style="font-size:15px;"> She told me she was born in Rayon, but her parents moved a few miles away to a town called Ures when she was about ten years old. That was when she started telling me the stories, the ones she never spoke of to other people, stories that were long forgotten. She had me now, and it was the beginning of a new relationship between us.
My mom was starting to scratch her head whenever I mentioned going to Granny’s house. The brooch that Sergio’s grandmother gave me was well concealed among my things, and nobody had seen it yet. I took it out and went to my nana’s house so I could show it to her and continue my story. My grandfather was the most peaceful old man you could ever meet, and I loved him dearly. Whenever I went over, he would bum a Lucky Strike cigarette off me and smoke it as he sat there next to me.
He would inhale each drag with such gusto that it made me love him more. I was way too young to be smoking, but it went back to the previous year when Blackie showed up with a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes. There was no stigma against smoking back then like there is today; you just couldn’t be a kid and do it in front of your parents.
My mom knew I smoked. I guess because of the smell on my clothes. She blamed that no-account Blackie for any sinning I might have developed anyway. Guess who Blackie’s mom blamed for her son’s bad habits. My mom and his mom were friends though and spoke frequently. That was what mothers did back then.
The brooch came out of my pocket when I reached Nana’s house, and my grandfather wanted to hold it the minute he laid eyes on it. His profession was that of an assayer, and he knew everything about precious metals and stones. Tata (grandpa) told me that this piece was solid silver and that the rubies were some of the highest-quality gems he had seen in a long time. He asked how I had come by this piece and from where. My nana had yet to see it, and when she came out onto the porch, she asked to have a look.
“What on earth are you doing with this brooch?” she asked me quite nervously. “And where did you get it?” That was when life for me started a new episode in my future to come.
While giving her the whole day’s events in Mexico, about the dance hall and the image I thought I had seen of the stranger in black, she asked me if I had caught a glimpse of his feet, to which I replied that I had not.
Looking intently at the brooch, she started to explain a worn-away image on the brooch that I had not made out before. It was a family coat of arms or insignia from an ancient Castilian family from Spain.
She continued telling me that this was a family who had come to her region in the early eighteenth century and established communities that eventually became cities. The family was named Viapresi and that the brooch I held was worn by family members of this noble bloodline throughout the centuries.
Chapter 19
The Birth of Evil
In my nana’s time, there was a legend of this one woman who had lived two hundred years before my nana, and she was not mentally stable. She was of remarkable beauty, and many men desired having their way with her. She bore three children, all of which were the offspring of one particular stranger, a drifter if you will, who came through the town and remained a couple of days.
This man was a dashing, handsome figure who spent his time in the local cantina, holding court with many women who seemed to be entranced by his charm. The eventual woman of choice was named Esperanza, and she brushed aside the others to capture his attention. They danced most of the evening and then left the saloon for his little room at the town hostel. It was there that they engaged in a night of tempestuous lovemaking.
In the morning, as she slept, he was off at the crack of dawn. When she finally awoke, she was saddened to see he was nowhere to be found and did not get any response when she called out for him. What she found on the floor was a medallion that she hoped he would return for. The days passed along with the months, and the stranger never returned.
My nana went on with the story. After a few weeks, Esperanza knew she was with child, and she tried hiding it as the months went by. Then came the time when it was known to all that Esperanza was pregnant. Her father had disowned her, and the other relatives were very displeased that she had brought shame to the family. She had left the town of Rayon to go and stay with a friend in the town of Ures. The time had passed, and it was time to deliver that which had been conceived in her body.
To her surprise and to the surprise of the people around her, she delivered three infants, all boys.
She felt a mother’s love immediately, but as she caressed the boys, as she was counting toes and fingers, she became sickened by what she saw. One of the boys had deformed feet that resembled, for lack of a better choice of words, hooves in appearance. The other boys were okay but had ugly features that she just couldn’t get beyond. The boy with the deformed feet, on the other hand, was beautiful to look at with an angelic smile and a charismatic mannerism. She started to become taken with a mild depression that slowly took over her mind. Where was the stranger who was responsible for this seed, and why had he never returned to her village?
My nana continued that Esperanza had made her way back to Rayon in hopes of getting some compassion from her mother and family members. She was starting to feel the rejection in Ures from her friend and her friend’s family members. They just made it uneasy for her to enjoy a life there and all because of her unusual children.
They were not cute, and no one would fuss over them. They were unwanted. The sentiment was no different back in Rayon. Her mother loved her so but couldn’t help but feel pity for her plight. The children were not to blame, but Esperanza’s mother, though she tried, couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable around them. Her love for her daughter allowed the children some sympathy, but she could not come to love those children like any of her other grandchildren. This created a big problem and a deep hurt for Esperanza. She would spend most of her time crying and alone throughout the days.
The summer monsoon rains were starting up, and the days were cooling off.
The nearby river was starting to come alive, first, a slight stream, then slowly gathering momentum and widening out to fill the banks. It was a late August night when the skies were ominously dark, and the rain was coming down in sheets. Esperanza had made up her mind to do the unthinkable, something that had been on her mind now for some time.
She would do away with her children in the raging river waters on the edge of town. No one was awake, and no one would witness what she was about to do in the early morning hours. She bundled up the children and made her way out into the stormy night.
She had become a possessed woman with the weight of the world upon her shoulders. She could bare the pain no longer as she looked up cursing the heavens for the misery her life had become.
She made her way along, out to the center of the rickety old wooden bridge. There she stopped, clutching the three babies she had wrapped in covers to protect from the rain. It was the last gesture of a mother’s love that she would ever have to give.
Unable to look upon their faces one last time, she pushed the children over the old railing and into the roaring river below. The last moment of touching the children before finally letting go was the most pain any human could ever feel. She let out a scream and a cry that was heard way down in the village. She felt the weight that had plagued her while she had possession of the children had now transformed into a weight of the more painful supernatural kind. It seemed to ignite a fire in her soul that ached throughout her very being. Esperanza now felt the curse of the Lord; it was a new weight to carry until the day she would pass on in death.
The rain had not let up as Esperanza made
