Free The Coyote Under the Table/El Coyote Debajo de la Mesa by Joe Hayes

the bird squawked, “don’t you have a family?”
    Juan answered honestly, “I have two brothers, but I had to leave them because I was afraid they might harm me to get my money.”
    â€œMoney?” rasped the parrot. “Where did you get money?”
    Juan told the parrot the whole story about his father’s will and the cat’s discovery in the corner. Of course, Gato Pinto was listening. Later, after Juan had gone to sleep, the cat climbed up to the parrot’s perch. He grabbed the bird by the throat and gave it such a shaking its brains were rattled and everything it had heard was switched around in its head.
    In the middle of the night, when the girl came to question the parrot and find out what it had learned, the bird said, “Aawk! Juan has two fathers. His brother scratched a paper in the corner and found a box full of vigas . Aawk!”
    By the next evening the parrot’s brains had settled back into place and it struck up the same conversation with Juan. Juan wasn’t surprised because he knew parrots will often say the same thing over and over. He told the bird the whole story a second time, and enjoyed talking to the parrot so much, he took the bird into his room with him when he went to sleep. He perched the parrot on the window sill right beside his bed.
    Gato Pinto scratched and scratched at the door, but Juan wouldn’t let him in. Finally Juan grew so impatient he threw the cat outside. Then, as soon as Juan fell asleep, the parrot flew out the window and back to the girl. He told her all about Juan, and she hurried to tell his brothers. The brothers decided they would set Juan’s house on fire that very night while he slept. Since they were his only relatives, they would inherit his money.
    But in the meantime, Gato Pinto had run to the village church. He jumped up and sank his claws into the bell rope and began swinging back and forth until he made the bell ring. It woke up the priest. He came running to find out what was going on.
    Of course the priest recognized the cat. Everyone knew Gato Pinto. The priest said to himself, “Maybe something has happened to Juan.” He ran out of the church and off toward Juan’s house. Gato Pinto kept ringing the bell, and soon half the village was awake and running along behind the priest.
    The people arrived just in time to see Juan’s house beginning to burn and two men running away. They put out the fire and caught the two men. And then they woke up Juan.
    Juan recognized his two brothers, but he told the people, “Let them go. I don’t think they’ll bother me anymore.” And he was right. His brothers were so ashamed of themselves, they never showed their faces in that village again.
    But here is the strangest thing: Gato Pinto was never seen around the village again either. No one knew what became of him. Some people said, “That spotted cat was really an angel. It was sent by Juan’s father to look after and protect him.” And that’s what almost everyone in the village began to believe.
    As for Juan, he didn’t know what to think. But as the years went by, even though he took in many other stray cats and loved them all, he never found another like his great Gato Pinto.

E L CUENTO DEL GATO PINTO

    Una vez había tres hermanos ya mayores que vivían juntos con su padre en la misma casa, que en realidad no era más que una sala grande. La madre había muerto hacía años.
    Cuando el padre murió, los hermanos llevaron su testamento para que se lo leyeran, para ver lo que les heredaba. Resultó que su padre había dividido la casa entre los tres. Lo hizo de manera tradicional: Dejó cierto número de vigas del techo a cado uno.
    El hijo mayor heredó seis vigas, lo que quería decir que la parte de la casa bajo ese número de vigas sería suyo. Así que regresó a la casa y comenzando en una pared contó vigas—una, dos, tres,