Read Online Tree Girl by Ben Mikaelsen - Free Book Online
Authors: Ben Mikaelsen
Tags: Historical, Young Adult
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trying to hide. I kept searching, but Antonio and Alicia were nowhere in sight.
As I stumbled around in horror, my eyes burned from smoke and tears. I had betrayed my promise to Papí that I would care for my brothers and sisters if he died. I hadn’t even been there for him.
Numbed by shame and despair, I dragged the cold bodies of those I loved back to what remained of our home. I would bury Papí, Lester, Lidia, and Julia in the same sacred place I had buried Mamí’s ashes. As I dugshallow graves with a stick and bleeding hands, terrible thoughts haunted me. I imagined the children’s terror in their last desperate moments before death, everybody screaming and running, the soldiers shouting, and the guns echoing like thunder.
I couldn’t stop weeping and hiccuping with grief. Even as I dug the simple graves, I looked up and saw two more bodies of neighbors I’d known. All the bodies in the cantón needed to be buried, but I was only one person, and even as I piled rocks on top of the four graves, I knew that by morning the rats, the armadillos and the foxes would dig up all that I had buried. Even now, buzzards circled overhead and landed to pick at the bodies. I shouted at them but could do nothing more. I had no shovel to bury anyone decently.
As I looked around me I noticed a hairbrush in the ashes and picked it up. This was Mamí’s brush. Many times she had used it to brush my hair. Now it was the only physical object I had left from my family. I slipped it inside my huipil.
I feared that if I did not stay for three days to take flowers and candles to my family’s grave their spiritswould not rise to the next world from where they lay buried.
If friends and family didn’t carry their deceased to the hills to be burned high above the ground, if spirits were not sent properly to the next world, what became of them? The question cut away at my heart and soul. I felt I was betraying my family, my ancestors, and the ancients. Still, I knew that I could not remain in the cantón for fear of the soldiers returning. I had to move on.
Not finding Antonio and Alicia also hurt me deeply. My little sister had placed all of her trust in me when she called me “Mamí.” I imagined her screaming “Mamí! Mamí! Mamí!” as the soldiers fired around her. Had she mistaken the sounds of gunfire for thunder?
I wept more tears, knowing I must leave with all of my questions unanswered. Other military foot patrols would pass soon, so I walked for the last time away from the place where I had been born and raised. I walked straight into the forest and headed north toward the border of Mexico, the direction I had been told that many Indios fled to escape from Guatemala. I took only memories with me, but they weighedheavier on my heart than any burden I’d ever carried to market. Behind me lay ashes of death, ahead lay clouds of uncertainty. I was a young girl alone in a dangerous country, with no home and no future.
I had walked only a few hundred meters into the forest when a whimpering sound like that of a hurt animal caught my attention. It came from beneath a clump of bushes just ahead of me. Fearing a trap set by the soldiers, I quietly lowered myself to my stomach to peek beneath the bush.
Deep under the branches, a small girl cowered on the ground, naked, hugging her knees. Beside her crouched a young boy. They both turned to stare at me.
My heart exploded with happiness. “Alicia and Antonio!” I gasped.
CHAPTER SEVEN
A licia scrambled from under the bush and climbed into my arms. She clung to me with little fingers that dug sharply into my skin.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She whimpered, searching back over her shoulder, her big eyes wild with fear, lips trembling. Black mud covered her round face and tangled black hair.
“You’re safe now,” I said softly, hugging her naked body close. Alicia clung to my neck as I reached for Antonio and helped pull him from under the bush. I tried to hug him,
As I stumbled around in horror, my eyes burned from smoke and tears. I had betrayed my promise to Papí that I would care for my brothers and sisters if he died. I hadn’t even been there for him.
Numbed by shame and despair, I dragged the cold bodies of those I loved back to what remained of our home. I would bury Papí, Lester, Lidia, and Julia in the same sacred place I had buried Mamí’s ashes. As I dugshallow graves with a stick and bleeding hands, terrible thoughts haunted me. I imagined the children’s terror in their last desperate moments before death, everybody screaming and running, the soldiers shouting, and the guns echoing like thunder.
I couldn’t stop weeping and hiccuping with grief. Even as I dug the simple graves, I looked up and saw two more bodies of neighbors I’d known. All the bodies in the cantón needed to be buried, but I was only one person, and even as I piled rocks on top of the four graves, I knew that by morning the rats, the armadillos and the foxes would dig up all that I had buried. Even now, buzzards circled overhead and landed to pick at the bodies. I shouted at them but could do nothing more. I had no shovel to bury anyone decently.
As I looked around me I noticed a hairbrush in the ashes and picked it up. This was Mamí’s brush. Many times she had used it to brush my hair. Now it was the only physical object I had left from my family. I slipped it inside my huipil.
I feared that if I did not stay for three days to take flowers and candles to my family’s grave their spiritswould not rise to the next world from where they lay buried.
If friends and family didn’t carry their deceased to the hills to be burned high above the ground, if spirits were not sent properly to the next world, what became of them? The question cut away at my heart and soul. I felt I was betraying my family, my ancestors, and the ancients. Still, I knew that I could not remain in the cantón for fear of the soldiers returning. I had to move on.
Not finding Antonio and Alicia also hurt me deeply. My little sister had placed all of her trust in me when she called me “Mamí.” I imagined her screaming “Mamí! Mamí! Mamí!” as the soldiers fired around her. Had she mistaken the sounds of gunfire for thunder?
I wept more tears, knowing I must leave with all of my questions unanswered. Other military foot patrols would pass soon, so I walked for the last time away from the place where I had been born and raised. I walked straight into the forest and headed north toward the border of Mexico, the direction I had been told that many Indios fled to escape from Guatemala. I took only memories with me, but they weighedheavier on my heart than any burden I’d ever carried to market. Behind me lay ashes of death, ahead lay clouds of uncertainty. I was a young girl alone in a dangerous country, with no home and no future.
I had walked only a few hundred meters into the forest when a whimpering sound like that of a hurt animal caught my attention. It came from beneath a clump of bushes just ahead of me. Fearing a trap set by the soldiers, I quietly lowered myself to my stomach to peek beneath the bush.
Deep under the branches, a small girl cowered on the ground, naked, hugging her knees. Beside her crouched a young boy. They both turned to stare at me.
My heart exploded with happiness. “Alicia and Antonio!” I gasped.
CHAPTER SEVEN
A licia scrambled from under the bush and climbed into my arms. She clung to me with little fingers that dug sharply into my skin.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She whimpered, searching back over her shoulder, her big eyes wild with fear, lips trembling. Black mud covered her round face and tangled black hair.
“You’re safe now,” I said softly, hugging her naked body close. Alicia clung to my neck as I reached for Antonio and helped pull him from under the bush. I tried to hug him,
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