Feb 25 2006

Carnita and the Magic Pozole

Published by at 2:38 am under Family,Food,Prose

Carnita and the Magic Pozole

By Sander Roscoe Wolff

Once upon a time there was a dry dusty desert. Wolves and mice fought for seeds, cougars ate leaves, and everyone was hungry. One day a little girl named Carnita was walking to the store. Her mother had given her three pennies to buy a bag of beans. On the way she met a Bruja named Asada.

“I know you’ve got three pretty pennies, Carnita,” said Asada. “If you give them to me, I’ll give you a bowl of Magic Pozole!”

Carnita, not one to be fooled easily, was suspicious.

“What’s so magical about your Pozole,” she asked.

“Well,” answer Asada, “there’s always enough in the bowl. No matter how hungry you are, or how many people there are at the table, there’s always enough!”

Carnita thought about this for a moment. With an unlimited supply of Pozole, her family and the whole village could save their pennies and spend them on other things, like irrigation and Cougar food.

“Ok,” said Carnita, “I’ll buy your Magic Pozole.”

Carefully, she removed the three pennies from her shoe and gave them to the Bruja, Asada. Asada took them gleefully, put them in her pocket, and gave Carnita the bowl.

“Now, be careful, dear! The bowl is very heavy.”

“Ummmph,” said Carnita, hefting the heavy bowl in both arms. She began the long walk home, eager to show her family the prized Pozole. Because the bowl was so heavy, and because she had to work so hard, her fingers became sweaty. Just as she was about to enter her village, the bowl slipped from her fingers and fell, as if in slow motion, to the ground where it shattered into a million pieces.

“No!” she cried, falling to her knees. “Not my Magic Pozole!!!”

Through her tears she saw the strangest thing. Where the bowl had fallen there sprung up a spring, a stream, a river of delicious, piping hot pozole. It ran down the hillside away from the village. She ran to her casita screaming, “Mama, come quick! See the river of Magic Pozole!”

Her mother assumed that she’d hit her head on a rock, but followed her sweaty, teary-eyed, dusty daughter to the edge of the village. Her mother took one look at the Magic Pozole river and fainted. Soon the whole village gathered to see it, and everyone sang praises to Carnita, and her wonderful Pozole River. Everyone, from then on, always had enough to eat, and so lived happily ever after.

The end.

7 responses so far

7 Responses to “Carnita and the Magic Pozole”

  1. Administratoron 25 Feb 2006 at 2:45 am

    My darling wife, a 3rd grade school teacher, gave her students an assignment where they were to write a fantasy story. She shared their work with me, and I was inspired to write my own.

  2. Marvin Wolffon 25 Feb 2006 at 4:46 am

    Dear Sander, A marvelous fantasy that caused me to become all choked up. It was delightful to see all the ethnic references to the names and foods from Egypt. The primary, secondary, and tertiary layers of hidden meaning were indeed very well hidden.

    Seriously. It’s the kind of story that I used to love to tell to Phil and You and you both enjoyed them a lot. Please keep up the good work and make sure you include this work in a collection of children’s fntasy stories.

    Love, Dad.

  3. Lee Adamson 25 Feb 2006 at 5:06 am

    Dear Sander,

    How fresh. Really, I didn’t see that ending coming. In the stories I read, she would’ve cut her knees and sweaty palms on the broken bowl, then turned around and left her village for parts unknown out of shame and regret. But this…this was so delightful. I’m sure children will be better off with this ending. They’ll sleep better. My sleep is troubled. Anyway, I’ll bet you wrote the best story of all the third-graders and you should be very proud. Rave on!

  4. Administratoron 25 Feb 2006 at 7:04 am

    The story symbolizes the struggle of the proletariat against Capital. The witch, Asada, tempts the innocent child with her heart’s desire, knowing full well that possession of the pot will cause unrest. When the pot breaks, all are free to share equally in the abundance of the land: A communist ideal.

  5. Mike Weberon 25 Feb 2006 at 9:41 am

    Hi Sander,
    This is a witty and charming story, and I enjoyed it immensely. My only complaint is that it made me very hungry!
    Mike

  6. Cynthiaon 13 Mar 2006 at 10:13 am

    Egypt? I thought that Pozole and Carnitas and Asada are from Mexico…? Anyway, a cute and yes, charming story. It’s nice that something good came from deception and tragedy. If only… thanks for the magical and folksy moment.

  7. Administratoron 13 Mar 2006 at 11:26 am

    *sigh* Yes, my father was being funny. The cultural references are not, to my knowledge, Egyptian.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS

Leave a Reply