111. The Lying Girl (La Muchacha Embustera)
A farmer had a daughter who brought him lunch everyday to where he was working. On one of those days in which the mother sent the girl over with [his] lunch, she encountered Our Lady on the way. And Our Lady said to her:
Would you like to come with me?
The girl said yes and went with her.
Our Lady took her to a very large and beautiful palace with many, many rooms. She gave her a set of keys so she could enter those rooms, all except one which she forbade her to enter. With regard to that one, Our Lady told her to not enter it for any reason. And with all this said and done, Our Lady went away and left the girl by herself. The girl, with [great] curiosity, was opening one room after another and in all of them she found something that caught her attention, and this kept her entertained for a long time. But there came a point when she ran out of rooms [to explore], and she said:
How boring! Well now I am going to open the room that that lady told me to not open.
She grabbed the key and opened the door to the forbidden room and the key was sullied with blood. The girl was extremely frightened at first, but she then entered in spite of everything and looked at the things inside [the room].
Our Lady came to see the girl on another day and immediately asked her:
Have you opened the room which I told you not to open?
And the girl replied:
No ma’am, I have not opened it.
As Our Lady knew that she was telling a lie, she made the whole palace disappeared and the girl found herself in the middle of an unknown forest, for Our Lady had punished her for being a liar.
And there the girl wandered around the forest when a king who was out hunting happened to pass by. He saw her and asked her what she was doing alone in the forest. The girl told him what had happened, but she did not tell him that she was alone and lost in the forest because she had told a lie to Our Lady. The king, sympathized by her plight, took her to the palace and, as she was pretty and delicate, he married her. And in the year after the wedding, the queen bore a son so beautiful that no one knew of anyone in the world that was as beautiful as he was. The boy grew up and, when he turned two, Our Lady appeared to the queen and said to her:
Did you open that room which I told you not to open?
And the queen told her:
No, I did not open it.
Seeing that she continued to lie without remorse, Our Lady punished her again, and for that, she took her son [away] from her. The queen was very sorry and became ill from the pain [of having her son taken away].
The following year she gave birth to another boy who was as handsome as the previous one. And when the child was two years old, Our Lady turned up again to see the queen and she asked her:
Did you open that room which I told you not to open?
And the queen replied:
No, I did not open it.
And once more Our Lady punished the queen for being a liar and took away her son. This time the queen was full of sorrow, not only because of [having lost] this son but also because of the [painful] memory of the previous one. And given all this, the people of the kingdom began to murmur and whisper and said that the queen was a half-witch who killed her sons.
As is often the case, what the people said reached the ears of the queen. And the queen became even more exasperated:
Oh my God! – she said -. I did not kill them! They disappeared on me without my knowing who is taking them away!
The following year she had her third child, who turned out to be a girl. She was a beautiful girl, even prettier than her two missing brothers. The girl grew up more and more beautiful until she turned two years old. Then Our Lady appeared once more and asked her again:
Did you open that room which I told you not to open?
And the queen replied:
No, I did not open it.
Our Lady punished her again for lying and took the girl away. This time, the poor queen was inconsolable and spent all day crying for her missing children. The people of the kingdom was angrier than ever at the queen when words spread that the girl had also disappeared. And they began to say to one another:
Now there is no doubt that the queen killed her children and that she is a half-witch. How else can one explain it when all of her children disappeared without leaving any trace?
And since they were so outraged, they went to look for firewood in the forest and began to build a large pyre in the square where they planned to burn the queen.
When everything was ready, the people went to the palace to detain the queen and burn her at the stake. Then Our Lady appeared again and asked the queen:
Did you open that room which I told you not to open?
And the queen told her:
Yes, my lady, I opened it.
And Our Lady said:
Well, you must know that I am the Lady Virgin and I had taken your children from you to punish you for being a liar. But today you have finally told the truth and now I am returning them to you.
[Note: I am not sure how Our Lady would address herself, so I’m keeping it as “Lady Virgin” here. The original Spanish text is “Pues has de saber que yo soy la Virgen.”]
Then Our Lady gave the children back to her, and the queen went out on the balcony and showed them to the people.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Aburrimiento – (tediousness) boredom, tedium; (tiresome thing) drag, bore
Agotar – (to fatigue) to exhaust, to wear out, to tire out; (to use completely) to use up, to run out of, to exhaust, to run down
Almuerzo – (midday meal) lunch; (mid-morning light meal) (Mexico) (Spain) mid-morning snack
A pesar de todo – (regardless of everything) in spite of everything
Arrepentirse – (to feel remorse) to regret it, to be sorry, to repent; (to change one’s opinion) to change one’s mind
Como suele suceder – as is often the case, as often happens
Deambular – (to roam, often used with “por”) to wander, to wander around, to wander about
Embustero – (dishonest) lying, deceitful; (person who lies) liar, fibber
Entretenido – (pleasant) entertaining, enjoyable; (occupied) busy; (laborious) painstaking
Indignado – (outraged) indignant, angry
Labrador – (person who works the land) farmer, farmhand, farmworker
Mancharse – (to sully) to get dirty; (to discredit oneself) to tarnish oneself, to dirty oneself
Manojo – (group) bunch, handful