The Hands of the Mother Founder
Fernando Iwasaki
English Version, Toshiya Kamei

How scared I was when I kissed the habit of the mother founder. Every time the nuns dragged us into the chapel of the convent school, we saw her sacred body. I didn't like the mummy's face or her greenish hands, which looked like rotten sponge cakes. Worse, the Virgin was adorned with the mother founder's hair, white and stiff like the cobweb of a tarantula.
One day the nuns locked me up inside the chapel, saying that I was a liar and threatening to slap me with the mother founder's hands. The nuns think I threw up because I was scared, but I had to stop her from hitting me. Her left hand tasted better.

Las manos de la fundadora

Qué miedo me daba besar el hábito de la madre fundadora cada vez que las monjas nos arrastraban hasta la capilla del colegio para ver su cuerpo incorrupto. No me gustaban ni su cara de momia ni sus manos verdosas como bizcochuelos podridos. Aunque lo peor era esa Virgen adornada con el pelo de la madre fundadora, blanco y erizado como la telara–a de una tarántula.
Un día las monjas me encerraron en la capilla por mentirosa, amenazándome con la cachetada de la fundadora. Ellas creen que vomité de susto, pero tenía que impedir que me pegara. La mano izquierda sabía mejor.

from the book Ajuar funerario (Páginas de Espuma. Madrid, 2004). Iwasaki's website is available here.

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