Challenge 2 (Word Limit) - The Tale of my Three Ancestors

The Tale of my Three Ancestors

 (with apologies to JK Rowling’s “The Tale of the Three Brothers”)

There were once three brothers, who were traveling along a hilly Spanish vineyard at twilight.  In their time, a war erupted from their home country and the Freedom Land in the west, so, being learned in strategies of battle from stories past, they inscribed themselves in the war and traveled to a rural island close to the enemy’s land, only to be left behind by their country after its defeat.

A hooded figure approached the brothers and spoke to them.  The illusive figure identified himself as Death.  He felt angry for being cheated of the only three remaining members of a family meant to be wiped out in the unfortunate byproduct of the war.  But Death was cunning.  He feigned congratulations for the three brothers’ wit and promised a prize for each of them.

So the oldest brother, Baldomero—a bold, drug-abusing man—asked for a factory to produce his own line of cigars.  So Death gave him as he wished.

Then the second brother, Ramiro—a savvy and greedy human—decided that he wanted to humiliate Death still further, and asked for wisdom for him and his descendants to become doctors.  So Death gave him as he wished.

And finally Death asked the third and youngest brother, Nicolás, what he would like. The youngest brother, a humble man, did not trust Death. So he asked nothing of Death but to live a life uninterrupted by any of the dark deceiver’s insidious ploys.  So Death, most unwillingly, swore his first and only Promise of Life to a mere mortal.

After having spoken to all three brothers, Death stood aside and allowed them to continue on their way.  In due course the brothers separated, each for his own destination. The first brother traveled to Santurce, and, upon settling down, he opened his cigar factory and bathed in its riches.  But in time, the brother’s body and spirit rotted, becoming so distant from the real world that he disregarded his deteriorating health and shrugged off his family, including his son, Antonio, who opened a cigar factory in the enemy land

            His memories of the War isolated him further from his son’s open-mindedness, and thus he died alone in a hospital with severe pain from his substance abuse.

And so Death eagerly took the first brother for his own.

Meanwhile, the second brother journeyed to Ponce where he found a wife and fathered many children.  However, in likeness to the second brother’s greed, his wife divorced him for a richer man, and the children became lawyers and doctors of their own and abandoned him, continuing the miserly domino effect.

Finally the second brother, driven mad with loneliness and despair, killed himself to end the bountiful emptiness of wealth he once ignorantly craved in his youth.

And so Death eagerly took the second brother for his own.

But as Death watched the third brother from afar, as promised, he never understood how such a pathetically poor man could enjoy happiness and love in life for his family.  It was only when he had attained a great age that the youngest brother finally greeted Death, reflecting on his so-called accomplishments.  The frail man explained to him as he patiently had done for his own family, “life is not made of the sufferings and turmoil you may unfortunately receive, but what you made of those sufferings that define one’s life.”  And so Death, finally realizing the young man’s purpose, stretched out his bony hand in likeness to the hand of the wrinkled wise man, and they, as equals, departed from this life.

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This is the story of my great-great-grandfather, Nicolás Santaella.

 

A short story by:  Carlos Santaella

Word Count:  596, (not counting supplementary notes below)

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Notes:

http://www.20000-names.com/male_spanish_names.htm

1.      NICOLÁS: Spanish form of Latin Nicolaus, meaning "victor of the people."

2.      BALDOMERO*: Spanish name composed of the Germanic elements bald "bold, brave" and meri "famous," hence "bold and famous."

·        http://wtca.philrules.com/home-2/history - his son, Antonio, continued his legacy in Tampa, Florida

                                                              i.      ANTONIO: Italian and Spanish form of Latin Antonius, possibly meaning "invaluable.”  Looked him up, too, and his name fits!

3.       RAMIRO*: Spanish form of Latin Ramirus, meaning "wise and famous."

*(The only confirmed names are Nicolás and Antonio Santaella, the former from a story my father told me and the latter because of my research and that link.  The other two are just speculative fabrications of mine, symbolic representations of the fame and riches the two other brothers so desperately craved in the story.  Their professions and legacies are real, but their personalities are also fabrications of mine.  This story is in no way meant to disrespect them, but meant to teach a moral.)