mañanas, and so I was afraid de caminar por allí whenever she was standing en el portal. I wanted yell something to her that meant que she was una dog lover y que ella quería más a los perros que a la gente, pero I didn’t want to be mean con ella.
“This kind of abuse took place todos los días so that a veces
I would even feel sick en la escuela just thinking of what I would face volviendo pa’trás pa’la casa at the end of the day. And sure enough, la hija de la vecina would be waiting for me to pass por allí al fin del día con la gata mala; la Cheeva and I would try to run past her house pero still she would yell at me: ‘¡Mata-perros! ¡Mata-perros! ¡Mata-perros!’
“Finally, un día when she came out en el portal para abusarme e insultarme, I had taken todo lo que podía. I wanted to call her a dog lover, pero when she yelled at me — ‘¡Mata-perros! ¡Mata-perros! ¡Mata-perros!’ — the only thing I could think of to yell at her era: ‘Y tú, ¡Perroda! ¡Perroda! ¡Perroda! I had meant for it to mean dog lover, pero I had ended up calling her ‘Stinkeroo! Stinkeroo! Stinkeroo!’ ”
Grama Cuca tried to hide un smile pero she wasn’t able to desimular, so she asked Canutito: “And did calling her perroda do the trick, m’hijo?”
“Well I never saw her come out to bad-mouth me ya más después de eso. I think she just sat en su cuarto and played con su gata mala, la Cheeva. ”…