EL ENANO

Originally by Charles J. Finger

Retold by Navin

Once upon a time, there lived a horrid creature named El Enaño. He lived in the dark woods, and caused all sorts of trouble for the small village on the outskirts of the forest. El Enaño was quite short, yellow, and had sharp teeth. He was crooked all over, both in body and in habits. He would often go about on all fours, like a great big spider. When he had the mood, he would shrink to the size of a child, and he was horrible to see, as his skin was crinkled and he had evil eyes.

The ways El Enaño entertained himself invariably involved discomfort for the villagers. Some nights, he would wait by the door of a house till someone went to the well to get water. When the poor soul stepped out, El Enaño would leap on top of them, grab their hair, and bite, scratch, and beat them. He would then let go, and the tortured person would flee to the door of their house – but just as they laid a hand on the door, El Enaño would catch them again and resume his violence till he tired.

Other times, he would make loud noises like rain and hail, and the people of the house would get up to close the window. When they came up to shut it, they would see El Enaño’s red eyes and grinning leer in the darkness. After this, he would crawl and hop around the house yard for hours, screaming and throwing sticks at the walls and stones in the windows. Therefore, everyone hated the wretched and annoying beast.

One day, a kind old woman went to the forest to gather food. El Enaño saw her and made himself the size of a baby. The old woman heard some quiet whimpering, and found a small crinkled creature on the forest floor. “Poor thing!” she exclaimed, “Someone has lost this baby! I will take it home and take care of it.”

She brought the “baby” home and fed it some bread and milk. As she sat down to her own supper, it began screaming for more, and she saw that it had eaten everything already! She gave it her own food, which it gulped down greedily and screamed for more. The old lady thought to herself, “How very queer! It seems to have grown bigger! Also, it is the only baby that I have ever seen that is ugly.”

She instantly felt ashamed for her thoughts, and decided to more for it, feeling sorry for thinking the baby ugly. She went to every neighbor, and borrowed some rice, some bread, milk, and anything she could borrow for the baby. Still, it ate on! The entire village ate meagerly that night due to the creature’s ravenous appetite. Finally, the baby finished its prolonged supper and gave a grunt. It rolled heavily onto its side and fell asleep, snoring extremely loudly.

The next morning, the woman screamed! The baby was no longer a baby, but the horrid, full-size El Enaño! Waking to the noise, El Enaño roared for more food with such volume that the windows all around the village rattled and cracked. Not knowing what to do, the woman called the entire village to her hut for help. They all stood around and stared, till one bold man stepped forward and told El Enaño that it was high time for him to leave. Hearing this, the ugly creature laughed and said, “Bring me food, enough food for twenty men. When I have eaten enough, I will leave you. Be quick about it, for I will amuse myself while I wait for the food, and you may not care for my type of amusement.” Saying this, he began hurling pots and pans at the walls, breaking them, destroyed all the tables and stools, and shattering windows. Having made a wreck of the poor old woman’s house, El Enano began on the neighbor’s house, setting all the animals loose, tearing up the flower garden, and chasing the children. He kept this up till a large meal had been set up for him. At this, he leapt upon the food and crammed it all down his throat.

Presently, the brave man who had spoken up before stepped forward once again and said, “Now that you have eaten, will you please leave us in peace?”

“no, No, NO!” said El Enaño, each no louder than the last.

“But you promised that you would, when you had eaten enough! Well, you have eaten enough!” cried the man.

“I have eaten enough for one meal yes, but what about lunch? And supper? And the meals tomorrow, and next year, and in a hundred years? I have not eaten enough for forever!” Saying this, El Enaño leapt up and resumed the destruction of the village.

This went on for several days, till all the people of the village were at their wits’ end. The old woman who had originally fed the beast sat and wept by the river. She was upset that her kindness had ended in such a miserable situation. She looked up at a noise and saw a silver fox sitting and looking at her. It inquired as to her trouble, and shook its head dolefully as the woman told it the whole story. “The trouble is,” the fox said, “that you give him enough and not too much! Tell all your villagers to do exactly as I say when I come tonight.”

That evening, the villagers were watching El Enaño eat when the fox came in. “Why do you all stand around when a visitor has arrived? Do I not get anything to eat? Bring me some potatoes and roast them!” The villagers brought potatoes and roasted them on the fire, putting salt, pepper, spices, and butter on them. The fox took a potato and said quite loudly, “You may all take a potato, as El Enaño will not like them.” Then, whispering just loud enough for El Enaño to hear, the fox dashed from person to person, saying things like “Hush, do not let El Enaño know how good the potatoes are.” The villagers caught on and whispered like he did.

El Enaño looked up suspiciously, and said, greedily, “Give me a potato!”

“You can taste mine, but it is the only one left,” said the fox. Enaño crammed the potato into his mouth. “It is good! Give me MORE!” he yelled.

“There is no more!” said the fox loudly. Then he whispered to the people, “Do not tell Enaño about the blackened potatoes we are cooking in the fire, they are very good.”

Enaño shrieked triumphantly and grabbed all the COALS in the hearth, thinking them potatoes, and swallowed them whole. Then, as a fire blazed up in his stomach, he screamed in pain and leapt out of the house and slid down to the riverbank. He drank deep from the river, as the water was cool. When the water touched the coals, however, it turned to steam, and El Enaño began to swell up! He swelled and swelled like a great balloon till he burst into a million pieces, and the village was rid of the menace to society once and for all.