Multilingual

The man from number seventeen spoke several languages.

It was because of this that the homeowner at number four had contacted him with an unusual request.

Although he didn’t really know the man from up the street, he gave him a ring. He said he would be doing him a great favour by calling at his house at a time that was convenient. He said that he felt sure the man would be most interested in what he had to show him. The expert agreed to call in on the following afternoon. He sounded as though he was quite happy with the idea of a visit, on the basis that he was always willing to give advice to friends and neighbours. He thanked him very much and rang off. When the expert came to his house on the following day, he would explain that he’d found a rabbit nibbling on his back lawn and had no idea where it had come from.

Then, he would go on to describe how the animal kept making strange, guttural noises. After that, keeping his fingers crossed that he was right, he would tell him that he was convinced that the rabbit was speaking Spanish!

On the following day, the language expert arrived and they were soon in the back yard with the rabbit laying on the garden table. He’d been brought up to date with all that the homeowner could tell him. Although highly sceptical about what he’d been told, the visitor was interested to hear the sounds the animal was supposed to make.

After a while the animal began muttering.

The visitor put his ear close to the rabbit’s head and listened intently for several minutes. The other stood by patiently, hoping that some sort of explanation came out of the strange event.

Meanwhile, and to the man’s utter astonishment, he could hear the rabbit saying, in Spanish, and repeatedly, “I hate the nasty girl from number twelve who owns me and I don’t want to go back there, ever!”

Not wanting to remain involved in any of the current circumstances, the language expert stood up rubbing his chin. “No,” he said.

“No, what?” said the nervous homeowner, beginning to feel foolish.

“Not Spanish,” lied the expert. “I think it’s Portuguese. I’m fluent with a number of languages; unhappily, Portuguese is not one of them,” he lied again.

Both relieved and disappointed at the same time, the homeowner bent over the animal and listened to the unfamiliar words. He mumbled to himself, “I just don’t know what to do.”

Looking up, he found the expert opening his side gate, saying, “So sorry I couldn’t help,” as he disappeared.