The Threatening Peat - Montse Valls

SHORT STORIES – THE THREATENING PEAT

Automatic translation from the original story in Spanish. Not checked manually

José was right next to the bed, ready to go to bed. He felt restless, he had the strange sensation that some danger was waiting for him.

Suddenly, when he turned off the overhead light and only the humble light from the bedside lamp freed the room from gloom, he seemed to see something through the curtain. He was aware at the time that he had forgotten to lower the shade.

He held his breath and walked over to the window… just before reaching her, he saw it clearly. A mass of enraged people brandished their hands towards the sky with enormous violence. The sound they made was louder as they got closer to the house.

The Threatening Peat - Photo by Richard Loader on Unsplash — **The Threatening Peat – Photo by Richard Loader on Unsplash**

He hurried away from the window and curled up on the floor on the side of the bed opposite the window. With his hand, trying to do it with the greatest stealth, he flipped the switch on the lamp and left the room dark. Hopefully they would think there was no one home.

The noise was still intense and his hands kept moving aggressively. José was terrified… he didn’t dare to move from there. And he didn’t want to endanger his family either, and finally, he decided to hide under the bed…

It was impossible for him had done to make that exalted mob want to attack him … A long time passed and sleep overcame him… the nightmares, although they shook his body with spasms and ragged breathing, could not wake him… he only managed to emit lugubrious sounds of concern.

Suddenly the room lights up and José suddenly wakes up with a start and as he tries to stand up and falls flat against the mattress… he tries to stifle a groan of pain, but he can’t … Then a voice sounds…

“But José, what are you doing under the bed? Get out of there and don’t be silly! You’ll be late for school…!”

The boy does not understand anything… he continues to hear the screaming and his mother does not flinch… he comes out from under the bed hiding, and with the certainty that his mother is there, he approaches the window and cautiously draws the curtain… There is no one, but the howling of the screaming continues…

“Get dressed and bundle up a bit, it’s been really windy since last night…” The child observes better and perceives that the shouting corresponds to the gusts of the wind whipping the few leaves that remain on the branches of the trees, which border the house… Branches that sway vertiginously accelerated, following the cadence of the gusts of the gale and that together with the leaves, seem like hands crying out to the sky in despair … At last he smiles relieved…