TE19 Iberian Adventure

Manuel Astur

He pointed to one of the wagon wheels and bent down in front of something.

“Mine, Ino.”

She was big and hairy. Enormous and devilish. She was as ugly as theweb that shewas inwas beautiful, whichwas gently swaying in a breeze that only she noticed. She ignored them as she counted microscopic coins with her tiny legs. His brother turned and looked at him with his eyes full of hope, as if he had found a diamond.

“She’s beautiful,” he exclaimed joyfully.

“No, she’s ugly.” “Noooo, she’s beautiful!” he protested.

“Yes, she’s beautiful,” Marcelino conceded.

He named her Lina in honor of his brother, saying she reminded him of him. He didn’t protest. He loved the boy who was his brother more than anything else in the world. Lina barely lasted a few days. One morning the spider’s web was broken and she was nowhere to be found, and his brother cried.

It still took a few years for the boy to die and leave him so alone.

But, by then, Marcelino didn’t cry either. They were an old woman and an old man who only had a cheese to eat.

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