Canutito learns about las manos de las Three Twisted Sisters

“Ican feel the veil entre los vivos y los muertos getting thinner and thinner,” Canutito said una tarde after dinner. “Parece como que no hay separación between the living and dead, durante este tiempo del año. But every time that I turn a corner, espero ver a una bruja o dos, ready to cast a spell on me. I think que la única razón que no me echan una maldición is because I don’t really believe en ellas,” he said con un satisfied look en los ojos. He turned to see if grampo would say algo pero no dijo nada, so he asked him, “Do you think que hay tales cosas como las brujas, grampo?” he asked imploringly.

“Well, cuando yo era joven, mi papá y mi mamá used to talk a lot about them y especialmente hablaban de que ellas leían el ‘Libro Negro,’” he said, looking away.

“¿Qué era el ‘Libro Negro,’ grampo?” Canutito asked him.

“‘El Libro Negro,’ or ‘The Black Book,’ era un book of spells que todas las selfrespecting witches read and memorized,” grampo replied. “In it were means of making voodoo dolls, to hex a las personas y torcerlas,” said grampo. “Había tres hermanas brujas whom we used to call ‘Las Three Twisted Sisters,’ pero only behind their backs,” he said nervously.

“¿Qué pasó con ‘las Three Twisted Sisters’, asked Canutito, afraid de que lo oyeran también.

“Oh, they died muchos años pasados,” grampo replied. “They were killed por un replámpago, while flying about en una thunder storm. They were buried en un camposanto underneath la sombra de un forked juniper tree. A veces, at this time of year, hay personas les ponen votive offerings en sus sepulturas to appease sus espíritus.”

“Do people really believe en las Tres Brujas Torcidas, grampo?” Canutito asked him.

“Sí, m’hijo,” grampo said. “La gente siempre anda buscando means of finding out cuándo están presentes. I remember una vez cuando era joven que uno de mis classmates told us to take una poca la harina and sprinkle in arriba de las graves de las brujas and check to see if they were anywhere de por allí.”

“Why would anybody sprinkle flour sobre las sepulturas de las brujas, grampo?” Canutito asked him. “Were they trying to make algunas tortillas o queque para las brujas?”

“No I assure you que no, m’hijo,” Grampo Caralampio said. “They weren’t making tortillas or cake for the witches. What they were trying to find out era si las brujas left any traces of foot prints cuando salían de sus sepulturas de noche.”

“¿Y salieron, grampo? ¿Salieron las brujas during the night?” Canutito asked him.

“Well, cuando fuimos a ver, no había any traces of footprint anywhere,” grampo said meditatively. Estábamos certain de que habían hecho sneak away sin que nos diéramos cuenta.” Luego he added: “Las brujas saben all kinds of tricks.”

“So, estaban trapped en sus coffins todos los años just waiting para que la gente les traera ofrendas and just leave them on top of their graves?” el niño asked al grampo.

“At first pensamos que sí, but that’s where we made nuestro equívoco,” grampo replied. We had been looking por ellas during the nighttime, pero una noche we went a buscarlas con una flashlight and we discovered white handprints de pura harina all over the place. Las sneaky brujas had been bailando, dancing on their hands in order to trick us into thinking que estaban lying en sus cajones and all the time they had been dancing y borrando sus prints con sus escobas. Never trust a witch with her broom porque they will fool you every time”…