Hello friends, I hope you are well; Today I come to share with you this little story, which is my participation in the new initiative "Writing between stories and letters, promoted by Writing Club in order to celebrate the International Writers' Day to be held on March 3.
Imagen de Deana Zelinová en Pixabay
Amelia was a 14 year old girl, with a sad and monotonous life, daughter of Isabel, an unhappy and bitter woman, who was forced to marry Don Alberto, one of the most influential men in town, a man who despite his age was good looking, but with a bad character, he did not believe in love, because his father separated him from Ana Lucia, his first and only love.
Both were bad parents, all the bitterness and frustrations of their lives did not allow them to take care of their daughter Amelia, who was looked after by Manoa, their nanny; At her age there were few times that she had been able to leave the hacienda, not even the house was allowed to leave, the contact with other people was almost null, not even with her parents, each one was in their own things and with the girl they shared very little, since she was born Isabel told Manoa to take care of the girl and she took her to live in her hut, where she was loved by one of the slaves.
Amelia grew up with the customs of the slaves, because Manoa, told her stories of his people, taught her their language and transmitted to her their customs, for example to make rituals to worship Gods, which sometimes she attended without her parents knowing it, because Manoa was forbidden to take the girl out of the house.
As a child this did not affect the girl, but she grew up and wanted to get out of her confinement, one day Manoa took her to the river where the slaves washed their clothes, for the first time Amelia felt free, she ran, jumped, even bathed in the river; When she went to the rituals it was at night and she only saw the slaves singing and dancing around bonfires, but this was something different, that day this girl experienced what happiness was, she wished that day would never end, but her wish was not fulfilled and she had to return to her prison.
Every day Amelia implored Manoa to take her there, but it was very risky to go out during the day because she could be discovered, because Don Alberto sometimes made a little tour of the hacienda, but the girls wanted to return to the river, so at the time of the afternoon siesta, she escaped from her nanny and went to the river, at that time there was no slave there and the girl could enjoy for a while this beautiful paradise.
In one of these trips, the time passed and it became late, her nanny discovered that she was not in her hammock, she looked for her with other slaves everywhere, until she found her in the river, then Manoa began to watch her, but in an oversight she escaped and went back to her favorite place.
There Amelia was admiring the clouds, when she felt a bite on her leg, she jumped up and there in front of her was her attacker, a black as coal, he had big red eyes, as if flames were coming out of them, fear took over her, she knew that screaming would not help, petrified, she could not even think. Suddenly she heard screams: _ Get out, get out; Manoa and some slaves who accompanied him shouted, with stones and sticks they made the dog leave.
Imagen de Deana Zelinová en Pixabay
Amelia ran into Manoa's arms,
Why did you run away again, asked her nanny?
-I needed to breathe fresh air," answered the little girl with a breath of fresh air, her voice cracking.
Manoa checked the girl's wound, it was just a scratch, _Does it hurt, she asked?
-Not much," answered Amelia.
Manoa gathered some herbs and placed them on the small wound, took her by the hand and guided her to the house.
Days after that incident, Manoa received the news that a rabid dog had bitten a man and that he had died, he was not the only victim, there were other people who were also bitten by that canine; Manoa got scared and decided to tell the incident to his mistress, but Isabel did not even pay attention to it, Amelia's wound was still small and without signs of infection, this reassured nana.
This tranquility ended when Amelia began to do strange things, she did not eat, did not sleep and was aggressive, to the point of scratching and biting a slave, who got sick and died days later, 2 other slaves got sick; These events made Don Alberto bring a doctor, who determined that the slaves had been infected with rabies, the girl's nanny told the boss the attitudes that the girl had, so the doctor wanted to examine her, but could not do it, because she was like a beast and attacked him.
She is possessed, said the Doctor.
- And what can we do? Don Alberto asked. Bring a priest.
The priest went to the house, agreeing with the doctor, determined that the girl needed an exorcism, so they tied her up in a straitjacket and took her to the dungeons of the church, the nuns were in charge of the care of the girl, who remained in a straitjacket, Orlando a seminarian was entrusted with the task of performing the exorcism of Amelia.
The nuns tried to take the necklaces from the girl, who defended herself and as she could she kicked one of them, she had an enormous strength, the women fled the room, nobody wanted to get close to this girl, who looked like a furious animal, only Orlando entered to do his exorcism sessions, and little by little he gained Amelia's trust and something else, that girl had fallen in love with him.
Orlando had mixed feelings, he did not know if it was pity or love what this girl made him feel, but then he verified that he had fallen in love with Amelia, there were no more exorcism sessions, but long talks; the seminarian came to the conclusion that Amelia was not possessed, he let the priest know, but the priest did not want to give up his verdict and ordered the exorcism sessions to continue.
The seminarian had no choice but to comply with the orders of his mentor and continue with the exorcism sessions, which turned into nights of passion, the connection between Amelia and Orlando grew with each day, and it was in captivity that that sad and lonely girl found her first love, besides Manoa, he was the only person who awakened this feeling in her, but this was a different love, it was the desire for the flesh of that man 22 years older than her, who made her sigh and feel butterflies in her stomach.
The nuns began to suspect what was happening, until they proved it, denouncing the idyll to the Father, just the day Orlando was planning to elope with Amelia, he was arrested and locked up in a cell in the basement of the church;
Amelia waited anxiously for her beloved, but instead of him, the Father arrived to exorcise her, which he could not do, because the girl attacked him and they had to tie her with ropes to a stone bed, she did not understand why Orlando did not go for her, there she stayed tied up, she refused to eat and only waited for death to come, on March 1st Amelia died for love...
Story inspired by the novel "Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel García Márquez".
I invite friends
@javielys and
@anibalj to participate in this initiative.
Las imágenes fueron diseñadas en Canva y 1 de Pixabay
The images were designed in Canva and 1 from Pixabay.
Translated at DeepL Traductor