the rat abelardo’s journey
ilustraciones de Ernesto Guerrero
With love for my daughterRocío Milagros, Because stories are eternal.. N.C.
belard’s tail is as long as his body attached to his head. Rat likes to curl up on its tail at night and roll around on the ground just before sleeping. He also likes to touch the tip of his nose with her and look at her with rolling eyes.
“Why is my tail so, so long, if I’m smaller than my brothers, and their tails are shorter than mine?” asks the Rat Abelardo, suspecting, with his acute rodent instinct, that is a special mouse. Then he forgets his doubts by scratching his ears, tiny and furry, inside with his tail and outside. What a pleasure! In the rest,
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A
the Rat Abelardo is just as Rat as his fourteen sisters and brothers, as his hundreds of male and female cousins, uncles and aunts, parents and grandparents. With fur that was rough and stiff as a shaving, with small black eyes like two watermelon seeds. Armed with fangs as sharp as knives to gnaw, and with four powerful claws to dig tunnels and feed.
The other thing that Abelardo likes, apart from his long tail, are stories. How much would he give to listen to a good story every night while scratching his ears! How he would like to travel far through words as when he was just a long-tailed little rat! During the exhausting days of work in the tunnels, Abelardo he spends his time thinking about his favorite stories. In the love affairs and tragedies of Ratameo and Ratalieta, in the adventures of the Rat in Boots, in the teachings of Rat Selfish, in the escapades of little mouse Brave... And so many other memorable characters from mousy literature!
When Abelardo runs out of tales to remember, he eagerly digs for the amazing gifts that the earth gives him from time to time. His Wonderful Things Collection features a glow-in-the-dark red cellophane candy wrapper; a litmus button blue as the sky a green plastic toothpick, the color of grass; also a little silver chain
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that sparkles when you move it... And by far her favorite wonderful thing! A copper ring with a green stone embedded in the center. The sands of the desert and the color of the imagination merge into that wonderful thing.
All these objects show Abelardo the existence of the outside world, that’s why they are his most precious treasures. While his rat siblings sleep soundly at night, the rat tells stories to himself, and in all of them; he, Abelardo III, together with his loooooong tail, they live a lot of adventures far from the world of the sewers.
“There has to be more to it than surviving, foraging, and sleeping. Perhaps above the sewers—Abelardo says to himself dreamily.
The only rat that in his life has told Abelardo stories is his uncle Eustaquio, when he was just a kid. His uncle was a smaller rat than the rest of the rats, and with a great curiosity, almost as great as his tail.
—Stories are the most wonderful thing we have, but you must be careful, Abelardo. Thousands of years ago, books, and even stories told snout to snout, were banned by the Rat King.
From that day on, every rat caught telling stories suffers banishment and is expelled far from the sewers for life—his uncle instructed him.
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“And why do they ban stories, Uncle Eustaquio?”
—Legend has it that King Rat I was a great reader of tales. He had devoured all the classic tales, like Ratameo and Ratalieta, that beautiful love story of two young rats divided by the historical confrontation of their rat families. Also, the Rat in Boots, where the bravery and cunning of the rat will lead him to meet the king himself. And how to forget The Selfish Rat, who taught the king the importance of sharing and also the treasure that is hidden within others.
“And did you like The Brave Little Mouse?” asked the rat. “What if he liked him?” One of his favorites was the Brave little mouse! —assured his uncle.
“I like the same stories as the Rat King I!” Abelardo shrieked, being just a kid. “And he read many more stories that have disappeared from the face of the sewers and from our forgetful memories, dear nephew,” answered Eustaquio. “But if Rat King I loved tales, why did he forbid them?” asked Abelardo, curious.
—Because one bad night he read The Pied Piper of Hamelin, and King Rat I saw reflected in that story the possible destiny of our people. After crying all night, the king ordered to burn every last book that was in the Kingdom of Rats and forever banned stories, music and
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the arts. That night the pyres of books burned until all the stories and the memory of our people disappeared. Any type of contact with humans and with the world was also prohibited, since every time a rat went outside, it never came back... —his uncle told him sadly.
“And what else did the king forbid?” Abelardo asked, distressed.
“The wonderful differences. Since that day there is only one profession and destiny for our people. We rats must lead a life of workers from our birth to our death, working tirelessly to survive under the city.
That is why books were banned, because they only serve to dream and distract oneself.
The mouse Abelardo looked with his eyes of watermelon seeds at the long mustaches of his uncle, as if he were a prophet.
—I want to be able to dream, Uncle Eustaquio. And to know what lies beyond the world of the sewers... confessed Abelardo wrapping himself around his tail, as if he were hugging himself.
Uncle Eustaquio smiled with emotion.
—You’re a special guarén, like me. There are endless worlds beyond the sewers, dear nephew.
One day, his uncle Eustaquio disappeared forever, as if the earth had swallowed him. From that
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moment nobody heard from him again and life became grayer for Abelardo in the Kingdom of the Rats. Asking about him in the sewers, Abelardo learned of the different stories that were told. He was shrieking that he had been banished forever from the Kingdom of Rats in the middle of the night, by direct order of the Rat King LXXVIII. He was accused of trafficking stories and adventures, of sowing imagination and dreams in the minds of his peers, and of the youngest.
“I don’t want that revolutionary rat in my kingdom!” Her Majesty would have shrieked.
She whispered that on a trip to the human world they had made him dance with broomsticks until he was sent to rat heaven.
“We don’t want dirty rats in our human world!” the humans said in unison, raising their fists. It was also
commented that it had been an impossible love, one of those in which a rat can easily end up being eaten.
“A wire-haired rat like you and a soft-haired cat like me could never be together, you understand that, don’t you?” Miauuuu... —that cat that he would have known would have meowed haughtily, before launching the claw.
At the end of the stories, the rats sighed at the thought of those adventures that happened far from the sewers. Suddenly, they looked at each other in horror. They were telling stories!
“Let’s get out of here before the Rat Police arrive!” They shouted in chorus and disappeared from sight.
Some time after the disappearance of his uncle
Eustaquio, Abelardo created the Secret Tales Club in an abandoned cave, four hundred and fourteen tunnels away from the center of the Kingdom of the Rats, but none of his friends wanted to sign up to participate in it. Nobody wanted to hear stories! The Rats put on a terrified face as soon as they heard about them.
“Don’t let someone from the Government of the Rats listen to you!” His friend Whiskers warned him, showing his teeth and moving his snout nervously.
—Don’t come to me with your stories, Abelardo! I have a promising future in the Rat Bureaucratic
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Apparatus! Perhaps even in the Congress of the Rats! His friend Little Rat added energetically, named after the long caste of rat kings and rat queens.
Most of the Secret Story Club meetings were empty, except for Abelard and one or two rats who listened intently and silently to the stories. How beautiful the fire that burned in her little black eyes made of watermelon seeds! At the end of the reading, the attendees commented between shrieks on the adventures they had read. When the rats came out of the cave, looking both ways to make sure no one was following them, they were full of stories, adventures, love and wisdom.
Although time has passed, the questions about his uncle are still alive in the heart of the rat Abelardo.
“What happened to Uncle Eustaquio, Mom?” he asks his mother as they eat in the cave one night.
—He was involved in forbidden things. And forbidden things don’t lead to anything good —answers her mother.
“Too curious a Rat for my liking.” With that defect so typical of cats... Now eat your garbage before your brothers steal it! —Her father yells at him, so as not to think any more about what will have become of her brother.
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His parents don’t like to talk about Uncle Eustaquio, or listen to his stories. They only like to talk about work and food, like all rats. Of Uncle Eustaquio, Abelardo only remembers the stories and how he playfully stroked his head with his long tail. His fourteen wild and beefy sisters and brothers aren’t interested in his uncle’s fate either, although some take advantage of his distractions to make their own.
—He who talks a lot, eats little! His younger brother, Eulalio, shrieks and steals a ration of garbage with one claw.
Others listen to his questions covering their ears with their paws.
—How boring you are, Abelardooooooooooo!
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Every night you talk about the same thing! His sister Claws yells at him.
His older brother, the rat Heriberto, the strongest, hardest working and serious of his brothers, advises him to put his feet on the ground and stop dreaming of the lives he cannot live.
“Stop asking questions and focus on the job, Abelardo. You are the least productive of the workers. Even your tail works harder than you!
“It’s just that it’s as long as my body plus my head!” the rat says proudly.
From dawn to night, Abelardo works alongside his brothers in the sewers. They dig tunnels in search of food, water and shelter. In the afternoons, they go out on long expeditions through the sewers.
—We must look for new territories to colonize. We are going to nest in them and ensure the survival of our species! Heriberto yells, puffing out his strong rat chest.
His brother commands Group 1,114,332 of the WZH Subdivision of the Army of Worker Rats. Abelardo, as always, goes to the end of the gang so that the other rats don’t step on his long tail or bother him.
“Not my tail, please!” Abelardo asks when the rats throw it at him.
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“Tie it like a tie or you’ll go backwards!” —His co-workers bother him.
“Better go last! That way I can freely distract myself with my thoughts without anyone pushing me”, thinks the rat.
Although tonight is different, everyone sleeps around. Peace reigns in the cave. Abelardo probes the surroundings with his tail. He smells each of the scents with his developed sense of smell and listens carefully with his powerful hearing. Everything is in order! Some of his siblings screech softly in their sleep, others paw at their rough fur. A drunken rat sings a song in the distance.
—That rat was the cutest that I saw in my dirty life and her departure in my heart left a big wound. The night you’ve been waiting for so long has finally arrived! Abelardo feels more awake than ever. His heart jumps.
The next day is Rat Rest Day, the only day of the year when the Rays rest in the Kingdom of Rats, sleep soundly and laze around, so you have time on your side. The rat silently gets up, puts on his hat with his tail, takes his bag and calmly stretches his whiskers.
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Then he walks on tiptoe so as not to wake up his family. With ballerina steps he passes Claws, Anastasia, Fluffy, Heriberto, Colmillitos, and each of his rat sisters and brothers, until he reaches the cave portal. Once there, he takes off his hat and holds it against his chest.
—See you soon! ¡A bientôt! Bis bald! To quick ragazzi!
! — He says goodbye with a shriek in several languages, as his uncle Eustaquio taught him what travelers did.
Abelardo walks for two long hours, twisting through labyrinthine sewers, climbing through dirty conduits, swimming against the current and dodging puddles, until he reaches the edge of the precipice: the place that separates the known from the unknown. With his little hat on his head and his backpack crossed, Abelardo sticks his nose out into the void.
“For my aunt Eulalia’s mustaches!” He exclaims fearfully.
The wind from the sewers hits his face and shakes his whiskers, the rain pours down, the thunder they rumble fiercely: Kraka-boooooooum! Kraka-booouuuuum! Abelardo respectfully studies the dark waters of the river that roars meters below. “Bad worker! Bad worker! Bad worker! ”, He remembers that his cousins sang to him to make fun of him in the celebrations, as
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ही मिलेंगे! ¡很快见到你
जल्द
they inflated his developed muscles. The Rat takes a deep breath.
—To be strong is to dare to face your fears! the mouse screeches to give itself courage; the laughter of his cousins and brothers disappear from his mind.
Abelardo launches into a perfect dive and plunges into the mysterious waters. “Nothing better than a good dip in dirty water to scare away the ghosts,” he thinks. As a good swimmer, the rat soon moves away from known territories. When he raises his head, he realizes that everything is new, the sewers are larger and brighter. You can already smell the light air on the surface!
“I’ve never been so far from home!” Abelardo yells excitedly. The mouse tirelessly continues his route, until at the end of the dark tunnel he sees the light. A circle that shines just as the tales have told you that the sun shines!
—Anyone there? Abelardo yells, but he doesn’t get an answer.
The Rat sticks his nose out of the hole. Suddenly, everything turns dark and red at the same time. “I’ve gone blind!” Where am I whiskers?
Abelardo blindly enters the living room of a cozy house. “How quiet it is up here. It’s like nothing could
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illustrated by Ernesto Guerrero
Nicolás Cruz Valdivieso
