Mona and Other Tales Read Online Free PDF Page B

I was just doing that, looking at them, when I heard two voices behind the counter asking me, “Wouldn’t you like one of these?” And when I looked up, I saw that the two old ladies who were always begging at the shop entrance now seemed to be working there. I didn’t know what to say. But their guess was exactly right, and full of smiles they picked up a large, reddish chocolate-almond cake. And they gave it to me.
    I went crazy with joy and walked away with my huge cake.
    While crossing the bridge, carrying the cake in my hands, I again heard the ruckus of the noisy boys. And (with my eyes closed) I leaned over the bridge railing and saw them down below, swimming fast toward the middle of the river in order to rescue a water rat. The poor thing looked sick and couldn’t swim.
    The boys took the trembling rat out of the water and put it on top of a rock on the sandy shore so it could get dry in the sun. Then I was just about to call all of them over to join me and share the chocolate cake, because it was so big that I wouldn’t be able to eat it all by myself.
    I swear I was going to call them. And I lifted the cake up high for them to see, so that they would believe what I was about to tell them and come running. But then, pow!, a truck almost ran over me in the middle of the street, which is where, without realizing it, I had been standing.
    So here I am: my legs are all white because of the casts and the bandages. As white as the walls in this room, with only women dressed in white coming in to give me an injection or a pill, also white.
    And don’t you think that what I told you is made up. And don’t you think, just because I have a bit of a fever and every once in a while I complain about the pain in my legs, that I am lying to you, because it’s not so. And if you want to see if what I told you is true, you only need to go to the bridge and you’ll probably find, all over the asphalt, the big, reddish chocolate-almond cake that the two old ladies at the pastry shop gave me with a smile.
    1964

The Great Force
    WHEN THE GREAT FORCE CREATED everything that is, she did also create the human race. But the moment she got an inkling of her creatures’ behavior—this required only a few hours—she ascended in terror back to the heavens, fearing for her own existence. Once reinstalled at the zenith, she proceeded with her diverse creations, including her masterpiece or, at least, what she considered to be her masterpiece. A perfect being that would reflect her and honor her: a son. In a state of powerful plenitude, the Great Force shared a few years with her closest kin, and almost forgot the lowly ones, or terrestrials, as humans were referred to in her court, and the remote place they inhabited. She could not, however, keep her son from finding out about her flawed creation, much less prevent (given the nature of children) his harboring the wish to descend for a visit, and even to converse with the denizens of the abominable region. The stronger and more irrefutable were the Great Force’s arguments about the evil nature of the lowly ones, the greater was the son’s interest in getting to know them and attempting to reform their ways. In addition to this, there were the incentives applied by the closest friends of the Great Force to encourage the son (and let’s not talk about her enemies, who pictured the planet as paradise itself). It was then quite understandable that within a few months the son finally made his descent to Earth. After a lengthy journey through numerous galaxies, the son arrived at the long-anticipated location, where what he saw was a teeming anthill voraciously feeding on itself. Naturally, said the son (who always knew the appropriate answers to everything), they are trying to find themselves, and not succeeding. I will show them who they are, so that instead of destroying one another, they will be filled with brotherly love. . . . Once