The Coyote Under the Table/El Coyote Debajo de la Mesa (11 page)

The next day Juan went to an old friend of his father's to get help reading the paper. “This paper was written by your father,” the friend told him. “It says there is another box buried below the one your cat dug up.”

“Does it say what's in the box?” Juan asked.

“Oh, yes. The box is full of money. Your father wanted the money to be for you alone.”

Juan hurried home and dug deeper in the corner. He found another wooden box, and when he opened it, he saw more money than he had ever seen in his life. The friend had to help him count it.

When they had counted the money and put it in a sack, the friend told him, “Juan, you'd better leave this place. If you stay here and your brothers find out you have all this money, they might harm you to take it away from you.”

“Oh, no,” said Juan. “I don't think my brothers will do that.” He was going to return home, but Gato Pinto picked up the sack full of money in his teeth and ran away. Juan ran after him, but couldn't catch up. All day long he followed the cat. When night overtook him, Juan built a fire and camped under a big tree. He could see Gato Pinto creeping around the edge of the circle of light made by his fire, but the cat wouldn't come close to him.

Juan was awakened in the morning by a rooster crowing and saw that he was near a town. Gato Pinto ran to the edge of the town with the sack of money, and then dropped it. Juan thought,
Maybe my old friend was right. Maybe I should live in this town.

Juan bought a house in the new town and settled down. His brothers never knew what had happened to him, but they really didn't care. Several years passed. And then the brothers began to hear about a rich man named Juan who lived in the neighboring village. People said this Juan was very kindhearted and good to all the poor people of the village. And they said the rich man had a spotted cat that was always with him. “Everywhere Juan goes,” the people said, “the cat goes with him. Everyone knows Gato Pinto.”

The brothers asked one another, “Could it be Juan Cenizas? But how could he become rich—unless he stole money that was rightfully ours!”

The brothers decided to find out about this rich man named Juan. They knew of a girl in the market who sold parrots. The brothers visited her and asked, “Do you have a parrot that can ask questions and remember the answers?”

“That one,” the girl said, pointing at a big green parrot. “That one can talk like a judge, and it can remember everything it hears.”

The brothers paid the girl to offer her parrot for sale in the neighboring village. They told her, “Don't sell it to anyone except the rich man named Juan.”

The girl did as she was told, and one day as Juan was walking home from church he saw the girl with her parrot. She looked so poor, and the parrot was so pretty, that Juan bought the bird from her.

That evening, the parrot struck up a conversation with Juan. “Juan,” the bird squawked, “don't you have a family?”

Juan answered honestly, “I have two brothers, but I had to leave them because I was afraid they might harm me to get my money.”

“Money?” rasped the parrot. “Where did you get money?”

Juan told the parrot the whole story about his father's will and the cat's discovery in the corner. Of course, Gato Pinto was listening. Later, after Juan had gone to sleep, the cat climbed up to the parrot's perch. He grabbed the bird by the throat and gave it such a shaking its brains were rattled and everything it had heard was switched around in its head.

In the middle of the night, when the girl came to question the parrot and find out what it had learned, the bird said, “Aawk! Juan has two fathers. His brother scratched a paper in the corner and found a box full of
vigas
. Aawk!”

By the next evening the parrot's brains had settled back into place and it struck up the same conversation with Juan. Juan wasn't surprised because he knew parrots will often say the same thing over and over. He told the bird the whole story a second time, and enjoyed talking to the parrot so much, he took the bird into his room with him when he went to sleep. He perched the parrot on the window sill right beside his bed.

Gato Pinto scratched and scratched at the door, but Juan wouldn't let him in. Finally Juan grew so impatient he threw the cat outside. Then, as soon as Juan fell asleep, the parrot flew out the window and back to the girl. He told her all about Juan, and she hurried to tell his brothers. The brothers decided they would set Juan's house on fire that very night while he slept. Since they were his only relatives, they would inherit his money.

But in the meantime, Gato Pinto had run to the village church. He jumped up and sank his claws into the bell rope and began swinging back and forth until he made the bell ring. It woke up the priest. He came running to find out what was going on.

Of course the priest recognized the cat. Everyone knew Gato Pinto. The priest said to himself, “Maybe something has happened to Juan.” He ran out of the church and off toward Juan's house. Gato Pinto kept ringing the bell, and soon half the village was awake and running along behind the priest.

The people arrived just in time to see Juan's house beginning to burn and two men running away. They put out the fire and caught the two men. And then they woke up Juan.

Juan recognized his two brothers, but he told the people, “Let them go. I don't think they'll bother me anymore.” And he was right. His brothers were so ashamed of themselves, they never showed their faces in that village again.

But here is the strangest thing: Gato Pinto was never seen around the village again either. No one knew what became of him. Some people said, “That spotted cat was really an angel. It was sent by Juan's father to look after and protect him.” And that's what almost everyone in the village began to believe.

As for Juan, he didn't know what to think. But as the years went by, even though he took in many other stray cats and loved them all, he never found another like his great Gato Pinto.

Una vez había tres hermanos ya mayores que vivían juntos con su padre en la misma casa, que en realidad no era más que una sala grande. La madre había muerto hacía años.

Cuando el padre murió, los hermanos llevaron su testamento para que se lo leyeran, para ver lo que les heredaba. Resultó que su padre había dividido la casa entre los tres. Lo hizo de manera tradicional: Dejó cierto número de vigas del techo a cado uno.

El hijo mayor heredó seis vigas, lo que quería decir que la parte de la casa bajo ese número de vigas sería suyo. Así que regresó a la casa y comenzando en una pared contó vigas—una, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis. Cuando llegó a la sexta viga construyó una pared que formó un cuarto bastante grande para él.

El segundo hijo recibió cuatro vigas de su padre. Aprovechó la pared de su hermano mayor para un límite de su cuarto y luego contó—una, dos, tres, cuatro—y levantó otra pared. Si bien su cuarto no era tan grande como el de su hermano, todavía era cómodo.

El hijo menor, que se llamaba Juan, sólo recibió las últimas dos vigas al final de la casa. Eso le daría un cuarto chiquito. Pero Juan era un joven contento y no se quejó. Se encogió de hombros y dijo: —Bueno, por lo menos, yo no tengo que construir una pared. La de mi hermano será un extremo de mi cuarto, y la pared exterior de la casa será el otro.

Juan comenzó a vivir en el cuarto estrecho bajo las dos vigas al final de la casa. Pero sus hermanos mayores eran muy envidiosos y codiciaban las dos vigas que su hermanito había heredado. El uno le dijo al otro: —El testamento de nuestro padre decía que dos vigas le corresponden a nuestro hermanito sonso Juan, pero no decía nada acerca de las latillas puestas a través de las vigas para hacer un techo. Quitémoslas y usémoslas como leña.

Lo hicieron. Ahora Juan tenía dos vigas sobre la cabeza, pero nada más que el cielo como techo. En las noches frías prendía lumbre en el piso de tierra en medio del cuarto para calentarse.

Cuando se acostaba a dormir, esparcía las cenizas calurosas en el suelo y dormía sobre ellas. Siempre andaba cubierto de cenizas, y sus hermanos se daban a llamarle “Juan Cenizas”.

Una noche un gato extraviado brincó la pared del cuarto de Juan y comenzó a vivir con él. Era un gato blanco con manchas negras y cafés, y Juan le puso Gato Pinto. Juan estaba contento de tener la compañía del gato y compartía sus tortillas con él. Cada noche, Juan hacía un lecho adicional de cenizas para que el gato durmiera ahí. De día, dondequiera que anduviera Juan, el gato lo acompañaba. Todos que conocían a Juan conocían al Gato Pinto.

Luego, una tarde Gato Pinto comenzó a escarbar en un rincón del cuarto. Esa rascadura constante molestaba a Juan, así que fue y levantó al gato y lo llevó junto a la lumbre. Pero Gato Pinto regresó al rincón y siguió escarbando. Otra vez, Juan llevó al gato al centro del cuarto. Pero Gato Pinto volvió al rincón. Juan empezó a enfadarse y esta vez pensaba echar el gato afuera, pero luego vio que Gato Pinto había descubierto una cajita de madera. Juan abrió la caja y dentro encontró un papel.

Al día siguiente Juan fue a la casa de un viejo amigo de su padre para que lo ayudara a leer el papel. El amigo le dijo: —Este documento fue escrito por tu padre. Dice que hay otra caja debajo de la que tu gato desenterró.

—¿Y dice qué está dentro de la caja? —Juan preguntó.

—Sí, lo dice. La caja está llena de dinero. Tu padre quería que el dinero fuera exclusivamente para ti.

Juan corrió a casa y cavó más hondo en el rincón. Encontró otra caja de madera y cuando la abrió, vio más dinero del que jamás había visto en toda su vida. El amigo tuvo que ayudarlo a contarlo.

Cuando lo habían contado y puesto en una bolsita, el amigo le dijo: —Juan, es mejor que te vayas de este lugar. Si te quedas aquí y tus hermanos se enteran de que tienes este dinero, pueden lastimarte para quitártelo.

—Oh, no —dijo Juan—. No creo que mis hermanos hagan eso.

Se disponía a volver a casa, pero Gato Pinto tomó la bolsita de dinero con los dientes y salió corriendo. Juan lo siguió, pero no pudo alcanzarlo. Rastreó al gato todo el día. Cuando le sobrevino la noche, Juan prendió una fogata y acampó bajo un árbol grande. Vio como Gato Pinto caminaba lentamente al borde del círculo de luz hecho por la fogata, pero el gato no se acercaba.

En la mañana el canto de un gallo despertó a Juan y vio que estaba cerca de un pueblo. Gato Pinto corrió hasta el límite del pueblo con la bolsa de dinero, y luego la dejó caer al suelo. Juan pensó “Puede que mi amigo tenga razón. Quizás deba vivir en este pueblo”.