Page 190 of The Moon Sister
‘Will she be back soon?’ asked Lucía. ‘I cannot wait to meet my niece!’
‘She will be back after she has conversed with the trees to discover where exactly she can pick the magic herbs she uses to brew her potions. She is like the wind, a spirit who listens to nothing but her own infallible instincts.’
‘How can I ever thank you, Micaela? What you have done for me, for this family . . .’
‘No. I have done nothing. I was saved because of Angelina. I know it.’
‘And now, do people return here to live in Sacromonte?’ Lucía asked.
‘The community we had once is gone. Dead, or scattered across the world. Sacromonte can never be as it was,’ Micaela said darkly.
‘Maybe in time,’ countered María.
‘Now you are here, my work is done.’ Micaela shrugged. ‘And I am grateful for I was worried what would become of Angelina if I was not here. I was told someone would come for Angelina when I needed them. My heart – it cannot support me much longer, you see.’ She roused herself from the table, her face purple with effort. ‘Now, I have some soup for lunch. Are you hungry?’
Both María and Lucía accepted Micaela’s offer, more for want of something to concentrate on than hunger as they waited for the little miracle child to come home. María told Micaela a little of their life in the past nine years, and that they were now living in an orange grove in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
‘Hola, Maestra,’ said a high voice as the front door opened, and a waif-like creature entered the cave with an overflowing basket of what resembled weeds.
María drew in her breath, for this child could not look lessgitanathan if she had been transported from the host of the angels she was named after. With her red-gold hair and blue eyes, Angelina lookedpayothrough and through.
The wise, calm eyes stared at the two women sitting at the table. ‘You are something to me, aren’t you?’ she said quietly as she came towards them. ‘Are you my family?’
‘Yes,’ said María, yet again close to tears, ‘I am your grandmother, and this is your aunt, Lucía.’
‘They told me something special would arrive today,’ Angelina nodded, seemingly not at all surprised. ‘Is this who I will live with when you travel to the Upperworld,Maestra?’
‘Yes.’ Micaela met María’s astonished expression almost smugly. ‘I have been telling your grandmother and aunt all about you.’
Angelina placed her basket on the floor, then opened her arms wide to hug María and then Lucía in turn. ‘I am glad you have come. Themaestrawas getting worried that her time was running out. Now she can prepare for her journey without fear. Is there soup?’ she queried.
‘Sí,’ Micaela began to rise but Angelina used a hand to stop her.
‘I can get it. She tries to do everything for me, but I tell her she must rest. Your baby will be a girl, and we will be great friends,’ Angelina nodded to Lucía as she scooped some soup into a tin bowl.
‘Micaela already told her,’ said María. Lucía – for once – was silenced by this extraordinary little girl and María could only continue to stare at her in wonder.
Eduardo’s child . . . she is to be given to me . . .
Angelina sat at the table and ate her soup, asking a hundred different questions about María and Lucía and the other members of her family.
‘I have an uncle as well as an aunt,sí?’
‘You do, Angelina, and he is called Pepe. Maybe one day he will visit us here.’
‘I will know him a long time. The prophecies are coming true,Maestra,’ she said to Micaela in delight. ‘I knew they would not let us down.’
‘Does she go to school?’ María asked Micaela.
‘What do I need with school?’ Angelina answered. ‘I learn everything I need from themaestraand from the forest.’
‘Perhaps you should learn to read and write,’ Lucía said as she ferreted in her basket for her cigarettes and lit up. ‘It is something I wish I had done.’
‘Oh, I can do that, Lucía. Themaestrahad apayocome here and teach me.’ She stared at Lucía inhaling her cigarette. ‘You know that it is bad for your heart. It will help kill you. You should stop.’
‘I shall do as I wish,’ Lucía replied, now irritated by this angel child, who seemed to know the answers to everything.
‘Each of our destinies is down to us. Sometimes.’ She laughed as she gave Micaela a knowing look. ‘When can I come and visit you?’ she asked María. ‘Your home sounds beautiful.’
