///Indie Journal Daily///

Saturday, July 26, 2008

The Halls of Knowledge, part seventy

Vantarvian's story continued ...

Bindu Baa Baa, Wana Tu Tu and Habba Meassa, three of the members of the governing body of the City of Umgowah stood in silence as Father Macksennett paused, wiped his brow, pulled his wavy hair back, bit on a few fingernails, looked up at the sky, coughed, cracked his knuckles and finally looked at the two Spaniards and said, "Hola."
The Spaniards smiled and shook hands with all of the members of the governing body of the City of Umgowah and then with Father Macksennett, who then said, "Enough talk, let's go to the dining room and eat. Well, you guys go because I have to serve mass."
"No," said Heepa Deepa, another of the members of the governing body of the City of Umgowah. "We have much to talk about before dining."

Vantarvian told us that he watched all of this happen, even though he was supposed to be in the kitchen preparing dinner for the dignitaries. Vantarvian said that he watched Father Macksennett act strangely, having no idea why the so-called priest was as nervous as he appeared.

Vantarvian said he felt badly for the priest, so he strolled over, stood beside Father Macksennett and said to the Spaniards, "Vanna pito pito manna des ignato mi solo."

Everyone was silent except Father Macksennett, who began to sweat in streams that dripped off of his nose, lips and chin.

One of the Spaniards then said, "Que?"
Vantarvian repeated, "Vanna pito pito manna des ignato mi solo."

More silence. The Spaniards looked at one another, shrugged and made faces that looked as if they had just eaten pork too salty for anyone's taste.

Vantarvian looked at Father Macksennett and said, "Did I pronounce the words wrong?"
"No, no," the fake priest said quickly. "They are probably from another part of Spain, one that doesn't know that dialect."
"But Spanish is Spanish," said Heepa Deepa. "All Spaniards should know Spanish."
"Yes," said Bindu Baa Baa, "because it is their language."
"No, no," said Father Macksennett. "I teach the other Spanish, the kind that is, well, it's the kind that is not from where these guys are from, you see?"
"You did not tell us anything like that," said Heepa Deepa, "when you were doing teaching of the language."

Vantarvian said he stood up for the fake priest but things became worse when the Spanish dignitaries began to talk in fluent Spanish and quickly, while they gesticulated. In a panic, Father Macksennett began to translate with the first things that came to his head. He said, "They want beef and vegetables for dinner and they want to trade cotton, lots of cotton that will be delivered to us by a ship, a big ship with white sails and a flag that has a half moon on it. And they say their names are Juan and Too and that they learned to speak Spanish from a crippled man who was deaf in both ears and he spit when he talked so they were learning the language while getting spat in their eyes and it made them want to swim so they like to swim and bought their suits with money they made from the king of Spain, whose name escapes them now but they just call him kingy anyway because they are such good friends and he gives them money to gamble on bullfights. Mostly the men in the bullring are mauled and cannot have children ever again but the bulls are not castrated because no one wants a bull without a penis ..."

~To be continued

Frank Cotolo 10:36 PM