Translation of "El koala de mi armario" by Ginés Cutillas

The koala in my closet

A koala lives in my closet. I know it sounds strange, but one night, at five in the morning, a noise woke me up. When I opened my eyes, I couldn’t believe what I saw. A koala was zig-zagging towards my closet. He opened it, curled up among the folded clothes and closed the door.

At first I thought I was dreaming, but after getting up to check, I realized that the koala had been living in my closet for who knows how long. Since he was sleeping peacefully, I felt bad waking him up. So I closed the door and went back to bed thinking about what I would tell him the next day. But when morning came, I hadn’t thought of what to say (what do you say to a koala that lives in your closet?) and so the days passed. I never said anything to him. One night, when he was late getting home, I was worried and didn’t turn off the lights until he showed up while I pretended to be asleep. If he came home really drunk I even helped him get in, sure that he wouldn’t remember the next day.

He knows that I know that he exists, but we’ve reached a non-verbal (and non-written) agreement to ignore each other.

I'm writing this while eating at the table. He's sitting in front of me, chewing leaves, right in front of the TV. I pretend not to see him.