In a city in Venezuela, Mrs. Luisa lives in a house with all the comforts located in the Bolivar neighborhood, where she procreated and raised 4 children, to whom together with her husband, she taught them values: tolerance, kindness, peace, responsibility, equity, friendship, freedom, honesty, above all respect and affection towards their friends as if they were brothers and sisters. She and her husband worked at the University and earned a monthly salary that was enough to cover their expenses. All her children go to elementary school near her home.
In the evenings around 6 pm. While she was preparing dinner, she heard almost every day some children shouting in the street peanuts, hot peanuts, for those who have no teeth. One day they knocked on the door of her house when she looked out the children said: "Madam, buy us a peanut," She asked , "how much does it cost?" They answered "the packet at one bolivar, she put her hand in her pocket and took out a coin and paid them.
The next day they came with the same strategy. Luisa was undecided, her children Leocarmen, Ernesto, Engels and Simon told them: "Mom, let them in, they are our friends" She let them in and they shyly looked around. She tells them to make themselves comfortable and continues asking: "What are your names? One raises his hand and answers "Rhonni", "The other: My name is Mark".
Surprised, she observed their physical aspects: the pallor of their faces, their honey-colored, languid eyes, their protruding knee bones, their lanky stature, their white skin toasted by the sun, their straight brown hair in the same state as their skin. His clothes were tattered and badly washed. Their shoes were worn out. She asked them, "Are you hungry?" Rhonni replied, "Yes, very." He went to the kitchen and prepared them arepa with cheese, as soon as he served them, they ate with great appetite.
Then he asked them where they live, Rhonni explained "on the hill behind this neighborhood, in a small mud hut, with a zinc roof, with only one room that serves as a bedroom, living room and kitchen, the only thing we have are some mats where we sleep, during the day we pick them up, a table, a metal container that they gave us, and we go to a common white water faucet. From there we take the water and store it in that container. Then we use it for our own consumption, for cooking, bathing and washing clothes." She asks: "Where is your mother?", Marcos refutes: "Six months ago she went to the countryside with some relatives. We are alone.
Luisa went on to ask, "How do you eat? "We run errands to various people in this Barrio, some pay us with a plate of food others give us a loaf of bread or a banana. When we don't get anything, we go to a field belonging to Mr. Chito, which is on the hillside near our house, we ask him for yucca and squash. He invites us to eat and also gives us the vegetables.
When those children told her about this situation, her heart shriveled up like a prune, she held back her tears so that they would not see her cry. She said: "tomorrow they will come at lunch time, I will save food for them and I will give them some of my children's clothes and some shoes. After lunch the lady said: "this afternoon after they sell the peanuts they will come for dinner. From that moment on, she, her husband and her children assumed the peanut farmers as their family.
Luisa invited them to stay at her house. They answered: "we can't because the ranch could be invaded and when my mother comes, where will she live? She told them: "It's all right, you can go back to school tomorrow. She together with her children and the peanut farmers did the school chores.
Two months later her mother returned. Luisa told them that tomorrow we were going to go to her house to meet her mother. In the afternoon they went and indeed they were living in bad conditions. Their mother was a very old lady and had a disability in one leg, she could not work.
A few days later, the peanut farmers' mother became ill, she was very ill. She was taken to the hospital and was prescribed some medicines, they went to Luisa. At that time she had no money, she had to sell some earrings and a gold bracelet, with that money they bought the medicines and the lady recovered her health.
Several years went by, the maniseros and Luisa's sons became very handsome young men, and they became accustomed to calling each other brothers.
Over the years the maniseros moved to another city and were never heard from again.
Today Luisa is 71 years old. She is walking down an avenue and a handsome man with beautiful eyes crosses her, the lady was trying to move to the other sidewalk, but he did not let her move forward. The lady got very angry and shouted at him: "Get out of the way, who are you! He replied: "You don't remember me, I'm the peanut seller". Surprised, she exclaims: "Son, how handsome you are! Where did you go with your family?" Rhonni replies, "To another city, my brother has a vegetable business in the market, my mother is older. I work as a truck driver in a company that manufactures scaffolding, I came to bring an order. Thank goodness God put me on the road to see her. He kisses her on the forehead and says goodbye:
"Greetings to my brothers, tell her I always remember them."
The story is fiction.
I hope you like it
The drawings are of my authorship.
I used Deepl translator.