068. The Evil Baker (La Hornera Malvada)
Once upon a time there was a baker who had a very evil heart. She was married to a widower with two small children, a boy and a girl, but she did not love them at all and [, in fact,] was fed up with them. One day, the baker said to her two stepchildren:
Today you have to go to the forest and each will bring back a bundle of firewood to light the oven. The first one to bring it back to me will get a honey bun.
The boy, who had a sweet tooth, was the first to gather a large bundle of firewood and carried it back to the house. As soon as his stepmother saw him coming in, she said:
Very good. Now take off your apron.
So the child did [as instructed], [all the while] waiting for his honey bun. And the stepmother then said to him:
Now take off your pants, and shirt, and underpants, and shoes.
The child did as his stepmother told him to until he was naked. Then the stepmother told him:
Now I am going to cover your eyes with this ribbon, then I will give you the honey bun.
So she covered his eyes and, before he knew it, she took him by the arms and threw him into a cauldron of boiling oil that she had on the fire, and the poor child died immediately. Then she fried him, took him out of the cauldron and, after chopping him up, seasoned him and put him in a bowl.
When the sister came back with her bundle of firewood, she asked for her brother, as he had left the forest before she did, and the stepmother told her that he still had not returned and that, as it was getting late, they had better not wait for him [to join them] for dinner.
He must have run into your father -said the stepmother-, who is [also] gathering firewood in the forest.
She then brought the dish to the table and told the girl that it was a suckling lamb that a neighbor had given them. They began to eat and when the girl took a piece of the heart, it said to her as she was [about to] eat it:
Little sister, eat slowly, for I am your little brother.
The sister understood immediately what the stepmother had done, stopped eating and began to cry inconsolably for her unfortunate brother; then the stepmother threatened her and told her that, if she did not keep quiet, she would do the same to her. The girl kept quiet out of fear and, after her vile stepmother [had] finished eating, she gathered all the bones and remains of her brother that were left in the bowl and, weeping [to herself], she buried them in the garden of the house.
When the father got home in the evening, he longed for his son, but the stepmother told him that he had yet to return. The father left to search for him and, no matter how hard he looked, he could not find him, so he thought that some wild animals had devoured the child and so returned home in great distress. And time passed by and, little by little, he began to forget about the boy.
The following spring, at the site where the girl had buried her brother’s bones, an orange tree grew high and luxuriant in a few short months and bore oranges like no other in the entire vicinity.
The father, the stepmother, and the girl were all admiring the fruits, and they were all wanting the oranges to ripen so as to [be able to] taste them. And as soon as the first ones became ripe, they picked them and saw that they were very sweet and juicy and of very fine quality.
The father and the girl opened up their orange and, as they took the first slice and put it in their mouth, it seemed to them that the orange was saying to them in a very affectionate tone:
Eat, father; eat, little sister; you can eat what is yours.
The father was surprised [upon hearing this], for he thought that it was his imagination [playing mind game with him]; but as the orange was delicious, he continued eating it and others without attaching any importance to this. The girl, on the other hand, understood at once what the oranges were saying, and she ate them with great affection, because although she felt his absence, it seemed to her as if this was kissing him and having her beloved brother [by her side].
However, the same thing did not happen to the stepmother. When she opened up the first orange, instead of that sweet and delicious juice, hot blood began to spill out and she heard a sad voice saying to her:
This blood is the innocent blood of the one you killed.
The stepmother, on seeing and hearing this, threw the orange away in fear and ran back to the house. There, from the window, she saw her husband and stepdaughter enjoying the oranges that they were eating, and this filled her with hatred and rage. And she leaned out [from the window] and said to them:
How can you eat oranges from an orange tree that is so close to a dunghill! Well I’m not going to eat them!
The father and daughter paid no attention to her and continued eating, and after a week, as she could not contain herself, the stepmother took an axe and chopped off the orange tree. But to her surprise and disgust, she saw the next morning that the spot where the orange tree was had produced a new sprout so strong that it could bear more fruits than the old one; and moreover, it seemed to the stepmother that the oranges reminded her of the face of the unfortunate murdered child. So that this time she could not even [bear to] look at them.
Blinded with rage, she again cut off the sprout, but it was of no use because the tree always came back and always stronger than before.
Her husband was surprised by his wife’s behavior and, thinking about it, he remembered the words he thought he heard upon eating the first orange and began to suspect that some thing sad, and extraordinary at the same time, had happened to that wonderful orange tree.
So he went to talk to his daughter. And she told him:
Yes, father. My wicked stepmother killed and ate my brother that day when she said he was lost in the forest. I buried his bones and remains in the orchard, where the orange tree is now, while crying [my heart out] with grief, being unable to do anything for him; that is why my stepmother had so much hatred for the tree, and also why she cut it down.
The father was furious at the miserable death of his unfortunate son, and so he vowed to punish the terrible woman. One day he took her to the mountain, killed her, cut her to pieces and buried her. In a short period of time at that place where he buried her, brambles grew so thick and with such sharp thorns that both men and beasts took a detour and stayed far away from there. Even the wild beasts of the mountain fled and howled, as if they were going to be trapped in them, such was the fear that the terrible memory of the evil baker instilled in everyone.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Aderezar – (to add seasoning or dressing to) to season, to dress (a salad)
Amenazar – to threaten
Apesadumbrado – sorrowful, sad
Asesinado – murder victim
Asomarse – (to check) to look; (to peep out) to lean out, to stick out
Aullar – to howl
Ausencia – absence
Bollo – bun (sweet), roll, bread roll
Calzoncillos – underpants
Castigar – to punish
Ciega – cegar – to blind, to block
Cinta – ribbon, tape
Corderillo – lambskin
Darse cuenta – to realize
Delantal – apron
Desnudo – naked, undressed
Despacio – (not quickly) slowly; (not loudly) quietly, softly
Despedazar – (to tear apart) to tear to shreds
Disfrutar – to enjoy
Espesar – to thicken
Estercolero – (place where manure is kept) dunghill; (dirty place) dump
Freír – to fry
Frondoso – lush, abundant
Fuente – (serving dish) dish, platter, bowl
Gajo – (portion of a fruit) segment, slice
Goloso – (fond of sweet things) sweet-toothed
Hacer caso – to take notice of, to pay attention to
Hartar – (to get annoyed) to get tired of, to get fed up with
Haz – bundle (of wood or hay)
Hornera – baker (male and female)
Huerto – (plot planted with fruit trees) orchard; (cultivated land) vegetable garden
Hueso – bone
Infundir – to fill with
Jugo – juice
Jugoso – juicy, succulent
Lumbre – fire; (brightness) light, glow
Madurar – to mature, to ripen
Malvado/a – evil, wicked
Miel – honey
Odio – hate, hatred
Pantalón – pants, trousers
Ponerse – to place oneself, to move
Preso – prisoner
Primavera – (season) spring
Prodigioso – prodigious, marvelous
Punzante – sharp
Rabia – anger, wrath
Rebrotar – to resprout, to reappear
Recordar – (to call to mind) to remind
Restos – remains, leftovers
Retoño – shoot, sprout
Reunir – to gather, to bring together
Riquísimo – very tasty, delicious
Tocarse – to feel, to touch
Trocear – to cut up, to cut into pieces
Viudo – widower, widowed
Zarza – blackberry bush