GRADO NOVENO INGLÉS

What It's Like To Be An Aging Werewolf 

  I used to wake up in strange places. Park benches in newcities, orange groves among the fallen globes, motel parking lots at the edge of the dark woods. I'd be covered in blood, but alive. Now, I barely get down the block. I awake in the neighbors' flower bed. The laundry room. The garbage bag by the door that I forgot to take downstairs before the moon took over the sky. 

A kind stranger finds me, or a neighbor wakes me with a nasty voice. Today, it's the school playground down the street and a policeman shaking his head. "Don't make me haul you downtown, gramps. Go home and sober up."

A dog walker passes me, a half-dozen mutts barking and straining at their leashes, their young canine bodies filled with energy. My body used to have that power. Now, it takes me a half hour to get home. My knee is enflamed, my hip aches, and sleeping on the slide has left me stooped over like the question mark. A small child, barely a snack, has to help me cross the street.

I've always feared the moon, ever since I got lost on a family camping trip and heard the howl. The reason for that fear has changed. It used to mean I'd hurt other people, now it just means I hurt myself.

What do I even look like now when the time comes? Mangy grey fur on wrinkled skin that clings to my skeleton like a dirty towel. Liver spots on my hairless belly. Cracks in my calcium-deficient claws.

I once was a monster, now I'm more waif than wolf.

I shower off the blood, put on a new pair of khakis, a fresh sweater. I grab my cane and hobble to Walgreens. They sell Luna bars. MoonPies. My monthly nightmare repackaged as tasty treats.

My trembling hands drop the items on the counter: Advil, Pepto-Bismol, Bengay, Band-Aids, ice pack, knee brace. "Looks like grandpa's having a party tonight!" the cashier says with a wink. "Don't get too crazy with this stuff. Haha." He has a flush, round face. Just the right amount of marbling in the muscle.

When I was younger, I would've hidden in the park until he walked home.

I was a full of life back then, my whole future ahead of me like a wide open field to sprint through with the wind in my fur.

But now? Now all I can do is pretend to laugh, slide my card through the swiper, scribble on the receipt. Head home to await my sad transformation in my cramped apartment.

Perhaps this is what we all transform into, in the end: a tired old dog, alone and unloved, barking impotently at the dark sky.

Tomado de:  https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/lincolnmichel/read-this-very-short-story-about-an-aging-werewolf

Taller 1

Read the information sheet about old WEREWOLF on the previous page, Translate to Spanish and then answer the questions below. 

1.  Where did the old man wake up today?

2. His body used to have power.  How is the old werewolf´s body now?

3.  How do you think he became a werewolf? 

4. What does the man really  want to say in:

     "Perhaps this is what we all transform into, in the end: a tired old dog, alone and      unloved, barking impotently at the dark sky."

5.  Draw a picture of the reading

Taller 2