Archive of Our Own ^beta

Luisa wasn’t born strong. She was as weak as any other child during her younger years, constantly running up to one of the adults and begging them to open some container or other. She always admired the apparent ease with which some of the men working the farms could lift the heaviest looking things. It didn’t take long before she started marching around trying to lift anything and everything that looked heavy. She nearly gave her mother a heart attack from the amount of times she ran home bleeding and upset. Nevertheless, no matter how many times Luisa failed, she was always back out the next day trying to pick up wooden carts, or the biggest rocks she could find.

“Luisa!” Her mama cried after the fifth time she walked into the kitchen covered in scrapes, a vicious looking bruise forming on her left knee. It stung a lot, and Luisa had to limp all the way home, but she didn’t want her mama to worry so she did her best not to cry. “What happened?”

Luisa looked away from her mama and fidgeted with her hands. “I fell…”

Julieta crossed her arms and looked at her daughter dubiously. “You fell?”

“Yeah.” Luisa nodded. Her face must not have looked as innocent as she wanted it to because her mama’s face only became more suspicious.

“You fell doing what?”

Luisa steadfastly refused to look at her mom and swayed back and forth, her skirt swishing gently against her legs.

“Luisa…”

Uh-oh, that was her mom voice. “I fell because one of the donkeys knocked me over.”

Julieta sighed. “What were you doing near the donkey’s, mija?” Her mama turned and turned on the stove, preparing to make some food.

Oh good, Luisa’s leg was kinda throbbing. “... I was trying to lift a hay bale.” Luisa muttered as quietly as possible. She knew that even if her mama didn’t hear her, Dolores would but at this point Luisa was resigned to her fate.

“Luisa! Why in the world were you trying to lift it? Those are twice your size!” Her mama glanced at her incredulously before turning her attention back to the hot stove and the food that was cooking on it. It smelled heavenly; Luisa could have sworn she smelled some sort of potato, but she couldn’t be sure.

“Senor Alvarez could lift it because his back was hurting, I just wanted to help him,” Luisa pouted.
“That’s a job for the adults, sweetie, you are too young to be lifting hay bales. Let someone bigger do that.”

“I’m not a baby! I just wanted to help like you do!” Luisa threw her hands up in frustration.

Food done, Julieta turned to Luisa and handed her bruised daughter an empanada. Luisa devoured it ravenously, licking her fingers when she finished. “You are too young to be carrying heavy things, Luisa. You keep getting hurt, and if this happens again what if you can’t get to me for help? I don’t want to see you hurt, corazon.”

“I’m sorry, mama…” Luisa stared at the floor.

“Te quiero, Luisa,” Julieta said. She pulled her daughter in for a hug.

“Te quiero,” Luisa returned, wrapping her small limbs as far around her mama as they would go.

Julieta squeezed her daughter as tight as she could, as though she could protect her from every danger the world could throw at them. She didn’t want to let go. “From now on, you can’t go down to the village unless you have an adult to watch you, okay? I mean it, Luisa. No more wandering off on your own.”

“Okay, mama.”

Luisa wasn’t blind. She saw how important her family was in the village. Her mama was constantly going out into town with baskets of food to help anyone in the Encato who may have been hurt. Her tia Pepa worked with the farmers to determine the weather and always did her best to make sure she did not cause any freak weather incidents. Tio Bruno worked with Pepa, making sure there were no intense storms in the near future and giving whoever asked a vision of their future. Even Isabela and Dolores were learning to help everyone with their gifts, although the family was still trying to find the best use for their powers.

Luisa was the third oldest Madrigal grandchild. She wanted to help everyone just like the rest of her family. She loved the town and wanted to be useful. Sometimes her fifth birthday felt so far away she didn’t know how much longer she could last without bursting with impatience. The months drifted by slowly, almost like they were doing it on purpose just to spite her.

“I wanna help!” Luisa pouted as her mom loaded up a basket with her famous arepas. Luisa’s mouth watered a little at the sight of them, but she refused to be deterred from her mission. “How come I don’t get to go into town with you? Isabela and Dolores get to go!”

Her mama smiled and ruffled her hair. “I know you want to go, mija, and I think it’s great that you are so excited to be helpful but,” Julieta sighed, “until I can be sure that you won’t keep running around trying to crush yourself, I can’t let you come unless I can keep an eye on you.”

“But-”

“And,” Julieta continued, “you should take time to play and be a kid. There will be plenty of work to be done once you turn five. Until then, you should have fun, corazon. You won’t be a kid forever, enjoy it while it lasts.”

Luisa heaved a sigh that was quite impressive for someone as small as she was. “Fine.”

Her mama crouched down and held Luisa’s face in her hands, squishing her cheeks a little as she smiled and placed a kiss on Luisa’s forehead. “Thank you, mija. I promise when you’re bigger you can come and help as much as you want.”

Luisa eyed her mother skeptically. “Promise?”

Her mother’s eyes were soft, the warm brown colored twinkling in the light of the sun filtering in through the kitchen windows. “I promise.”

Then, without warning, her mother grabbed Luisa’s sides and tickled her gently, pressing kisses all over her face as she did so.

Luisa screamed in outrage, doing her best to escape her mama’s clutches but it was no use. Her small body had betrayed her and she could not get away. “Mama!” Luisa couldn’t stop laughing, no matter how hard she fought. “No!” she giggled furiously.

Agustin, Luisa’s papa appeared in the doorway. “Monster!” he cried in mock outrage. “Unhand my daughter right this instant!”

“Never!” Julieta cackled as she continued to tickle the poor defenseless Luisa.

“Papa! Save me!” Luisa cried in the breaks between her laughter.

Her papa let out a large and ferocious (looking back, it was quite dorky) battle cry before charging into the fray, knocking them all onto the floor. The three of them laid there in a pile, out of breath and laughing together without a single worry about how dirty the floor may have been. They were all happy and everything was okay.

Four months later, Luisa turned five years old and no longer had time to play with her family.