Another World

Jonay Quintero Hernández

 

I

It was already 10:40 a.m. and still the foggy sky refused to deliver any sunlight. Chilly as it was, the air wrapped the small village in a refreshing rather than freezing breeze. A symphony of distant barks, squawks, moos and neighs was the general soundtrack for the rural scenery. With utmost diligence, Mr. Sanchez the baker was baking the last loafs of bread while Emilio, his son, did el reparto as quick as he could in his old van. Time in this lonely and small corner of the world was slow and regarded laxly, but it remained relentless as on the rest of the planet.

Old pedazos[1] marked by stone walls covered the landscape up to the sea. The Atlantic Ocean remained the guardian of this island, on a watch that had lasted a million years. Different tones of green, ochre, gray, yellow and black stained the hills and valleys as if the earth was a dormant animal. The old sleepy craters were now covered with green vineyards, and clouds played getting in and out of them, creating the impression of huge fuming teacups.

Kunta entertained a small number of pussycats without engaging with any of them seriously. He used to boastfully lick one of his paws and then carefully curb his whiskers. Living on a rural island had increased his opportunities for socializing in ways that seemed almost unimaginable in Madrid. Cats were a booming species in this place, as he had learned since his arrival. He just couldn’t believe how lucky he had been to cross paths with Edelmiro. Life back in the poblado on the outskirts of Madrid seemed like a nightmare. At first, he had feared Edelmiro abandoning him, just like almost every human seems to do sooner or later, but he had the immense luck that his new master had included him in his new bizarre “family.”

II

It’s been almost a year since we arrived here. I was very sad at first. I had left my friends in Madrid and all the things I knew. It is not that I had so many friends, just my cousins in San Blas and one or two girls from my class who lived in Vallecas. Because of dad’s bad temper, neither my mom nor me were used to hanging out with people at home. I’d rather visit some of my friends at their places and come back at a prudent time in the evening, before dad began to wonder where I was. The contact to a few people you know and relatives is something to be missed, but I felt deprived of other things, things like churros and barquillos from the barquilleros at the San Isidro festival, the shops and shop windows at la Gran Vía, the Retiro park and the smell and rare colors of the fallen leaves from the trees in the park next to my building. As parks are intended to bring a little bit of nature to the cities, there are none of them in El Hierro. Nature rules everything in this place, and you don’t need to walk to find trees, flowers or animals as they are all over the place.

Well, since we’ve arrived on this island, I have lived at the old house that Edelmiro inherited from his parents, who passed away long ago. The three of us have formed a bizarre family – sorry, I forgot to mention Kunta Kinte, our cat. At first, we were distrustful of anyone. I don’t know why. Maybe it has something to do with dad.

I felt quite disappointed and amazed about our sudden departure from Madrid. Edelmiro, up to that moment, had always been just another neighbor with whom we weren’t in much contact. I always knew that dad hadn’t gone to Zaragoza for work.

Although I wasn’t sure about it, I thought mom and Edelmiro were up to something. It wasn’t very clear what it was. Sometimes I feel like a weird pressure in my stomach and a little nausea afterwards when I think about what happened back then in Madrid. I still don’t know what their relationship is.

I kind of like Edelmiro. He is quiet and serious but also very nice to me. He seems to have changed a lot since we have been here. He started to work his family’s fields and now at home we eat the fresh fruits and vegetables he grows. He also seems a little bit more talkative. It feels kind of safe here with him. They both, mom and him, look like strangers living under the same roof, but I suspect that Edelmiro would like to be something else…

This old house is scary sometimes because of the little noises that so much wood makes, but it feels cozy here and I have plenty of space. I have a much bigger room than the one I had in our flat in Madrid. I’m too old to play with dolls and toys, but I wasn’t able to bring all my stuff to this place. So I miss it. Mom and Edelmiro have bought me new clothes, books and all sorts of things so I can manage here. I have a huge wooden window through which I can see the green hills and the ocean. There is also old wooden furniture in which I keep my belongings.

III

Kids at school were welcoming from the start. There are not too many, and I guess they are curious about any new face in the classroom. Most of them look taller, stronger, and their skin is much more tanned than mine. I guess that apart from playing videogames, which they also like, they spend more time doing things out in the open. They practice a lot of outdoor sports like soccer, swimming, mountain biking, fishing, etc. Eventually they are also supposed to give a hand to their parents at whatever their jobs are. Many of them know how to milk a cow, a sheep or a goat, have worked the fields, and I even heard about a boy from the village I live in who is sixteen years old and is about to finish the construction of his own house. Apparently, his father is a mason, and in the past it was a tradition for parents to give plots of land to their children so they could build their future homes near their parent’s houses, and the family could remain together. Armiche, that is his name, was told by his father: “Now you are ready to marry, it is not good to go to your future wife empty handed.” I love that name, Armiche, I’ve been told that was the name of one of the last kings of the bimbaches, the original people who lived here before the Normans first and the Spaniards second conquered this island.

Next to our house live two twin sisters, Moneiba and Luisa, who seem to have some sort of kinship with Edelmiro. I like to play with them sometimes, but lately we have just been hanging out and talking about stuff or listening to music and trying to sing and dance like the original singers/bands. We laughed so high and were so noisy that were told off by tía Amalia, a very sinister woman who lived in the girls’ house. She was an old single great aunt to the girls and also was Edelmiro’s aunty, or something like that; in this place, everyone seems to be related to each other. That was the main reason for us to call her tia. You could really feel the chill run down your spine when she looked at you with those black flaming eyes of hers.

The girls, especially Moneiba, used to say that she was a good woman; it was just that she had had a hard life. And that wasn’t the only thing Moneiba told me about tia Amalia. She mentioned one day that the old lady had a doll beneath her bed that she used for her magic rituals and spells, stabbing it with needles, as she was also a powerful witch. They used to tell me these things with half a smile so I never knew whether they were really serious about their remarks or not. I also had the feeling that tia Amalia knew about the fear she inspired in all the kids of that small village and sometimes had a little fun at our expense. One day she said: “Alright girls, you better be good, treat your elders with respect and trust no man, as they are all the same, sooner or later they will betray you.” She went on, “if you don’t believe me, just listen to what happened to me when I wasn’t much older than you are now…”

The Story of tía Amalia

There was a time when lines didn’t cross the face of Amalia, and nobody called her “tia” as she was a young girl of seventeen. Her eyes were as black and as flaming as they are now, but at that time they made men go crazy. Her slim and elegant body made them turn their heads when they crossed her way on the street. She had a boyfriend called Juan, also slim, tall, blue eyed and blonde, always with a smile on his face and a sweet word hanging from his lips. They were both so much in love with each other, or that, at least, is what Amalia thought. They had planned to get married soon.

One evening, Amalia had just gotten back home from the fields in which she had been taking care of her family’s cattle. After a hard day she decided she would take a bath and then surprise her boyfriend as they were not supposed to meet that day. She sprayed herself with perfume, put on her Sunday clothes and headed to his place.

On her way to where her boyfriend lived she found a black cat that triggered the mechanism of distrust in her superstitious mind. What could that unexpected encounter mean? Certainly nothing good.

“Go back home Amalia!” the young girl heard as the cat’s eyes drilled hers. To a more scientific or rational mind, the very fact of a cat talking would have been more than enough to suffer a heart attack, but that wasn’t the case with Amalia. In her brain, the knots that separate reality from dreams were loose, and she was more worried about what was about to happen than about being addressed by a black (or any color for that matter) cat. “Go back to where you came from and forget about that man, Amalia!!” the cat went on, “or thou shall see things you don’t want to see and feel feelings no one should ever feel.”

If Amalia wasn’t reasonable enough to doubt the oratory skills of a cat, it cannot be expected that she would follow its advice no matter how wise it was. Thus, she turned her steps into a mad run that led her right to Juan’s door. She stormed in and began to look around the room, looking for her wicked rival. Juan was completely amazed, covered by a blanket but obviously naked as his clothes were lying chaotically on the floor. Amalia acted like a wild beast looking for its prey but there was no one to be seen, nor any evidence of anyone’s presence there prior to her arrival.

All of a sudden she reached for an old China teapot that was on a nearby table and violently threw it to the floor but only the handle broke. Afterwards she said something like, “I’ve just screwed you, asshole.” Well, at least no less than he had previously done to her, but in another sense. Then she took the candle that was on the side table next to Juan’s bed and approached him, saying the following: “You shall slowly fade away like this candle.” And that being said, squeezed the candle that bent over itself, and finally the flame vanished, leaving only darkness and a thin column of smoke. Juan didn’t dare to utter a single word, astonished and terrified as he was – he didn’t have a scientific mind either. Afterwards, Amalia turned tail and left the room.

Amalia cried her heart out the following hours and probably the following days and weeks, but life in the countryside doesn’t allow for depression, and survival requires daily digging, planting, milking and giving water to the family’s cattle. At some point, she had to walk the village streets and found a woman called Maria Sabina with one arm in a sling. Juan began to feel sick and was sent to receive treatment in Tenerife. He never came back and died a few weeks later at the hospital.

Since nothing good can come of bad feelings, Amalia became the dark sad figure that even today scares children. She never married, never had another partner.

IV

In my newly discovered feline kingdom, I was starting to feel in my element. I was amazed at the number of cats on the island, how well they were treated and the amount of food available. So much so that I began to get acquainted with the customs and main festivities of my new hometown. The community festival was dedicated to San Pedro the local patron saint.

After a procession in which a group of people played huge drums and flutes, while others danced before the saint’s image in immaculate white attire, there was un baile in the village’s main square. An orchestra was playing music. I was watching from the distance, but it seemed to me that Edelmiro and Amelia’s mom were having a great time dancing together. They were even laughing, something unusual in Edelmiro. I felt very happy for them because I knew they were both good people, both have been really kind to me, and I wished nothing but the best for them and Amelia. At some point during the night, Edelmiro said something into Amelia’s mom’s ear and then began to walk away.

I was curious about that and left my watch tower. I was able to see how Edelmiro slowly walked to his horse that was tied to a nearby post. Then he got on the horse and began to ride slowly and carelessly, so I decided to go with him to see what he was up to. I jumped with all my strength and landed on the horse’s rump. I managed not to scare the horse as we were already friends. We rode altogether, up to the neighboring hills that surround my village. Eventually we were riding through the forest in the dark night. I guessed he was going to do something related to the animals or going back home, but I couldn’t tell. On this northern side of the island fog covers everything from late in the evening until early in the morning, and it can get really thick in winter. So much so that you cannot see clearly 20 meters ahead.

Edelmiro noticed my presence behind him, turned around and said “Hey, Kunta, are you coming with me? Are you hungry bandido?” I didn’t care to reply since humans are rather dumb as far as animal language is concerned. I just came closer to him so I wouldn’t fall off the horse. Edelmiro rode slowly through the forest, lighting our way with a powerful flashlight he always carried when going to the fields at night. The fog was so thick that the flashlight drew a yellow circle ahead of us and lots of ghostly figures were projected by the trees on each side of the road. I wouldn’t have cared much in other situations but I decided to go with Edelmiro because my instinct was trying to tell me something. As the hair on my nape started to bristle, I noticed something was about to happen.

Before us, in the middle of the mist, two big black figures seemed to be approaching us. I could feel the tension in Edelmiro’s muscles. “Who’s there!” he shouted out as I could hear the click of his hand releasing the lock of his 9mm Beretta beneath his coat. “I’m telling you!! You better show yourself! And at that moment two donkeys tied by a rope came out of the fog, walking carelessly as if that was something they did very often, and we were intruders in their realm.

Edelmiro couldn’t help but laugh at the misunderstanding. “They certainly scared us, didn’t they, Kunta?”

Then he looked at me, but smiled no more, as a trickle of blood ran down his face. He fell to the ground just before an invisible hand closed its burning claws over my side. There was only darkness afterwards. 

V

Mom said it was weird that Edelmiro hadn’t return from the fields yet. She still hadn’t really adjusted to her novel role in this new part of the world where she was living. She was actually genuinely worried about Edelmiro, but she didn’t even know whether she had the right to feel so. After all, they weren’t even a couple. She didn’t ever talk to me about that, but I guessed she felt something for him and the other men on the island looked a little too “rural” for her taste.

I liked Edelmiro very much and if he wasn’t to be my new dad, I really didn’t want any other man to live with us. A woman doesn’t necessarily have to live with a man to form a family. I think that if mom had thought like me, we wouldn’t have suffered so much with dad. But that is the past. I erased those thoughts from my mind and walked away, as I had agreed to meet Moneiba and Luisa at their house to spend the afternoon together.

I left the asphalt road and, taking a detour, I headed down a rocky path that led to my friend’s farm. They were outside the house sitting at the swings and reading magazines. We laughed a lot, talking about pop singers, sometimes trying to imitate their way of singing. The girls led me inside the house to a room that their parents used for storage and began to open old cardboard boxes as well as antique chests from which they took out old hats and clothes. The smell of dust and humidity made me sneeze a lot, but we kept trying on those old pieces of apparel.

There were men and women’s clothes, elegant dresses for fiestas, more traditional folky suits, military uniforms, women’s underwear, corsets, very old and dirty alpargatas made for the peasants, classy men’s suits, satin vests, traditional Spanish peinetas, funny dresses for the carnival (carnivals are a big thing in the Canary Islands), fancy masks and also all sorts of accessories like shoes, wallets, lady’s bags, traditional woolen Canary bags, pocket watches with silver chains and lots more things I cannot remember.

We had a lot of fun putting all those clothes on and simulating all sorts of crazy scenes and stories that came out of our minds. I had never had the chance to lay my hands on items so ancient. There was like a kind of magic with antique handcrafted objects. I enjoyed playing with the girls, who never ceased to come up with new ideas about plots or events that we could act out. I think we were role playing for hours, but I noticed there was a remaining chest that we hadn’t opened yet. “I don’t remember whether we have opened that one before,” said Moneiba. “Me neither, but let’s take a look!” replied Luisa.

Inside were old women’s clothes, black, like those that crones used to wear in El Hierro. Like the ones tia Amalia used to wear! “Hey, this is tia Amalia’s stuff!!” said Luisa, jumping back, as if a bolt had just touched her. “We shouldn’t be looking into her things girls, just close it!” she continued. But Moneiba was more adventurous, “Well, since it is already open, we could just have a quick look and then leave all things as we found them. She’s never going to find out.” “Oh God, tia always finds out…” Moneiba kept on digging into the chest, taking out all sorts of things like pictures, postcards with scenes from Cuba, very old beauty items, underwear, and a miscellanea of things. Then, as Moneiba approached the bottom of the chest, she started to find more bizarre things like animals’ legs and claws, several seeds and dried herbs, a few bones difficult to identify, stones, and what seemed to be human hair. We were a little nervous about our findings but hadn’t worried until we found what seemed to be six rusty iron needles, about five inches long. Moneiba was like crazy about her finding, “Do you know what this is for?” “Tia Amelia´s puppet,” said Luisa with a sigh.

Moneiba ran out of the room, and we followed her. Luisa was very scared and told her sister to leave the needles where we found them and not to mess with tia’s stuff. I think Moneiba just couldn’t hear her sister’s warnings. We stopped in front of tia Amalia´s door. The adventurous twin put her ear to the crack beneath the door and after a short while opened it and entered. She kneeled down in front of tia´s bed and started to search beneath it. She found a few things but not what she wanted. Then she felt around underneath the bed and found something soft attached to the bed’s base with masking tape. She pulled it out – a very rough, slightly sinister puppet. It seemed quite old and wasn’t intended to look realistic or even cozy enough for children to play with. It was obvious that the thing wasn’t a toy for kids. We walked out of the room and closed the door behind us.

Luisa was terrified now, “Are you mad? What do you think you are doing? You don’t know what you are messing with!” “You shut up, silly girl, always ruining the fun. Do you really think that witchcraft exists?” Even if it existed, I didn’t even know how such a thing works… “Hey, is there anyone you hate or something?” – She laughed like mad. “Actually, this thing is really ugly, don’t you think?” “Well, actually I don’t think that thing is for girls to play with,” I dared to add. “Really? Because now we are going to play with it a little bit…” “I think I’m going to tell mum and dad,” said Luisa. “You shouldn’t threaten me, at least not while I’ve got this thing in my hands.”

I didn’t find the fun in this business anymore. It was getting scarier by the moment.

“Now we are going to make a circle with salt as I’ve seen them do in the movies…”

We couldn’t make Moneiba change her mind. She was totally focused on her ritual. I didn’t think she knew what she was doing but the whole thing scared me anyway. However, neither Luisa nor me dared to leave, as we were curious about the outcome of Moneiba’s ritual.

She completed her circle with salt, drew some invented signs inside, filled a glass with water, sat inside grabbing the puppet and began to stab it with needles. “See? Nothing happens. It is just a silly puppet and this is just a game. Witchcraft doesn’t exist you silly girls!” We could feel our tensed muscles ease some. She cleaned it all up, and we smiled in relief.

We decided we were going to put everything back in its place, and we would keep on playing another day. As we walked out of the room, we heard a crash. We went back in, and a glass had smashed to pieces, the water spilled all over the floor.

[1] Plots of land