Memoirs of a Basque Cow by Bernardo Atxaga

Author:Bernardo Atxaga [Atxaga, Bernardo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781912868278
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

SIXTH CHAPTER

A LONG CONVERSATION BETWEEN LA VACHE QUI RIT AND ME. THE PEST SPEAKS TO ME ABOUT ALPHA AND OMEGA. THE GREAT WHEEL OF SECRETS BEGINS TO TURN. GRAVE EVENTS IN BALANZATEGUI.

From the rocks where the plane had crashed we had a clear view of the valley of Balanzategui and the snowy hills round about.

‘That’s the good thing about this time of year,’ I said to La Vache qui Rit, ‘the woods are bare, and it’s easier then to see the kind of world we live in.’

‘And to see which cow is stupid and which is not,’ she answered. ‘Right now, the stupid cows of Balanzategui are in the barn, ruminating on what they ate yesterday and feeling too lethargic to go outside into the cold air. And the cold is so bracing! I’ve always said it and I always will: there’s nothing in the world more stupid than a stupid cow!’

We were both kneeling down on the cold moss, she on one side of the plane and I on the other, chatting calmly to each other over the bits of rusted metal. We didn’t want to launch straight into the subject that had brought us there. There would be time enough to ponder the discovery of the rice.

‘I once had a most unfortunate experience in the snow,’ I told her, letting myself be carried back into the past. ‘There I was nibbling away at the short mountain grass and, before I knew it, a pack of wolves were following me. A bit of a shock, I can tell you.’

‘Wolves? And how many did you kill with your horns?’ said La Vache qui Rit raising her large head and with an eager look in her eyes. It was her wild inner voice speaking.

‘Oh, I didn’t kill any, but the one who was the leader of the pack went off toothless, because I dealt him a tremendous kick in the mouth.’

‘Splendid! Well done!’ said La Vache qui Rit enthusiastically.

‘Of course, he went away with a prize too. He bit my tail.’

‘Oh, that’s nothing!’

La Vache qui Rit was staring now at the snowy slopes of the hills, wondering if the wolves were still there.

‘What a shame I wasn’t with you,’ she sighed. ‘I would love to have laid into those wolves myself! Where did you say you saw them?’

‘On that long slope above Balanzategui, near the black rock.’

She stared over at the rock, and a shiver ran through her. Now and then, as if she were dreaming, she whispered the words dictated to her by her inner voice, words that were inevitably warlike: ‘Get him! Yes, again! Stick it to him!’

‘I’d have killed them all!’ she sighed at last, before calming down and returning to her normal self.

‘I’m sure you would,’ I said.

‘In a way, it’s such a shame to have been born a cow!’ she went on, turning to look at me. ‘If we were like wild boar or like eagles, we would have to fight for our food, but, in exchange, we’d be free to go where we pleased.

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