Cuidado con el Cuacuacuanchi
EL NIÑO LLEGÓ CORRIENDO de la escuela, tiró el morral en el sofá, entró a su cuarto y encendió el televisor. Cuando su padre entró, luego de guardar su motocicleta, ya el pequeño tenía cinco minutos viendo sus dibujos animados favoritos, Jóvenes titanes.
─José Andrés, ven para que me muestres qué tareas te mandaron.
─Ninguna, papá, ─gritó el pequeño desde la comodidad de su cama.
─No mientas, mira que te puede llevar el Cuacuacuanchi.
─Eso no existe.
─Claro que sí, es un monstruo que se lleva a los mentirosos.
Minutos después, José mostraba sus tareas, luego se dio un baño y almorzaron los tres, cuando llegó su madre.
Esa tarde, el papá salió y dijo que no tardaría, que al regresar le traería su dulce favorito. Pero no regresó y José se acostó sin comer el dulce prometido y lo último que le dijo a su madre, antes de dormirse, fue que su papá le había mentido, que ojalá se lo llevara el Cuacuacuanchi.
El papá no apareció esa noche. A la madre le tocó llevar al niño a la escuela y decir que lo más seguro era que ella misma iría a por él a la hora de salida. En recreo pasó que un amiguito le contó a los otros, que estaba triste porque a su papá se lo había llevado un monstruo, el niño no estaba mintiendo porque eso le dijo su mamá y que de eso hacía tres días. De inmediato José Andrés relacionó todo, la pérdida del papá de su amigo con la ausencia de su propio padre, porque algo le decía que su papá estaba desaparecido, se lo decía la tristeza de su mamá y se lo confirmaba lo que había deseado por la noche, antes de dormirse, es decir, que ojalá se lo llevara el Cuacuacuanchi.
Desde ese instante estuvo seguro de que a su papá se lo había llevado ese monstruo que se lleva a los mentirosos. Cuando le contó a sus amigos más íntimos, le pidió que, por favor, lo ayudaran a rescatar a su papá y con la valentía de la inocencia, en un descuido se escaparon para ir a rescatar al papá perdido.
La maestra se dio cuenta de que le faltaba, no uno, sino tres de sus alumnos; los buscó en el patio y no estaban; fue a los otros salones, a la biblioteca, a la cancha, por toda la escuela, y no estaban. Uno de los niños los vio salir y dijo por dónde se fueron y por allí mismo salieron los profesores con destino a traerlos de regreso.
No habían caminado mucho cuando notaron que tres adultos sospechosos los perseguían, los niños se asustaron porque los sospechosos alzaban las manos como indicando que si los agarraban los iban a zarandear en el aire y a lo mejor los iban a golpear, por eso doblaron en una esquina y corrieron hasta donde vieron a un par de policías que patrullaban por allí.
Al llegar asustados e informar de que tres tipos los estaban persiguiendo para hacerles daño, los policías los resguardaron en el carro y salieron decididos a enfrentar a los sospechosos, a los que sometieron de inmediato.
Los profesores alegaban que ellos no querían hacerles daño a los niños, que habían salido a buscarlos porque se habían fugado de la escuela. Los policías, para verificar, pidieron a los profesores que los acompañaran hasta la patrulla, donde estaban los niños y fueran todos a la escuela a aclarar el asunto. Fueron a la escuela, pero sin los niños porque los policías, por la premura de atrapar a los sospechosos, habían dejado la puerta abierta y los niños aprovecharon y escaparon.
Toda la escuela culpaba a los policías de haber perdido a los niños. Toda la comunidad se enteró y salió a buscar a los pequeños, quienes ya habían cruzado hacia otro sector. A media mañana, los perímetros más cerca de la escuela eran rodeados por civiles, policías, padres y representantes, y más angustiados que nadie, los padres de los tres perdidos.
Como no los hallaron en el perímetro demarcado, se extendieron y antes del mediodía, toda la ciudad se empezó a enterar de la búsqueda y los que no se incorporaban, se quedaban tranquilos en casa para evitar que no les señalaran algún pecado.
Los que no se quedaron ni en casa ni tranquilos fueron los malhechores, muchos se empezaron a ir disimuladamente del sector para evitar sus cuentas con la justicia, y debido a eso, los niños andaban sin riesgo de ser atracados o qué sé yo; habían llegado a un sector solitario, un barrio marginal que se veía despoblado y al fondo tenía de telón un bosque pequeño que daba cierta impresión tenebrosa, y ciertamente lo fue cuando los niños escucharon gritos, primero irreconocibles, luego parecieron de llanto y por último de auxilio.
José Andrés reconoció los gritos de su padre, pero les dio miedo meterse al bosque porque allí podría estar el Cuacuacuanchi y atacarlos. No podían regresar porque estaban perdidos y porque finalmente habían logrado lo que deseaban, hallar al papá, así que los tres gritaron y el papá escuchó y cuando finalmente se acercaron, lo rescataron.
En un abrazo se unieron padre e hijo; y en otro, hijo y amigos porque al rescatar al papá, se salvaban ellos también.
─Papá, prométeme que no volverás a mentir para que el Cuacuacuanchi no te vuelva a llevar.
─Te lo prometo, ese Cuacuacuanchi no te volverá a dejar sin dulce.
Cuando se encontraron con la policía, volvieron a casa y se aclaró todo. El papá contó lo que le había pasado, que lo habían secuestrado en la noche y que de no ser por los pequeños, quién sabe qué hubiera pasado con él. A la policía no supo decirle quiénes fueron sus captores, solo que le querían robar la motocicleta y ver qué más le sacaban a su esposa. A su hijo, por su parte, le dijo que no le volvería a mentir, que no quería volver a ver la cara de ese monstruo.
El Cuacuacuanchi, por su parte, que habitaba en aquel pequeño bosque, había escuchado lo que el papá le dijo a José Andrés, la mentira de que él lo había secuestrado; había grabado todo y se estaba preparando para salir, por primera vez, para acabar con los mentirosos.
Beware of Cuacuacuanchi
THE LITTLE BOY CAME running home from school, threw his backpack on the couch, went into his room and turned on the television. When his father came in, after putting away the motorcycle, the little boy had already been watching his favorite cartoon, The Teen Titans, for five minutes.
─José Andrés, come so you can show me the homework they sent you.
─Ninguna, Dad,─ shouted the little boy from the comfort of his bed.
─Don't lie, look what the Cuacuacuanchi can take you.
─That doesn't exist.
─Of course it exists, it's a monster that takes liars.
Minutes later, José was showing his homework, then he took a bath and the three of them had lunch, when his mother arrived.
That afternoon, his father went out and said he wouldn't be long, that when he came back he would bring him his favorite candy. But he did not return and José went to bed without eating the promised candy and the last thing he said to his mother, before falling asleep, was that his father had lied to him, and that he wished the Cuacuacuanchi would take him away.
The father did not show up that night. The mother had to take the child to school and say that she would most likely pick him up herself at dismissal time. At recess a little friend told the others that he was sad because his father had been taken away by a monster, the boy was not lying because his mother had told him so and that it had been three days ago. Immediately José Andrés connected everything, the loss of his friend's father with the absence of his own father, because something told him that his father was missing, his mother's sadness told him so and it was confirmed by what he had wished at night, before falling asleep, that is to say, that he wished the Cuacuacuanchi had taken him away.
From that moment on he was sure that his father had been taken away by that monster that takes away liars. When he told his closest friends, he asked them to please help him rescue his father and with the courage of innocence, in an oversight they escaped to rescue his lost father.
The teacher realized that she was missing not one, but three of her students; she looked for them in the playground and they were not there; she went to the other classrooms, to the library, to the playground, all over the school, and they were not there. One of the children saw them leave and said which way they went, and the teachers went out that way to bring them back.
They had not walked far when they noticed three suspicious adults chasing them, the children got scared because the suspects were raising their hands as if to indicate that if they were caught they were going to shake them in the air and maybe beat them up, so they turned a corner and ran to where they saw a couple of policemen patrolling around.
When they arrived frightened and reported that three guys were chasing them to harm them, the policemen sheltered them in the car and went out determined to confront the suspects, whom they immediately subdued.
The teachers claimed that they did not want to harm the children, that they had gone out to look for them because they had run away from school. The policemen, to verify, asked the teachers to accompany them to the patrol car where the children were and to go to the school to clarify the matter. They went to the school, but without the children because the policemen, in their haste to catch the suspects, had left the door open and the children took advantage of the situation and escaped.
The whole school blamed the police for the loss of the children. The whole community found out and went out to look for the children, who had already crossed to another sector. By mid-morning, the perimeters closest to the school were surrounded by civilians, police, parents and representatives, and more anguished than anyone else, the parents of the three missing children.
As they did not find them in the demarcated perimeter, they spread out and before noon, the whole city began to know about the search and those who did not join the search, stayed quietly at home to avoid being accused of any sin.
Those who stayed neither at home nor at ease were the criminals, many of them began to leave the sector in order to avoid their accounts with justice, and because of that, the children walked without the risk of being robbed or what do I know; they had arrived to a solitary sector, a marginal neighborhood that looked unpopulated and in the background there was a small forest that gave a certain gloomy impression, and it certainly was when the children heard screams, first unrecognizable, then they seemed to be crying and finally they were crying for help.
José Andrés recognized his father's screams, but they were afraid to go into the forest because the Cuacuacuanchi could be there and attack them. They could not go back because they were lost and because they had finally achieved what they wanted, to find their father, so the three of them shouted and their father listened and when they finally got closer, they rescued him.
In one embrace father and son were united; and in another, son and friends because by rescuing dad, they were saved too.
─Papa, promise me that you will not lie again so that the Cuacuacuanchi will not take you away again.
─I promise I won't do it again, that Cuacuacuanchi won't leave you without candy again.
When they met with the police, they all returned home and everything became clear. The father told what had happened to him, that he had been kidnapped at night and that if it had not been for the little ones, who knows what would have happened to him. He could not tell the police who his captors were, only that they wanted to steal his motorcycle and see what else they could get from his wife. He told his son that he would never lie to him again, that he never wanted to see the monster's face again.
The Cuacuacuanchi, who lived in that small forest, had heard what the father told José Andrés, the lie that he had kidnapped him; he had recorded everything and was preparing to go out, for the first time, to finish with the liars.
