PUCHITO

Yes, it was a very cold, brutal, burning, freezing, harsh, and unforgettable winter. The heavy snow and hail joined the very strong and whistling wind, and they began to perform a deadly dance, swirling endlessly in fast messy moves. The snow and hail, in a desperate effort to take a rest from the strong push of the tireless wind, stuck on the almost invisible trees' bare branches.

Thunder and lightning, from the grayish dark sky, shook and illuminated the strange dressed in white ghostly surroundings. They were proudly showing how the snow and hail transformed into deadly and dangerous heavy icicles hanging from the ghostly trees' thick branches. They were just waiting for the right moment to ambush and cause harm with the complicity of the not so invisible wind. The snow and hail continue accumulating on the trees' branches, testing their strength.

The lightning kept illuminating the white surroundings. It spotted the crazy wind playing with a defenseless thermostat. The thermostat, partially covered in ice, registered seventeen below zero and it was attached to a twisted rusted metal.

Unexpectedly, the whistling wind made the thermostat spin in the air, and then crashed it against a hollow tree trunk that was rested on the snowy ground. The thermostat, on its twisted, rusted metal, was hitting tirelessly against the hollow trunk's snowy walls, as if asking for entrance urgently.

The wind didn't want to stop its senseless and endless deadly play. It sounded most eerie when passing on the hollow trunk, the thermostat's twisted, rusted metal and the icicles that were hanging heavily from the near by tree's branches.

"I'm afraid!" a worried female voice was heard to say.

"Everything will be fine." a calm male voice assured. "The storm will soon end."

The wind didn't mind their worries, and took their voices far, very far, away.

Suddenly the heavy snow and the icicles, with the help of the strong push of the wind, won the battle against one of the tree's heavy branches. The lightning illuminated the heavy branch as it was breaking with an earsplitting crack. The very large, heavy branch fell rapidly to the ground in the direction of the hollow trunk.

The lightning didn't miss showing where the very large, heavy branch had plunged with such a force against the hollow trunk. The hollow trunk sprung up several feet high from the frozen and snowy ground, blinding even more the storm, and drowning out the male and female screams. The hollow trunk, after a seemingly endless few moments, landed hard in its final rest on the snowy ground but not before smashing the thermostat.

"Oh, no, Bob, my eggs! Our babies!" a female's voice was heard saying in sobbing anguish. "They are all dying!"

"They are freezing quickly and bursting!" Bob's distressed voice echoed in the storm. "My Margaret, hurry up! Let's embrace this one!"

"Our eggs, Bob! Our babies!"

"Shhhh! Let's keep warming this one with our bodies!" Bob advised with a choking voice.

The loud thunder and whistling wind made sure they were heard even in the immensity of the storm.

"Let's call him Puchito." Margaret's voice was heard shivering. "Puchito, a strong soul!"

"Puchito! The soul that can defeat anything in life!" Bob's voice was heard chattering.

"Bob, promise me that we leave with Puchito as soon the winter is over."

Slowly, the wind and snow buried Margaret and Bob's sad voices and what was left of the hollow trunk on the snowy ground.

Chapter 2

In the middle of a colossal and beautiful magical garden, a gigantic yellow rock was shining bright as the color of gold with the help of the dying sunrays of that late afternoon. The rock's brilliance deepened when the rays of the sun and the beams of the moon illuminated it day after night and night after day.

The weak sunlight was penetrating the rock's deformed holes that served as windows, showing the long, misshaped walls of the labyrinths. On the walls of the rock's very deep, wide areas, where the sun's rays couldn't reach, the candles' flickering lights showed the many roots that hung from the ceiling.

Margaret, a field cricket, dressed in a long black dress, sat on a white petal serving as a seat. At once, she began to hum, making beautiful and mellow sounds while playing music with the roots.

Bob, Margaret's husband, wearing a tuxedo, passed his foreleg over his thin fuzzy above his mouth as he came out from one of the labyrinths. Then he approached Margaret from behind, and after kissing her on top of the head, he asked, "Are you going to wash the dweller's clothes tomorrow by the waterfall?"

Margaret stopped humming, "I don't know, yet… I have to take care of our only egg."

"I will do that tomorrow, so you can wash the dweller's garments."

"That will be great!"

Bob inhaled the sweet aroma of roses from Margaret's black shoulder length fuzzy, which was shinning in the candle light, as she continued humming.

"Sam, the giant toad, will be here any moment," Bob said, caressing Margaret's mandibles. "I want you to meet him."

Margaret stopped playing music and humming suddenly, very concerned. "Isn't he an insectivore?"

"Insectivore!" Bob answered playfully, and tickling her behind the ear, he added, "He became vegetarian, when a grasshopper's leg stuck inside his throat, and almost choked him."

Margaret saw Bob laughing, and then she shouted, "That isn't funny!"

Bob stopped laughing, and his laughter continued echoing among the long labyrinths. He then kissed Margaret on the palps, and then he asked, "Why is my beautiful wife so serious?"

Margaret shook her head, "I am worried, Bob."

"Why?" Bob held Margaret's jaw.

Margaret got up from the petal, and walked toward a corner adorned with many aromatic white tiger lilies. Then, she pointed to a single egg inserted deep into the soil, looking at her husband very worried. "I am afraid that you won't be here to see the birth of our son, Puchito, Bob."

"Come on, Margaret! Don't say that!" Bob hugged her. "I will take care of Puchito, so you can wash clothes by the waterfall."

Margaret said in a soft voice, "You are not listening to me."

"You know I will be here when our son, Puchito, comes out to the world next week." Bob stood before his wife, as she got closer near the egg. "I know he is going to look as handsome as me, and we will sing together at The Charca Club, and all the other clubs I sung at before."

"Listen! Stay home tonight, with us, Bob!" Margaret shouted, and caressing the egg, she shed a tear, adding, "Remember when our other sons died, because of the frost."

"Margaret, don't remind me… please, don't remind me." Bob held one of Margaret's forelegs and pointed to the egg," the winter is over, and nothing is going to happen to me, or to Puchito."

"Lately," Margaret stood, facing Bob. "I am having nightmares!"

"This night is no different from the others," Bob dried off Margaret's tear. "And you know, as well as I, that I can't break the contract just hours before singing at The Charca Club…besides, we are expecting a lot of tourists in The Paradise."

"I heard some hard kicking coming from the egg, "Margaret said looking at the egg." Those are signs that our Puchito will be born any moment now."

"I told you before, there is still one more week before Puchito comes to the world." Bob sighed deeply, and after exhaling, he added, "Relax, Margaret."

"Please, Bob! Don't ask me why!" Margaret held her husband's forelegs tight, "But I have a bad feeling about tonight… don't go out."

Copyright ã 1998. (Txu847-471) Alfonso Segovia. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner including electronic and computer media whatsoever without express written permission from Alfonso Segovia.