1. THAIS MENA & MONTSE IRÚN ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES ANNA PÉREZ VIDAL
THE SERPENT’S BRACELET
The bracelet was a beautiful piece of jewellery that my grandfather had found in one of
his travels many years ago. It was long, made of silver and gold, with a series of
hieroglyphs carved all around the body of the animal that it was supposed to represent:
a snake. And, if my grandfather’s words were true, it once belonged to an Egyptian
goddess whose name was long lost in history.
Of course, no one believed him. I’m pretty sure that he didn’t even believe it himself. But
then grandfather had always had a flair for dramatics, even at his old age, so this kind of
statements were something that one could always expect from him. But one thing was
true, and that is that he was extremely attached to that bracelet. He never took it off,
under any circumstances. Everyone thought it was strange, seeing as he was no man
for jewellery. He didn’t even wear his weeding band most days, something that my
grandmother always reproached him for. He was a strange man, my grandfather. Had
always been. But that was probably the reason why I loved him so much. He was my
favourite family member,the one who made the family reunions bearable with his stories
and shenanigans, my childhood’s hero.
So, of course, I was devastated when I found out about his death.
I don’t even remember how I found out, or where, or when. I just remember the sadness,
the overwhelming pain, the feeling of loss. But, most of all, I remember the surprise, the
unexpectedness of the situation. Grandfather, though old, was incredible healthy. He
was almost never sick, and was always in the move. So, of course, it was a surprise for
everyone when he was found death in his house. But that was not the strangest thing,
no. What surprised everybody who known him more than his sudden demise, was the
fact that he didn’t had his bracelet with him. Nor it was anywhere in his house. No one
gave much thought at the subject though. Well, no one except me. But then, no one had
known grandfather as well as I did, so I took it in my hands to find about the fate of the
bracelet that he loved so much.
I looked everywhere, from my grandfather’s house to the park he liked to visit in the
weekends, but I didn’t found it. What I did found, though, was letters. Lots and lots of
letters written in what appeared to be hieroglyphs, hidden in a box under his bed. And,
judging by the looks, they were all the same too. It was one of my grandfather’s friends,
2. THAIS MENA & MONTSE IRÚN ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES ANNA PÉREZ VIDAL
Mr. Nelson, who helped me translate the hieroglyphs to English. And well, what we found
was not exactly what a normal person would call a “shopping list”.
Words like “death” and “curse” and “ultimate demise” were written over and over again
in the letters that, by the way, were apparently written by grandfather —his penmanship
had always been easy to recognize, and he tended to left a lot of marks. There was
another recurrent word —well, more like a group of words—, and that was “the serpent’s
bracelet”. Does this… expression, for a lack of a better word, ring any bells?
Apparently, for what I was able to deduce from grandparent notes, “the serpent’s
bracelet” —that was the name of grandfather’s bracelet— was apparently a cursedpiece
of jewellery. How the supposed curse actually worked, I did not know nor I did find out,
but it apparently took its time to take effect, seeing as grandfather had this particular
piece of jewellery for many years without suffering from any strange side effect. It
sounded too fantastic to be believable, with curses and alleged magical jewelleries, and
yet it looked like a good explication for grandfather’s sudden demise, and the strange
disappearance of his beloved bracelet, right?
I wanted to believe that was the truth, really. That grandfather death was a product of a
terrific curse, and things like magic and curses were real, just like in the stories that
grandfather used to tell me when I was nothing but a child. I really wanted to believe it,
for my sake and his, because how could have someone as special as grandfather be
killed by something as silly, as human as its time?
But then, that was the truth. That grandfather death was not a result of a curse, but from
old age. That his heart didn’t stop beating because of magic, but it simply wasn’t able to
work anymore. That magic and curses didn’t really exist, and that the bracelet didn’t
belonged to a goddess whose name was long lost, but was in truth bought in a little
souvenir shop in Egypt many years ago. And yet, grandfather would have liked me to
believe it was all true. That was, in the end, the reason why he started that silly game
with the bracelet and the letters, you know? To make me believe again.
That was, in the end, his last gift to me. A memory extracted from a time that could no
longer be, with a person that I no longer was. And yet, someone who I badly wanted to
be again. Someone who, I’m sure, could be again.
Maybe we cannot stop the time, but we can make it whatever we want with the one we
have.
