Pecado De Omision

His mother, the only thing he had left in his life, died when he was thirteen. Left as an orphan, it had already been at least three years since he had not attended school as he had to look for his day’s wages from one place to another. His only relative was the cousin of his father, one Emeterio Ruiz Heredia. Emeterio was the mayor and had a two-story house overlooking the plaza of the town,round and red under the sun of August. Emeterio had two hundred heads of livestock grazing through the slopes of Sagrado, and a young daughter, bordering on twenty, brunette, robust, smiling and somewhat foolish. His wife, thin and hard like a black poplar was rather coarse of language and knew how to command. Emeterio Ruiz did not get along well with his distant cousin, and to his widow, for thesake of doing “the right thing”, had helped her look for extraordinary wages. Later, to the little boy, although he [the mayor] had taken him in once as an orphan, without inheritance or trade, [the mayor] did not look on  him with sympathy. And such it was that he was received at the house ["Y como él los de su casa". ¡¿Qué es esto?!  It means: "everyone in the house felt the same way". ThanksMeredith!].

Lope [the orphan] slept under the corn loft the first night he spent at the house of Emeterio.  He was given dinner and a glass of wine. The following day, while Emeterio was tucking his shirt into his pants and the sun has barely risen to the song of the roosters, he called down the stairwell to his liege, chasing the chickens that were sleeping between the gaps in the stairs:“Lope!”

Lope descended, barefooted, with sleep in his eyes. He was a little bigger in his thirteen years than others of his age, and had a big head with closely cropped hair.

“You are going to become the shepherd of Sagrado.”

Lope found his boots and put them on. In the kitchen, Francisca, the daughter, had heated up the potatoes with paprika. Lope devoured them hurriedly, his aluminum spoondripping with every bite.

“You already know the trade. I believe that you walked one spring through the hills of Santa Auera with the goats of Aurelio Bernal.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“You will not be going alone. Around there walks also Roque el Mediano. You will be together.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Francisca put a loaf of bread in his knapsack, along with an aluminum quart, goat fat, and cured  meat.“Get going.” said Emeterio Ruiz Heredia.

Lope looked at him with his black eyes, round and shining.

“What are you looking at? Hurry!”

Lope left, knapsack on his shoulders. Before, he had picked up his crook, thick and shiny with use, that he kept, like a dog, supported by the wall.

He was already climbing the hill of Sagrado when don Lorenzo, the teacher, saw him. In the afternoonof the tavern, don Lorenzo lit a cigarette together with Emeterio, who was throwing back a cup of licorice-flavoured liqueur.

“I saw Lope,” He said. “He was heading towards Sagrado. Poor kid.”

“Yes.” said Emeterio, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. “He is going to be a shepherd. Already he knows that one must earn his own living. Life is hard. The unlucky of Pericote did not leavehim even a wall to lean on before they dropped dead.”

“The horrible thing,” said don Lorenzo, scratching an ear with a large and yellow nail. “Is what the kid is worth. If he had the means, his abilities could be tempered [literally: he could be harnessed]. He is smart, very smart. At school…”

Emeterio cut him off with his hand in front of his eyes:

“Well, well! I do not say otherwise. Butone must earn his own living. Life is getting worse with every day that passes.”

He ordered another glass of liqueur. The teacher nodded in agreement.

***

Lope arrived at Sagrado, shouting, to find Roque el Mediano. Roque was somewhat slow and had already been Emeterio’s shepherd for some 15 years. He was nearing 50 and almost never spoke. They slept in the same mud hut, under the...