Puppies

Už dlouho se tady neobjevil blog v angličtině, byť v takovém případě dosud vždy vzbudil zájem čtenářů i diskutujících. Dnes se objevilo několik skvělých angličtinářů v diskusi pod článkem tohoto blogu, který byl věnován diskutujícím typu rudých kádrováků, kteří blogery někdy v diskusích rádi fackují - jak sami přiznávají. Věřím tedy, že přinejmenším oni uvítají jednu krátkou povídku v angličtině, aby se zase jednou prohodil jazyk, zvláště když se jedná o letní téma.  -

Eversince I was born, I used to spend several weeks especially during the summer at my uncle Franta´s little farm /he was also my godfather/ in a small village in Moravian Slovakia. So we went to his home place also in the Summer of 1954.  I was already big then, six years old, and I should have gone to school in September. I was looking forward because I felt bad about my buddies telling different school stories in the street, not being able to add anything myself.

In the country, I was interested in everything. A pig and a cow above all. What a work the cow was able to do! To pull a large wagon itself up to the remote plots of the hillsides of Chřiby Mountains, and then to bring the full wagon of grains and hay back. She gave the best milk in the evenings. Only I was never allowed to lead it myself, uncle Franta had never lent me the reins. Maybe if I had asked him but, who knows? I had never dared to this, he was quite tough. He did not like my fondling with Asta.

“The dog has to guard, not to be fondled all the time,“ he would say. But I did not take it because Little Asta was the only being there that seemed to be interested in me.

It was enough to call: Astaaa! and she ran up to me immediately. That summer, however, she mostly stayed in the yard and seemed quite lazy, she had gone fatter as well. She had not chased hens any longer. Once, I called her – and nothing happened. I ran around the yard, but Asta was nowhere. Only at the back of a shed, I heard something. What was that? I laid down to look under a thresher. My eyes got twinkled. Asta was not alone. I saw puppies and the proud dog mummy. I crawled to them and touched them. Suddenly, Asta began barking as if in a frenzy.

Someone was approaching, I heard some talk.
“She is going to bite the boy. She is barking as if crazy!“ and: „That’s right, the crazy little bitch.“

We snuggled all together. I did not understand the word „bitch“ but I supposed it was nothing nice. My dear Asta, she would never have harmed me! How could it have come to their minds? I could saw few pairs of feet from under the thresher and I heard:     
“Come out, come out! She will hurt you!”
“I shan’t. We are playing in here.”

But they continued: “It may be dangerous to be with her when she has puppies!”
They were right. A hand appeared to pull me out and then yap, yip, yap, yip. And then just the sound of a ripping sleeve and some swearwords. They left us alone. Asta touched me with her nose and soothed the puppies as well. Nothing would divide us. I was certain that anyone would never forbid me to visit Asta and the puppies.

The next day, I dashed by the cowshed with the cow and the little pig without touching them. I took a few sweet potatoes out of a cauldron in which some groats for the pig were boiling, and ran to the puppies. We played and watched out with Asta not to let any puppy to roll down from the embankment. I went to bed with a wish it had been morning again.   

I ate my breakfast in a hurry, I wanted to visit the puppies, then Asta rushed out from the yard whimpering. She was driven away.

“Drive the dog out, she’s not supposed to be here!”

Why isn’t she guarding the puppies? I ran out with bad misgiving. The puppies were not there! I was searching everywhere, Asta was whimpering. When my cousin Jenka went by, she was a big girl already who helped on uncle’s farm, she asked me what I was looking for:   

“The puppies, what do you think?” I answered her stupid question angrily.  

“Oh, you fool, they’re drowned. Don’t you know that kittens and puppies have to be drowned, what would we do with them?”

“Yeah, I see, I see,” I tried to act as a big boy. “But those were Asta’s, that was different.”

“Please, why is it different? Come on, let’s pick up some pears in the backyards, they are so sweet.” 

She was right, the pears were delicious. However, I was not able to tell anybody that I had lost what had been the world’s sweetest for me. Not until I fondled Asta in the evening, there was all the sadness of the world in her eyes. Just the two of us knew that nothing would ever be the same again.   

The more I was looking forward to be back at home in Brno, with my friends. I had been away for the whole summer and they must have missed me as much as I had missed them. I could not wait telling them everything. While I was waiting for a lift with our luggage, Pepek appeared and said:   

“Are you going anywhere, buddy?”

Wow, he did not even noticed that I had not been there. Thus I told him nothing about the puppies. Perhaps he would not have understood.

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