Pipito Perez

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A Peruvian Hero

Pepito Perez
Pepito Perez lived in Tarata. His soft blond hair fell over his almond eyes, hazel brown in colour with tiny green dots. He was handsome, short and thin but his main feature was certainly his good nature.
He took frequent walks each day and his first visit was to his neighbour, an old lady who lived with a young maid who attended school every evening. After politely saying hello, Pepito walked along Tarata, greeting everybody he knew: street vendors, the newspaperman, watchmen, even the policemen at the Banks. And he did not only greet them with a nod ... he actually shook hands with them every time he saw them.
A very elegant chap, Pepito was also admired for his good taste in clothes. His favourite outfit was a black velvet coat with a lace handkerchief showing off his pocket. In winter he featured a Scottish waistcoat, and sometimes he also wore a Swiss flannel suit, grey with green velvet collar and edelweiss flowers embroidered on his pocket.
There was no doubt: Pepito was the talk of Tarata. Beloved by everybody, good hearted, polite to an extreme...
And then one hellish evening, at 8 o'clock, Tarata exploded! The whole building was shaken, windows burst , terror seized the peaceful families that were having dinner or watching TV.
Amidst cries of agony, Pepito's mother ran out of the house and found herself wrapped in darkness. All lights had gone off and suddenly fiery red flames illuminated parts of the corridor. As she fled, she found a young man, totally blinded by shattered pieces of windows in his eyes, trying to lead his wife, 8-months pregnant and their 3-year old child. Pepito's mother took the child and guided the man and his wife to safety.
Cries of help and blasting sounds turned Tarata into a nightmare. People tried desperately to reach the street because there was a wooden staircase from the mezzanine to the ground floor and they were afraid the fire would eat it up and leave them isolated in a collapsing building.
And in the meantime Pepito .... had been heavily sleeping. When he realised the danger he rushed out of his house and his first thoughts were for his aged neighbour, alone at home. Her door had been blasted away and Pepito saw her on the floor, a heavy piece of furniture on top of her hip. Being such a small fellow he understood he needed help, so he calmed the old lady and ran outside. He luckily found a strong teenager, good friend of his, who helped the lady out of the department and had just gone beyond the door threshold holding her with his arms when a wall collapsed precisely where she had been lying a minute ago.
Once in the street Peter reunited with his mother and tried to be as helpful as possible.
Everyone in Tarata had to leave the building and move elsewhere. And Pepito Perez moved to San Isidro. It took him some days to recover from the shock, then, he started to take his customary walks. In a matter of few days congenial Pepito had become a friend of children, nurses, street vendors and other neighbours.
On a cold winter afternoon, Pepito wore his grey turtleneck sweater and went to the park. After greeting the watchmen and the policeman, he happily jogged towards a group of playing children.
Nobody noticed the huge devious Rottweiler as he approached, with his eyes fixed on Pepito. All of a sudden he was on top of him, 5 or 10 times bigger than Pepito, he buried his fangs on the short little fellow's neck and shook him, shook him savagely while Pepito cried for help.
Still alive, crying for help in great agony, he was devoured by the beast.
And nobody did anything to stop the massacre, nobody saved Pepito who had saved a human life.
Because Pepito was neither a boy nor a man... Pepito Perez was a Yorkshire Terrier who lived in Tarata.

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