The Decapitated Hen
(Quiroga, Ignacio)
Translation by : femme/600/24 Septemer 2005
The marriage felt itself blessed by the first son who arrived like a miracle. Upon his birth, the married couple experienced a refourishing of love, but fifteen days later the infant had an attack of fever that transformed it into an idiot. Two years went by like that and, having gone against the doctors' prohibitions, the wife smiled once again with a newborn child in her arms. Two weeks later there was fever again and the nightmare was repeated with all the same signs. So a third child was born who was an exact copy of the medical history that tormented the couple. When a little girl was born they saw that their luck had finally changed. It was like a miracle. The three idiot sons passed the days at the back of the house sitting on a bench, their eyes listless, with slobber driipping down their grimy clothes. A servant was in charge of giving them that which was their only pleasure-the meals that they used to devour, using their hands to carry the food to their mouths.
Meanwhile, the happy couple used to deck ther daughter out in fancy clothes. And because of all the gifts they used to bestow on her and all the preoccupations they surrounded her with, they transformed her into their reason for living.
One certain evening when they were returning from their walk along the promenade where the cool air was helping them weather the summer's inclemencies, they stopped to chat with a neighbor lady, commenting on their precocious daughter's progress and the wonderful things she had done. Back home, when they tried to open their door, they saw that the lock was broken. And after many attempts to get the door open, they decided that the best thing to do would be to raise the little girl up through the window at the back of the house so she could get in. Once inside, she would be able to open the door for her parents.
The three idiot sons remembered the gleaming flash that very morning when the cook had grabbed a hen that had jumped over the wall by the neck. When the parents entered the house by forcing the door open, they discovered their little treasure in the gloomy silence, her throat slashed just like the decapitated hen,s.
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