Canutito ‘encuentra una’ ‘church key’ ‘llamada’ Bud
Una tarde Canutito was coming back pa’la casa después de la escuela. La mestra had given a pop quiz a toda la clase and he thought que possibly lo había flonqueão. He walked along the field hacia la casa paralleling las besanas de la tira. He tried not to think about flunking his quiz. He was thinking de que just a few weeks ago he and grampo had seeded those very same furrows y ahora no había nada más que dried plants in them. He picked up una semilla
that hadn’t grown en las besanas.
Just then, he saw algo muy shiny en la tierra. It was como 5 inches long, hecha de metal con una open, round tip on one side y una punta triangular en la otra. “I wonder lo que esta cosa might be?” thought Canutito, dusting it off. La cosa tenía the word “BUD” printed en el
handle. He continued caminando hasta que espoteó a grampo en el
garage. Having spotted him there, Canutito went to talk to grampo.
Grampo estaba todo busy en el garage de manera que he didn’t even notice Canutito hasta que
he was standing cerca de él. Grampo estaba hammering el
link de una cadena. “¿Qué está haciendo, grampo?” he asked him.
“I am trying to open el eslabón
on this chain,” he said, showing Canutito the open chain link que
he had hammered open con el martillo. He wiped away el sudor de su frente; using the hammer always made his forehead sweat. Then grampo asked him, “Y tú, m’hijo, qué estás haciendo?”
“I was walking home from school, grampo,” Canutito said, “cuando vi una cosa bien shiny en los furrows of the field. He took it out de su bolsa. From his pocket, he fished out el objeto metálico. Canutito said: “It is called BUD.” He handed la cosa
over to grampo para inspectar.
“Well I’ll be darned!” grampo exclamó.“Ésta es una ‘church key.’ I haven’t seen una de éstas por muchos años.”
“Should I go return esta
‘church key’ back to the priest allá en la iglesia?” Canutito asked him. I’m sure que el padre is bien
worried that he lost his Bud.”
“Este beer can and bottle opener se llamaba una ‘church key’ porque
it is open on the round end como la cabecita de una llave de la iglesia,” said grampo.
“That would be true only si el padre era un borracho,” he smiled y luego he said: “Una ‘church key’ es slang de los 1950s para un beer can and bottle opener. ¿Ves esta
round point? — Ésa esa para las botellas. And the pointy side es para abrir los jarros de cerveza. Las housewives usaban esta ‘church key’ para abrir los cans of condensed milk en las mañanas
for coffee and cereal.”
“Why would a beer can and bottle opener be called BUD, grampo?” he asked.
“Porque la cervecería where they make the beer es la compañía ‘Budweiser’.”
“Oh, I understand, grampo,”
Canutito said, walking away del garage. He went over to the house y puso sus libros on top of the kitchen table donde la Grama Cuca had todos sus prayer books. Bien sneaky he stuck la ‘church key’ in between the pages del prayer book para que cuando grama went to Mass en la mañana she would be surprised. El día siguiente Grama Cuca tried to open la puerta de iglesia con el beer can and bottle opener. It didn’t work y ella no sabía por qué no …