Ubel and Engel were brothers and lived with their parents in a fine little alpine house beneath the forests, open fields and high meadows that covered the mountain above. The family had some milking cows and some sheep and now that the boys were both eight years old there were many things that both of them could do to help out. In the spring, summer and fall there are many things to keep young people busy such as opening the gate to let the cows home in the evening or collecting and bringing in the hay when it is dry. Later when the first snow fly’s it is then that children thoughts begin to turn to yuletide gifts and Saint Nicholas.
Ubel who was eight now and no longer Seven years old was looking forward to his presents. He had always been a mean boy and now that he was getting older he seemed even worse. He considered himself to be too grown up to believe in the Saint, the one his parents called Nicholas. He was sure that the winter before that the Saint Nicholas who arrived at the house had been an imposter. Not a kindly saint but Siegfried, a shepherd, an old man who was often drunk. In fact, in reality he was nearly too old for the old Bishop’s visit because little Christmas was for little children.
On the other hand there was Engel, a pious child whose name meant angel. Engel was a kind boy and never did any boy before or after him demonstrate this quality better than he. On the eve of little Christmas, Engel was very excited for Saint Nicholas’s visit and placed a shoe by the fire and Christmas tree that his father had cut and brought in that night that now was trimmed with some little candles. After Christmas dinner and family singing, Engel kissed his mother and father, said his prayers and climbed the ladder to the loft and into his bed he went.
Ubel whose name meant evil, put a shoe by the hearth but not before he used it to throw at one of the barn cats that had snuck into the warm house when his father had brought in the tree. The shoe struck the cat and afterwards Ubel shoved the angry cat out the door into the snow. Can you see where the story is going?
Earlier at Christmas dinner, Ubel had ate too much meat and had too many sweets. Before going to bed, he pulled on his old coat against the cold wind to go to the outhouse. He walked quickly, passing the cat that he had earlier offended. The cat reached toward him scratching him on his ankle and hissed at the boy before disappearing into the barn. The boy swore and then he heard something from the darkness about him. Had he heard what sounded like heavy hooves upon the ground or had it been snow falling onto the ground from the pitched roof of the shed. He made haste and soon he was back inside and in his bed where he dreamt of the gifts and sweets he would receive by morning.
Engel and Ubel both slept. Now that the children slept, the parents walked together by lamplight through the plum orchard to bring some meat and brandy to Nana Ilka, the old widow.
The house was quiet except for the howl that swept down the valley through the forest and against the window of the loft where the boys were sleeping soundly in their bed. Ubel’s eyes widely opened when he felt the heavy blankets pulled away from his bed. He thought it very odd. In the low light his brother Engel was nowhere to be seen. From beyond the edge of the loft he heard the heavy snort of an animal clearing its nostrils and throat. He felt the cold draft about him, he pulled his coat tighter as he crept to the edge of the loft to peer down into the main room. Focusing his tired eyes in time for Ubel to see his brother led out into the night by the old man Siegfried who took the child from the greedy clutch of the beast. Something terrible and large, so fearful and imposing that the wicked boy was without speech, unheard and still unseen as the horned creature with the sharp toothed maw looked about the big room as if it were searching for something it had lost.
Still and silent as he was, Ubel may have remained unseen but for the very same cat now loudly meowing from the rafters above where Ubel had been hidden. The beast fixed his gaze and set his reach upon the wicked boy.
Ubel could be heard crying out far above distant pastures, his cries echoed and fading until only a howling wind could be heard. Hours later from deep within a bare mountain peak beyond the trees a cat purred contently after a fine dinner, by a fire, upon Ubel’s old discarded coat.
“Hin ist hin.”
“What’s done is done.”
Written by Kenneth Dyke-Glover
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