mishalak

The windowpane broke with a soft crunch. The burglar's plaster carefully applied to the glass had done its job muffling the sound by sticking the pieces to itself. The trespasser carefully set the paper with the bits of glass still stuck to it on the ground and then reached in to open the door. The bolt yielded easily to his gloved hand and he entered into the little brick house listening for any sounds of stirring residents. He heard no sound as he climbed up the short flight of steps and into the kitchen.

A clock in the ancient white enamel stove ticked loudly in the cool grey half dark. Nothing of value seemed to be immediately available here. A big stone mortar sat out on the table and the whole room smelled of spices and cooking. The burglar made his way through an open doorway into the dinning room and then the small dinning room looking for items of easy value. No DVD player, no VCR, not even a TV sat in this house's living room! Indeed the only thing that might be of value here was a huge ancient radio shaped like a gothic arch sitting on the floor and that was much too large and heavy to think about moving.

Damn this was turning out to be useless. That careful work opening the backdoor, useless and that left him fuming.

Back to the dinning room, there was a big old furniture here, a sideboard. Maybe in this old person house there would be real sliver in it to make up for the lack of 'lectronics. He opened up the rightmost door and found bottles of every sort. Well if nothing else one of these would be better than nothing. He pulled open the center drawer and found a big box covered in tiny carvings. He put it quietly on the table and open it up to find... silver! A huge set that shone in the half light. It actually seemed to shine. He closed the box and picked it up to put it under his arm when a voice startled him.

"And where do you think you're going with that?"

Get out or go for more? She sounded old, but not at all afraid. "Out of my way and you won't get hurt." It sounded like she was in the kitchen so he'd go out the French doors around the dinning room table. He rushed over and put his hands to a handle when he received a shock like a bolt of soundless lightning.

He jerked back, but somehow didn't end up dropping the huge box he had stuffed under his arm. The only thing to show and he wasn't giving it up easily he would have thought if he'd been asked how he found presence of mind to grab it despite what had just happened.

"Now put that on the table."

No! This was going all wrong. Was there an alarm on the door? The short old woman stepped into the doorway of the kitchen. She appeared to be in some sort of robe and had grey white hair drawn back into a bun or big knot. She held a cane in one hand and pointed at him and he put it onto the table. At first he thought he would fling it at her, but he ended up just putting it down without out a word.

"Now what am I to do with you?" she asked rhetorically. She sniffed the air, "The bones of a Huichol and a Spaniard. In times of old my own granny would have killed you and cooked your flesh for dinner and ground your bones to make her sacred bread."

He thought, "Oh shit! Crazy old witch! Run!" And he tried to move for the living room and the front door beyond when she thumped her cane to the floor and he found himself tumbling to a stop.

"But this are new times and I think it best if you respectfully call me little grandmother. Can you do that?"

"Yes... little grandmother."

"Good!" She walked around the table to his side. "Now here is what you are going to do. You're going to quit the drugs that made you come in here seeking my worldly goods. Then you're going to get a job, an honest one if you need that spelled out to you. And then, no less than a year from now, you'll come back with a pane of glass and give it to me saying how sorry you are for having broken into my little house. Does that sound fair?"

"Yes little grandmother." Anything, anything to get out of here.

"And if you don't... Well it is illegal for me to kill you, but if you don't do as I say everything will go wrong for you. That I promise. Now you may go, back out the way you came in."

He cautiously got up and then moved very quickly around the table, through the kitchen, and out the backdoor.

Her voice followed him out, "Remember what I said Ramón." Baba carefully cut a piece of cardboard to put into her window before returning to sleep in her warm bed atop the wood stove in her bedroom.