Hortensia, era una mujer ya en edad madura, que siempre había luchado por cada cosa en la vida, sobreviviente de dos divorcios, por diferentes circunstancias, decidió quedarse sola con su hijo menor que era el que le quedaba soltero. Había tenido dos hijos de su primer matrimonio, pero ya la hija hembra había hecho su vida y familia, solo le restaba terminar de levantar al menor que ya era un adolescente bastante rebelde, de paso.
Al darse su ultimo divorcio, decidió mudarse de la ciudad y regresar a su pueblo natal a los terrenos de su madre, pues ella donde vivía tenia bastante espacio para construir, entonces ella le ofreció un pequeño lote para que empezara a construir una casita para ella y su hijo. Con mucho esfuerzo, empezó un pequeño negocio de ventas de desayunos y bebidas y así poco a poco empezó a levantarse de nuevo. Las personas del pueblo a pesar de que la conocían desde niña, algunos le tenían recelos y envidias.
Pues Hortensia a pesar de estar casi en sus 50 todavía se veía muy bien y no falto pretendientes que la asediaran, invitaran y se interesaran en ser quizás el tercer marido, pero ese no era su interés, ella estaba enfocada en la crianza de su hijo y la construcción de su casita. Ella empezó a notar que a veces, conseguía extraños polvos regados al frente de su negocio en las mañanas, incluso líquidos nauseabundos tirados en los mismos lugares.
Su madre le advertía que no tocara aquello, pues nada bueno debía ser, que lo limpiara con guantes, agua caliente, y desechara todo lo utilizado. Hortensia le hacia caso, pero sin embargo con cierto escepticismo, pues no era dada a creer en estas cosas, pero si era muy creyente de Dios. Cuando tuvo su casita ya casi construida y su negocio bien habilitado con mas espacios, todos sus vecinos se asombraba de sus avances, de lo bien que le iba.
Pero había una vecina, que también tenia un negocio de comidas y empezó a visitarlas todas las mañanas, llegaba la saludaba, se tomaba un café y partía con cualquier pretexto a Hortensia, esto le parecía super extraño pues ella no tenia necesidad de ir a su negocio, pues vendía igual o mas que ella y casi las mismas cosas. Un día, la vecina llegó tomo su café como venia haciendo y se fue, Hortensia ocupada como estaba no le tomo mucha importancia, pero cuando fue a cerrar.
Consiguió tirada dentro de su negocio, una bolsa que despedía unos olores putrefactos, en medio de la premura por sacar eso de su negocio lo tomó y lo tiro lo mas lejos de su casa que pudo. Pero a partir de ese día, empezaron a pasar muchas cosas imprevistas, la comida se le dañaba sin mas, sin explicación alguna, los clientes se le fueron alejando uno a uno, ella empezó a enfermarse inexplicablemente, calló en una racha malísima.
¡Ah! pero la vecina estaba radiante en su negocio, sus clientes se habían ido con ella, ya ella dejó de irse a tomar el acostumbrado café a su negocio y esto le dio mucha suspicacia a la madre de Hortensia, quien le buscó ayuda, con el padre del pueblo, este llego la visitó y bendijo su casa y le regalo un cuadrito donde rezaba "Si Dios esta conmigo, ¿Quién contra mi?" Hortensia colgó su cuadrito en su negocio.
Limpio toda su casita y negocio con su madre señora entrada en años, ella fue y le hizo unas oraciones con unas ramas y la ayudó en todo lo que pudo, reabrieron el negocio y Hortensia se dispuso a trabajar con ahínco y mucha fe, se sentía mucho mejor. Una tarde serian las 2 pm no tenia clientela, siempre había alguien que buscaba algo que tomar o comer pero estaba todo tranquilo, Hortensia salió al frente de su negocio, cruzo la calle y se dispuso a hablar un rato con un vecino.
Estaba conversando animadamente, cuando ambos observaron como un hombre cruzaba todo el negocio, Hortensia estaba sola y sabia que nadie había pasado a su casa, pues ella estaba enfrente, asustada le dijo al vecino que la acompañara a ver, quien se había metido, pensó a lo mejor ingresaron por alguna ventana de los cuartos. Entraron y revisaron todo, pero cuando entraron en el espacio del negocio, se detuvieron en seco.
En el pequeño cuadro que le había regalado el padre, estaba una culebra de muchos colores, que le daba vueltas en círculos, lo curioso era que no se caía, en la pared no había nada de donde pudiera sostenerse y el cuadro no brindaba el soporte como para eso, pareciera que esas palabras que rezaban allí la mantuvieran presa, sin escapatoria. Hortensia y el vecino se quedaron abismados, pues no se explicaban como el animal no caía al suelo, era lo lógico.
Con mucho cuidado con la ayuda de un palo el vecino retiro a la serpiente, que resultó ser una de las mas venenosas de la zona, pero que no se veían en el pueblo, si no en las haciendas, fincas, donde había mucho monte, no en una casa en pleno pueblo, donde no tendría donde esconderse en su hábitat natural. Con eso Hortensia comprobó, que la maldad existe y la envidia junto con ella. Pensó que si esa culebra la hubiese mordido, hubiese sido su final, pero no contaban que Dios y su palabra es mas poderoso que cualquier maleficio.
Supo y comprobó de primera mano, que cuando Dios esta con uno, no existe maldad que sea exitosa. Al poco tiempo, se entero que su vecina, enfermo gravemente, que se vieron obligados ella y su familia de cerrar el negocio, por que todo lo que hacían se dañaba, los clientes se alejaron y al enfermar la vecina, todo se vino abajo. Allí supo, de donde vino la maldad, pues todo se le devolvió, solo le faltó la culebra para que la mordiera, que esa fue la misión de ese animal, pero Dios es mas poderoso que todo. "Si Dios esta conmigo, ¿Quién contra mi?"
Hortensia was a woman of mature age, who had always struggled for everything in life, survivor of two divorces, for different circumstances, she decided to stay alone with her youngest son, who was the only one left unmarried. She had had two children from her first marriage, but the female daughter had already made her life and family, she only had to finish raising the youngest, who was already a rather rebellious teenager, by the way.
After her last divorce, she decided to move out of the city and return to her hometown to her mother's land, because where she lived she had enough space to build, so she offered her a small lot to start building a little house for her and her son. With a lot of effort, she started a small business selling breakfast and drinks and little by little she began to get back on her feet. The people of the town, even though they had known her since she was a child, some were suspicious and envious of her.
Hortensia, despite being almost in her 50's, still looked very good and there was no lack of suitors who would come to her, invite her and be interested in becoming her third husband, but that was not her interest, she was focused on raising her son and building her little house. She began to notice that sometimes, she would get strange powders scattered in front of her business in the mornings, even nauseating liquids thrown in the same places.
Her mother would warn her not to touch it, as it must be no good, to clean it with gloves, hot water, and throw away everything used. Hortensia listened to her, but nevertheless with a certain skepticism, because she was not given to believe in these things, but she was a great believer in God. When she had her little house almost built and her business well equipped with more space, all her neighbors were amazed at her progress, at how well she was doing.
But there was a neighbor, who also had a food business and began to visit them every morning, she arrived, greeted her, had a coffee and left with any pretext to Hortensia, this seemed super strange because she had no need to go to her business, because she sold the same or more than her and almost the same things. One day, the neighbor arrived, drank her coffee as she had been doing and left, Hortensia, busy as she was, did not take much importance, but when she went to close.
She found a bag lying inside her business that gave off putrid odors, and in her haste to get it out of her business, she took it and threw it as far away from her house as she could. But from that day, many unforeseen things began to happen, the food was damaged without any explanation, customers were moving away one by one, she began to get sick inexplicably, fell into a very bad streak.
Ah! but the neighbor was radiant in her business, her clients had left with her, she stopped going to drink the usual coffee in her business and this gave much suspicion to Hortensia's mother, who sought help, with the father of the people, he came to visit her and blessed her house and gave her a picture where he prayed "If God is with me, who is against me? " Hortensia hung her picture in her business.
She cleaned her house and business with her elderly mother, she went and prayed some prayers with some branches and helped her in everything she could, they reopened the business and Hortensia started to work hard and with a lot of faith, she felt much better. One afternoon at about 2 pm she had no customers, there was always someone looking for something to drink or eat but everything was quiet, Hortensia went out in front of her business, crossed the street and went to talk for a while with a neighbor.
Hortensia was alone and knew that no one had entered her house, because she was in front of it. She was scared and told her neighbor to go with her to see who had broken in, she thought that maybe they had entered through a window in one of the rooms. They went in and checked everything, but when they entered the business space, they stopped dead in their tracks.
In the small painting that her father had given her, there was a snake of many colors, that was spinning in circles, the curious thing was that it did not fall, there was nothing on the wall where it could hold itself and the painting did not provide the support for that, it seemed that those words that read there kept it prisoner, without escape. Hortensia and the neighbor were left in shock, as they could not explain how the animal did not fall to the ground, it was logical.
Very carefully with the help of a stick the neighbor removed the snake, which turned out to be one of the most poisonous in the area, but that was not seen in the village, but in the farms, farms, where there was a lot of bush, not in a house in the village, where it would have nowhere to hide in its natural habitat. With that, Hortensia proved that evil exists and that envy exists along with it. She thought that if that snake had bitten her, it would have been the end of her, but she did not know that God and his word is more powerful than any evil spell.
She knew and saw firsthand that when God is with you, there is no evil that can succeed. Soon after, she found out that her neighbor became seriously ill, she and her family were forced to close the business, because everything they did was damaged, customers stayed away and when the neighbor got sick, everything collapsed. There she knew where the evil came from, because everything came back to her, she only needed the snake to bite her, that was the mission of that animal, but God is more powerful than everything. "If God is with me, who can be against me?"
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
