Ever since he was a child he ran through the streets of the village with his bare feet and his shirt unbuttoned, full of dirt from head to toe. Sometimes he would run after a stray chicken that had wandered dangerously far from its pen, other times in front of a lady with a broom in her hand, one of the market vendors who would shout.
"Grab that boy, he took some peaches!".
But Francisco moved his thin legs quickly and climbed up the trunk to the branches of the saman tree and sat down to eat the peaches. The yellow juice would drip into his mouth and his hands would be covered with a mixture of earth and sweet syrup. There he would spend hours, watching people walk home, or children walk to school. She liked to watch the birds standing on the branches, and imitated their trills, the breeze ruffling her hair over her face and blowing it away. He would stick his face to the branch to watch the bachacos carry away the bits of leaves, an endless line that Francisco would begin to count.
One, two, three, four, five, six ... but at a point when he no longer knew how to continue, he would leave it at an expression he had heard at some point ....
"And etcetera".
Francisco lived with his grandmother Julia, a lady who had taken on the responsibility of raising her grandson from the age of six, after the death of her daughter and her husband. Francisco did not lack the love and tenderness that his grandmother gave him, but the boy needed more attention and discipline, and at one point she decided to send him to her eldest son's house to help her take care of him. Jose Ramon lived with his wife on a farm on the outskirts of town.
At eight years old Francisco didn't understand why he had to stay away from her, and when they went to pick him up, he ran up the tree and stayed there until his grandmother asked him to come down.
With his eyes full of tears, he hugged her.
"I don't want to leave you grandmother, you can't stay alone, I'm going to be good, I'm going to listen to you and when you call me I'm going to run".
"My dear grandson, you have always behaved well, and I have not stopped loving you, but that is why I ask you to go live with your uncle Juan Ramon, you will be fine there".
Francisco at that moment understood that his life was going to change, and that for now he could do nothing to avoid it. His grandmother cleaned with her apron his wet face full of dirt, smoothed his brown hair to one side, and kissed the little holes in his cheeks that reminded her so much of her daughter.
When they arrived at the farm, a large two-story house surrounded by flowering plants, their aunt Carolina, Juan Ramon's wife, was waiting for them, they had not been able to have children after ten years of marriage and had lost hope and for her the arrival of the child was a great joy.
She welcomed him with a big smile and hugged him so tightly that the boy felt his head spinning, the sweet perfume that impregnated Carolina's shirt enveloped him as if he were in a cloud.
"Hello Francisco, it's good that you are here, come I want you to see your room", she grabbed him by the hand and they went up the stairs until they reached the room at the end of the corridor
He was not used to so much cuddling and much less to so much cleanliness, when his uncle sent him to take a bath before dinner, he was going to protest but his uncle's frowning forehead and closed lips immediately made him change his mind.
Francisco gradually got used to this quiet life but his free spirit became bored, he wanted to run around the countryside and ride in the trees, but his uncles would not give him permission, only when he helped them with the farm animals did he have fun chasing the chickens and sheep. In the afternoons he went to school.
On Sundays they went to mass and to visit grandma. When they entered the house, she gave him a gift that she had kept in one of the drawers in her room, it was a little box wrapped in green tissue paper.
"Here, Francisco, so you have something to amuse yourself with, I know that sometimes you get bored at home. They were your mother's, she liked to play cards".
Francisco removed the paper very gently so as not to tear it and with his chubby-fingered little hands opened the box. Her eyes opened wide, her mouth showed all her white teeth, while dimples sunk into her cheeks.
"Grandmother what are they?, as he pulled them out, he ran his fingers over the brightly colored figures. Men on horses, kings, knights, swords, clubs, goblets and gold coins awakened his childhood imagination.
"They are Spanish playing cards, a gift from your grandfather. They had a lot of fun playing and I hope you did too".
"Thank you grandmother, it's the best gift I've ever been given!, I'm going to take good care of them. He took the decks of cards and put them carefully, one by one, in the box.
"Come back to see me next Sunday, I will be waiting for you, my dear boy".
The grandmother hugged him and said goodbye with one of those sad smiles, and her eyes got wet.
But Francisco could not visit his grandmother the following Sunday.
Thursday dawned cold, and it had rained in the early morning, the uncles and Francisco got up very early because they had to harvest the potatoes in the garden. They left the house through the back door that led to the kitchen, where the stove was still warm. The field was surrounded by mountains, where the snow was beginning to paint the peaks white. A small forest, through which a stream ran, remained green .
Francisco helped his uncle pull out the plants to expose their roots and tubers, it didn't take much effort because the soil was soft. He liked the work on the farm, his face was wet with sweat and his hands were black with dirt, but he continued without rest until his uncle told him
"Let's stop, your aunt is going to bring us hot chocolate and something to eat".
"That's good man, my stomach was already making sounds, don't you hear them?"
"Ha,ha,ha, then we have a concert because it's making sounds to me too".
They sat down on some rocks on the road to wait, the breeze ruffled their hair as if it was playing with them and having fun tousling it. Francisco with a flick of his hand tried to put it back in place.
Around a bend in the road, Aunt Carolina appeared with a basket loaded with food, next to her Kaiser, the black and white Mucuchies dog, trotted along.
Francisco got up to help her and as he took several steps he stepped on the hoe he had left on the road, the stick rose as if propelled by an invisible hand and hit him head on and the boy fell long and hard on the wet earth.
In his room, Francisco rests with his eyes closed, he is not asleep and a bump as big as a mountain covers his forehead. After the accident, he was rushed to a health center and regained consciousness.
"This child has a very hard head, do not worry, he will be fine, he only suffered a concussion, the forehead is one of the hardest bones we have. He will recover, he just needs rest and these medicines".
"Thanks to God and thanks you doctor",
Carolina was very anxious, but Juan Ramon calmed her down. His calm temperament was very good in these circumstances.
"Let's take him home and you can take good care of him there".
And so he had done. He went into the room every half hour and asked the child.
"How are you feeling?, you are dizzy?, she would fix his blanket and look at his forehead sadly.
"Do you want me to bring you a hot chocolate?, it's getting cold", and without waiting for him to answer, she would leave the room to look for him.
His grandmother went to visit him several times.
"Grandma, please look for the card box in the drawer, I want to play with them. I'm already bored here in bed".
And Francisco placed the cards on the bed and imagined a fantasy world. The kingdom of the golden king defended his domains from the attack of the kingdoms of basto, cup and sword. His cavalry ran swiftly through the forests and his knights followed them to the borders of their magnificent territory, the snow-capped mountains. And although there were no queens on his cards, he had drawn a golden queen who was strong and powerful, with long brown hair, on her head a golden crown full of rubies and on her beautiful face two dimples, one on each side of her cheek.
Thank you very much for reading. This is my entry in The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #112
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
