Gloria Carreón Zapata-MALEFICIO
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GLORIA CARREÓN ZAPATA
MALEFICIO
A summer afternoon when the forest provides its range of colors, and the eve is hiding behind the horizon. A little hermit Julius Caesar, a thirteen-year-old teenager walked along the river bank enjoying the wonder that the sunset provided him and especially enjoyed the tranquility at his short age was unusual for a boy of that time.
Silence caressed the afternoon and only the flow of the pressure waters were flowing to eventually dismantle the huge pelago of Baghdad Beach.
Julius Caesar took a long carriage and pulling the stones towards him, he chose the most beautiful ones, the others were returning to the water as he walked.
Suddenly, something caught his eye, it was a small vessel going over the stream, which pulled itself with the carriage. When he held him in his hands he realized something was inside.
The cap was rusty and the jar was opaque by the time, full of slime. He cleaned it with his swimsuit and when he opened it he saw something that surprised him. An intact photograph was located inside. It was from a man of about thirty five years old, light brown complexion and brown eyes. The boy threw the bottle and kept the photograph in his pants pocket.
He then headed to his house which was near the place. Their father worked for one of the millionaire men in the village and thus provided them with a cozy roof for the whole family.
One afternoon upon arriving from school he heard behind him a voice calling him.
Baby, baby, can you get me some water? -
Julius Caesar flipped something stunned to see where the voice came from.
It was an aged man, with a long beard bleached over the years. His torn and dirty clothes made it look like he hadn't bathed in a while. The teenager approached him confidently, in those times danger did not lurk like today. Instead of being afraid the child expressed condolences for that poor man.
The teenager headed into the kitchen meeting his father who was arriving from his strenuous chores, and told him what was happening.
- How proud I am of you son, you have a big heart, come on, let's not make that poor man wait, he must be dying of hunger and thirst, let's go I'll accompany you
After providing food to the monstrous Don José the child's father, he headed inside the house to return with a towel, clean clothes, and some rakes, then invited the man to have a good shower.
They lived on a mobile trail and the bathroom was independent of it.
It spent more than half an hour Julius Caesar and the father waited under a leafy tree for the homeless, what would be his surprise to see him come bathed and shaved.
The teenager was stunned, he couldn't take credit for what he was witnessing.
- Cannot be, can't be - I kept repeating myself.
- Is something wrong son? it seems like you've seen the demon himself Julius Caesar- Manifested the Father.
The ignoring boy ran to look for what he had found that day inside the jar, to then show the photograph to his father.
The miserable saw them without understanding what was going on.
Now it was Don Jose who with his mouth open and eyes wanting to get out of his orbits, he returned to see the stranger and the photograph at the same time he asked him.
- But are you the one in the photograph? -
The surprised man kept staring at that picture.
- It looks just like me, - he said in a distressed tone.
- Yes, that's me when I was thirty-something -
Don Jose invited him to sit down and the boy began to explain to them how he had gotten his hands on that photograph.
The miserable man already in confidence with tears in his eyes began to narrate to them that three days ago he had recovered his memory.
- If my memory does not fail me my name is Luis Angel Gutiérrez, I was born in one thousand nineteen hundred forty, I am originally from the State of Puebla, I had a small scrap iron business, which worked together with my compadre, - continued.
- Unfortunately I fell in love with a bad woman and I think she was the one who put me in a bad -
- But, - followed the man.
I think it's been many years and I grew old without realizing the time.
- Want to tell me what year it is and what place I am?
Don Jose was quick to respond.
- We are in the year two thousand, in the state of Coahuila, Mexico.
- Will you now be about sixty years old - said don Jose.
Baffled the man began to tell them the story of his life.
There was no doubt, by a miracle he had survived, and now thanks to Julius Caesar he had recovered his memory. Don José invited him to spend the night with them, another day he would leave him at the truck central, he himself would buy him the ticket to meet his family, if he still had it.
Grateful Luis Angel accepted gladly and did not stop blessing the child, above all to thank them for how well they had treated him.
Prepared Angela Kosta writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, translator, journalist
