Adam in Eden

Chapter 43

On the night when my gardener Don Xocoyotzín’s walk took him to the Chapultepec Zoo, he approached the eagle’s cage and felt pity. The great bird of prey, the rapacious and strong, diurnal, majestic eagle, a harpy eagle of the tropics with feathered talons, fluttered in desperation around the confined space. Don Xocoyotzín, a trustworthy man of the people, took pity on the captive bird, and taking advantage of the night’s solitude (when he likes to walk around the city), he drew his machete (the weapon he uses to defend himself during his urban walks) and hacked open the door of the cage. Only then did he see lying there, motionless — perhaps dead — a large serpent.

The eagle, without even thanking the gardener, flew out of his prison, extended his giant, six-foot-seven-and-half-inch wingspan, and flew in search of the open air, the sunny skies, the mountain heights, far from the pesticides, far from hunters and their shotguns, far from the city’s smog-filled air. .

Don Xocoyotzín picked up the serpent and took it home in the hope of nursing it back to health.

He forgot to open the tiger’s cage. The animal growled threaten-ingly.

The next day, a comet shot across the sky as it had in the year. .