UN RELATO DE LA VIDA DE JUAN MONTEJO, "EL HERRERILLO" (1)

"Aunque segoviano de nacimiento, así como su padre, Juan Antonio Montejo estaba muy compenetrado con los habitantes de Bujarón.  Desde los cuatro años vivía en aquel pueblo.

"Pocos recuerdos le quedaban de los años de Segovia.  Tal vez una abuela, sentada en un sillón, cosiendo junto a una alta ventana, fuese la imagen vaga que aún conservase su memoria, pero quedaba tan borrosa que, si no fuese porque su padre le aseguraba que aquella abuela había existido, habría creído que era el personaje de algún cuento que le contaron de niño.

"Después de enviudar, antes de venir a Bujarón, don Pedro Montejo llevaba luto.  Su hijo lo había conocido siempre vestido de negro, y esto le parecía muy natural.

"Pero un día, ya mayorcito, le extrañó ver a su padre con una chaqueta gris; más tarde fue la corbata la que cambió de color, y un buen día, don Pedro comunicó a su hijo que pensaba volverse a casar.

"La noticia no causó gran extrañeza ni sobresalto al chico, pues eso del matrimonio se presentaba de una manera muy abstracta en su cerebro.  Tampoco pensó con tristeza en su madre, de quien tenía una idea tan borrosa y tan poco conocimiento de lo que significaba el amor, que en ningún momento pensó que su padre la traicionara.

"Aceptó a la madrastra como hubiera aceptado a una nueva criada.  Resultó ser una señora suave y vulgar, muy hacendosa y excelente ama de casa.

"Lo que más asombró a Juan Antonio fue que se trajo consigo a una muchacha morenucha y flaca, de una edad aproximada a la suya.  La madrastra era viuda, y había tenido esa hija de su primer matrimonio.  Poco caso hizo Juan Antonio de la chica; incluso le molestó su presencia.  ¡Para qué habrían traído aquella sabandija a su casa!  Más tarde, la llevaron a un colegio de Córdoba, interna, mientras Juan Antonio pasaba el invierno en Sevilla, en casa de unos tíos.  Allí estudiaba el bachillerato en el instituto.  Ninguno de los dos volvía a Bujarón hasta las vacaciones."  (Continuará)

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A TALE IN THE LIFE OF JUAN MONTEJO, THE "LITTLE BLACKSMITH" (1)

Even though he came from Segovia, as well as his father, Juan Antonio Montejo felt closer to the people of Bujarón where he had lived since he was four-years-old.

He didn't have many memories of his years in Segovia.  Maybe a grandmother, sitting on a sofa, sewing close to a high window, was the diffusive image that came to his mind but it was so blurry that if it wasn't for his father telling him that she had existed, he would have thought she was a character of one of the fairy tales they read him as a child.

When his father, don Pedro Montejo became a widower, and before moving to Bujarón, he always dressed in black.  His son had always seen him dressed in black and thought nothing of it, for him, it was perfectly normal. 

Until one day, already a budding young man, he was surprised to see his father in a grey jacket;  later it was the ties that changed colours...  Finally, his father announced that he was re-marrying.

The news didn't bother or upset him greatly because for him the idea of "matrimony" was an abstract notion.  He didn't feel sorry either for his deceased mother, whose memory was also blurry and diffused and since he didn't know what "love" was, he didn't think his father was betraying her.

He accepted his step-mother as if she was another maid.  She turned out to be a quiet, ordinary woman, very diligent and an excellent housewife. 

What amazed him the most is that she brought with her a girl, about his age, dark-haired and skinny.   The step-mother was a widow and the girl happened to be her daughter.  Juan Antonio ignored her, and her presence even bothered him.  Why had she brought that creep into his house!  They ended up putting her in a boarding school in Córdoba while Juan Antonio spent the winter in Seville with an aunt and uncle where he attended high school.  Only on holidays did both of them go back to Bujarón.  (It will continue)