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was no reason for it, more than an irrepressible fear. This time I see myself at the
entrance of a sumptuous mansion, I am very elegant, I am wearing a dark blue dress; it
has a neckline embroidered with silver sequins and is long, reaching a little above my
ankles. My hair is tied up with two large pearl-lined hairpins and I'm wearing high black
heels. I don't know what they are celebrating, but the logistics of the event are well
organized. An employee asked my name, looked it up on a long list, then waved me
inside. I made a tour of the entire mansion looking for someone I knew and found no
one.
I choose to stay in the most spacious room, it is decorated with beautiful garlands of
lights that are made up of sequences of various colors, some dim and others brighter,
throughout the entire area. Something else that catches my attention are the exotic
bouquets of flowers that are exquisitely organized by size and color, contrasting with
the entire room. The music is excellent and diverse. There are many people, most of
them are forming groups that share very happy. The tables are stocked with the most
varied kinds of liquors and sublime delicacies. I go to the back and there are the
kitchens. An employee gives me a brochure where there are different kinds of menu, I
chose everything I like. I sat at a table and then they offered me three different dishes,
each one of my favorite delicacies, also a vase with pineapple nectar, a giant ice cream
and also a bottle of champagne.
I know I don't have the capacity to eat that much, but I'll try everything as far as I
can. The food is delicious, I tasted portions of each dish and when it was enough, I put
them aside. I ate half dessert and followed with ice cream, I enjoyed its taste and also its
creamy texture. I have left the champagne to uncork it later... I am comforted and
satisfied, looking at the toasts and the party around me. Everything is perfect, I am part
of the kingdom of the chosen ones… A gust of cold wind woke me up. "Oh, it was a
dream. Damn hungry!” Now the chagrin of brief happiness and dead bliss came to me.
But the hateful nightmares continued to take their toll on my troubled existence. The
voice came back more commanding. He practically yelled at me the narration of a dark
story: “Pancho was a very nice boy, born to a humble country family, made up of his
parents and eight siblings. Since he was a child he was always very weak and sickly, to
such an extent that before he was ten years old he had already gotten typhus, mumps,
measles and all that crap, whether eruptive or not, that they gave to boys before the
blessed girls arrived immunizations. He was thus, a shy boy, unattractive and, above all,
skeletal; given that he rarely exercised with any game, but spent almost the entire day
with a book on his back, reading non-stop as long as there was light, and if there wasn't,
he helped himself with a candle that he lit wherever it didn't bother others nobody.
Fortunately, his father broke his back from sunrise to sunset as a farmer, so that
his family would not go through hardships and the boys would attend school. In that
humble home there was never a lack of savings, in this way, when noticing him so
prudish, "Lencha", his mother; he could buy the books that he liked so much. All the
boys went to school, but they did not pass primary education, since what was in the
town was not enough for more. After that, they would go to the fields to work to help
their father in such a demanding job, which left too much sacrifice and few
satisfactions. In any case, they never lacked food and books for Pancho.
From an early age, Pancho's mother noticed that her little boy had something
special. At that time he did not know if it was two virtues or two defects, that would
determine him a few years later, the truth was that there were two particularities in his
boy that made him different from his brothers and in general; to all who lived in those
places. The peculiarity that surprised his mother the most when he was still very young
was the fact that he controlled the weather at will. At first, she thought it was just a
fancy child's game, just as it had always been, but upon looking at it carefully, she
realized that the matter was not as she thought. The truth discovered it one morning that
had just been released. The boy didn't want to go to school that day, she didn't know
why, so she didn't think twice.
Without realizing that his mother was watching him, Pancho looked at the sky
carefully, like someone expecting a miracle, and with a snap of his thumb and middle
finger, he gave an order to the weather, because he wanted it to start raining.
Immediately a rain fell that was very light at first, but then it grew until it became a
small storm that lasted two hours or more, and that forced everyone to take shelter in
their houses. Evidently neither he nor anyone else went to school or anywhere else that
day, because of how flooded the roads had been. The mother looked at him
incredulously, but at first she thought it was a mere coincidence and it didn't happen
from there; although it was strange that, without having the slightest sign of bad
weather, a tremendous downpour had fallen. Even so, he downplayed the fact.
The other thing that little boy could do was read the minds of animals and
communicate with them. He used a kind of telepathy to communicate with them. He
discovered it very early one morning, when getting off his hammock, he accidentally
stepped on the tail of Zapirón, the cat. This one launched such an intense meow that it
ended up waking him up. He immediately felt very sorry for the little animal, which had
already sped away like a fireball and was looking at him scared from afar. Pancho also
looked at him and with a gesture ordered him to come closer. The poor cat, scared as he
was, couldn't make up his mind. He only shook his head as if expressing a doubt as to
whether to go towards him or not. Pancho, with the telepathic power that he was just
discovering, apologized to her and promised her an exquisite cup of milk. The little
animal, which had not yet completed its full development, nodded with another
movement of its head and at that moment ran towards its since then, inseparable friend
and they frolicked intensely for a long time in the hammock.
Pancho didn't think much of what he could do. He thought that like him, anyone who
wanted to could do it. And so, when he was going to go out anywhere and he noticed
the burning sun, he looked at the sky and snapping his fingers, he asked a cloud to hide
him momentarily so that its rays would not bother him. Sometimes, when he felt very
cold at night, he would lean out of the window and, making his usual sound with his
fingers, suddenly a faint warmth would embrace everything. That way he slept
peacefully, feeling that it was easy to ask nature for a favor. When, on the contrary, it
was too hot, with a similar request, he stopped doing it, and soon a pleasant icy breeze
embraced everything around him.
One day, like so many other times, Pancho woke up with a high fever. He felt a
general malaise that made him feel as if he had received a severe beating, since all his
muscles and joints ached. He complained like a convict. Lencha, already accustomed to
these sorrows of the boy, gave him a syrup to drink that was terrible on the palate. He
promised to prepare an exquisite chicken broth to alleviate his discomfort. When he
heard this, Pancho immediately got up and saw that his mother was going straight to the
chicken coop. It hadn't been long, when there he came with a chicken to his credit. The
little animal looked at Pancho terrified. He in turn looked at him with a hint of sadness.
The chicken begged for its life with that pitiful look. Pancho implored his mother not to
kill the bird, because she wanted, to improve her body, a vegetable broth that she had
wanted to eat for days. The confused woman released the chicken and it, while running
fast, looked gratefully at its benefactor. After he ate that exquisite soup, Pancho felt
himself revive, but the chicken felt it more. Soon a praiseworthy friendship began
between Pancho and the animals.