TE19 Iberian Adventure

Manuel Astur

in in rows so that, days later, they could pile it up around wooden stakes hammered in the ground. The seeds floating in the golden air. It was the old world, which had gone, like most of the people from the villages. He no longer heard laughter, and nobody seemed to mind that most of the nearby meadows were being eaten by the forest. The only sound that could be heard was the occasional distant engine from some villager mowing, apparently in a hurry. If he could have, he would have taken it upon himself to care for all the meadows, as far as his eyes could see. He would have mowed them, arranged the palisades, and filled them with gentle cows, so that the sunsets would again be filled with the sound of the quiet, low bells that had always sounded but which had now all but disappeared, leaving those mountains orphaned, at the mercy of vermin and ferns. He stroked its head to reassure it. The other cows continued eating, ignoring their companion’s labor pains. Marcelino put his hand into the wide vulva and moved forward to get his whole arm inside. He touched the calf ’s body, which was moving restlessly downward, and made sure that it came straight. Fortunately, everything seemed to be going smoothly, so he simply let nature take its course while he tried to comfort the mother, a large patched cow who was Marcelino’s favorite and for whom he felt more affection than he had ever felt for a woman except for his mother. By the time night fell, the little calf was trembling on the ground and trying to stand up. 204 Marcelino advanced slowly, opening up a path with his scythe; ultimately, he was responsible for keeping chaos at bay. He heard a pained mooing in the distance, and stood up.