Poisoned
By: Lucía Cortez
Tags: Nature, Death, Wildlife, Spiritual, Radiance

Photo by Lucía Cortez

I was thirsty and there was nothing stopping me from getting a big glass of cold water from the fridge.

My mother ends up complaining once more because I have walked throughout the house with no shoes and have not brushed my teeth yet. She used to say that walking barefoot is bad as all kinds of infections and diseases can enter the body through the feet. Drinking water was bad because when people wake up their mouths are usually dirty. Frankly, I thought she was exaggerating everything and the only reason I quickly put on my socks and shoes this morning was to go to the orchard in the back.

I headed to a thick wooded meadow which was wet and shady with a narrow stream running throughout it. Chickens or people rarely visit this area since it usually gets flooded when storms pass through the seacoast.

I walked through the meadow, crossing ferns and big leafy plants to meet again with a girl who was playing here hours ago in my dream.

I was curious since every time I took a step towards her she stood a little more distant than before. She had a pale face, brown wavy hair and held a particular old fashioned doll in her left arm. I do not play with dolls often hence myself playing with paper doll figurines. The girl stared at me continuously and I could not understand if she wanted to play or just speak with me. It was strange that an older girl like her wanted to wander here instead of in her bedroom or rear of the patio.

I went beside the tree she was laying on, but I did not see her anymore. She had once told me her name. I tried calling out for her but the pronunciation would not come out. I opened my mouth once more to yell, but no sound came out and all was quiet.

There were huge, hungry mosquitoes buzzing around me. I looked around my surroundings to see that there was no path but only leaves and broken sticks spread all over the ground. I noticed that these things resembled smurf houses I once saw on some stickers a girl from my school had. I had no idea that these creatures from the movies or stickers were real, but this was quite a discovery. I still doubt their real color was blue though.

These small houses were fragile and broke apart easily much like the fallen leaves covered with random dark spots. I wondered if I could eat them and if someone would believe me that I found the smurf’s houses outside of my Grandma’s backyard?

Noteworthy, yes, but that is not what I was here for, the mosquitoes were driving me crazy, I caught one, two…Opened my hands and they have escaped, leaving a black dusty mark on the palm of my hands, swatted a huge one full of blood. Was it my blood or its blood?

I closed my eyes to think about it. Suddenly, a frozen breeze gave me goosebumps and squeezed my back. And that was weird, because the leaves of the trees were quiet.

So, I fixed my eyes on that tree where she was standing up. I remembered her well as it was not too far ago, it was in my head as the freezing sensation on my skin.

Was she playing ‘hide and seek’?

I saw the tree besides me which appeared to be close and far at the same time. The tree was not moving itself, my feet either, but we were hanging up and down as without attaching each other.

I stayed quiet, looked around in detail moving only my eyes, listening my own breath which was calm. I was not scared. The mosquitoes were out of my focus, the background was very much extensive and enlarging. I did not care what was behind me. My ears were my back eyes. The shoulders slid back and my neck was steady.

I felt like a bag whose walls ripped out. Birds were chirping away, the sunlight changed, I could be like this without knowing if the globe was moving fast or slow. I was here and beyond myself.

My body was tingling till I got warm again. I yawned and returned to home silently.

Photo by Lucía Cortez

A slice of fried fish was resting just besides a half arepa on my favorite enamel plate and Mom pours tamarind juice into my cup. We sat down to breakfast with Grandma while my little sister was still sleeping, both women were complaining about me leaving their sight and no helping them put the plates on the table. Then they were talking about what to cook for lunch when we were not even done with breakfast yet.

As for me, it was the perfect timing to ask them “Do you know a girl named Sonia?”

Mom squinted and said easily “that is an uncommon name in this town”.

Grandma was over the fact and told me “the only one I knew named Sonia was the sister of Mr H”.

She surprised me. Sonia could not be the sister of Mr H.

“She is 13 or 14 years old. He is not young”.

Mr H was a man in his early 50’s presently, an his family owned a house several yards away from Grandma’s land.

“He had a sister named Sonia” Mom stated.

My eyes went wide open, and I had removed a fish bone from my mouth.

“Is she tall? Brown hair and a round face?” I asked them but trying to describe her in a way that was new to me.

Grandma told me “Yes, her hair was brown, wavy, bright, and…”

“She was retarded” my Mom said with a sad expression.

“What does retarded mean?” I asked with so much interest.

A long sigh left my Mom’s mouth as she was reckless to find the right words.

“Well, she was a little sick” Grandma answered.

“She was different” my Mom replied closing her response.

Then, Grandma said “She was always at home under the care of her mom and her aunts”.

Mom interrupted her to add “In the past, some families used to isolate or hide their sick relatives”.

“Does she lives in that house?” I rebuked by pointing to the back of the orchard.

Grandma looked beneath her hands which were resting on the table and answered “She lived there for a while, but her family often withdrew to another property”.

“She died long ago, Julia” Mom said to me.

“When?” I babbled while moving my head side by side.

Mom sipped some tamarind juice.

“It was more than thirty years ago. She and Mr H were the only children of Mr G. All we know is that she died young. She was fourteen”.

“How?” I could not believe someone would die at that age, I was almost half way!

Grandma raised the voice while saying to me “the girl is dead”.

I quickly replied “People can be poisoned and could die from…”

Grandma stared at me, the most linear time that I have ever drawn in my memory from her sharp eyes- and she said with an authoritarian tone by setting the end of that conversation:

“Julia, wash your plate”.