Work Text:
Sol’s days with her family were coming to an end. She tried to convince her mom and brother to at least stay for the rest of the season, but Esmeralda said that she had to get back to work the following Monday. So they spent the rest of the week exploring the town. They went on long walks through the forest and foraged for blackberries, they hiked to the mountains and had a picnic next to the lake. It was too chilly to go swimming in the mountain lake, but at high noon it had warmed up enough to dip their feet in. Sol even took Alan through the first five levels of the mines and introduced him to Marlon and Gil in the Adventurer’s Guild.
After all their exploring, Esmeralda cooked all of Sol’s favorite meals. Pozole, entomatadas, ceviche, carne asada. She made mojarra frita with all of the fish that Sol brought home one day. Harvey spoke to Esmeralda in only Spanish as often as he could, he was getting really good at it too. It helped that she was teaching Harvey how to cook Sol’s favorite meals at his request. Yoba, it was so hot how much he cared for Sol and how much of an effort he put in with her mom. It made Sol want to have all of his babies and she’s never been one to have a breeding kink.
Esmeralda also appreciated how much of an effort he put in that she doted on him as much as she did her own children. She always filled Harvey’s plate to the brim and fed him seconds, she took note of which ones were his favorites for the future. Sol did in fact get an earful about forcing Harvey to go back to his apartment after he already had been settled at the farm. Sol was beginning to think that Harvey might be the new favorite child. She knew he didn’t exactly like to talk about it, but she was under the impression that he had been severely emotionally neglected by his own parents. Sol was glad that he was able to experience a mothers unconditional love the way it should be. Marisol was happy to step aside and let him be the favorite for once, he was her favorite too.
On the eve of their departure, Esmeralda decided it was the perfect day to make tamales. Sol suspected that it was so that she could leave her with her cooking for weeks after they were gone.
Tamales are a lengthy process that requires everyone’s help. She put Sol in charge of cooking the chicken, mashing up pinto beans, slicing up queso fresco and preparing the poblano peppers for the rajas. Harvey was in charge of spreading the masa on the corn husk and as soon as Esmeralda heard that Emily was vegan, she immediately switched out the lard for vegetable oil. Alan filled the tamales after Harvey passed them to him before Esmeralda folded them and tied them up to arrange them neatly in the pot. They had made enough to feed the whole town, which was good because all of their friends had conveniently showed up when they were done.
They all sat around Marisol’s dining table, spilling over into the living room as soon as all the chairs were taken. They ate their fill and complimented them after the first few bites. Sol’s friends asked Alan and her mom about themselves and it felt like a big family dinner. Growing up, it was just Marisol, Alan and their mom. She always wanted a HUGE family, she was jealous of her friends growing up that had many siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins. They always had enormous family events during the holidays, birthdays, hell even sunday dinner. This felt like everything that Sol could’ve ever hoped for.
Shane choking on his tamale after drenching it in the salsa that her mom had made broke her out of her thinking. She doubled over in laughter at his cries of pain, but to be fair she had warned him and he chose to ignore her. Esmeralda hurried to grab him a cup of milk to help with the heat. Shane she also adored, she said he was a sweet boy underneath all of the grumpiness. Plus, she has a soft spot for anyone who is good friends with her baby. After he finished drowning his burning tastebuds in milk, he declared it was the best thing he had ever tasted and could she please leave a few jars before she left? Esmeralda chuckled and promised she would leave a few jars and Sol with the recipe.
Sol’s favorite time of the day was at the end of the night, after dinner and all the dishes were cleared away and the kitchen was sparkling. Sometimes they gathered back around the dining table, other times they sat on the porch. Sometimes it was the four of them and sometimes it was just Sol and her mom, but they always had a cup of coffee and a piece of pan dulce.
Tonight with all the extra guests, Harvey started a bonfire in the yard. Sol brewed the coffee and set out all the Mexican sweet bread on a platter. Their nightly ritual usually just consisted of Sol and her mom gossiping about her cousins that lived in Mexico or them putting Harvey in the spotlight and trying to learn everything about his childhood.
The chilly night air, the crackle of the logs in the fire put them in the mood for a different kind of night. Sol looked around the fire, at her family, her friends that became a family for her here in Pelican town and felt immensely blessed by Yoba. She might not have grown up with the typical huge family that her friends in her youth had, so this felt like the universe’s way to make up for it. She could see herself and Harvey raising their kids alongside Shane and Haley’s. Maru teaching them all about science and Emily sewing baby clothes because she just couldn’t help herself.
Esmeralda’s voice interrupted her daydreaming. They were all silent, wide-eyed as they listened to Esmeralda recount her time living in a haunted house in Mexico. Harvey had pulled her into his lap and she settled in to hear the stories she’s heard all her life with his arms around her.
“Our mother used to warn us growing up to never go outside in the middle of the night. Too dark! You never know what’s going on in the shadows. And never go alone, not if you want to hear La llorona calling for her children, not if you want a duende messing with you. So I never did, imagine my surprise when I married Sol’s father and I moved in with him and his family into his childhood home. After a few nights, I would have rather braved whatever was on the outside.”
Sol looked around the bonfire at each and every one of her friends, focusing on each of their expressions. Everyone was entranced, even Shane had put down the s'more he was eating to listen more closely. You could hear nothing but everyone’s breathing, the crackle and pop of the logs breaking as the flames overtook them.
“No matter where you went, it always felt like someone was watching you. You could hear footsteps in the hallways even though I was nearly always home alone. Doors slammed shut and these weren’t the type of doors that could be closed with a sudden draft. Heavy, sturdy doors that you had to practically shove closed with your body. Yet they were being slammed shut when no one was home. Esteban called me crazy, but there were several times when I would be getting ready in the mirror in our bedroom and I swear I would see someone in the window looking in through our mirror. I’d turn around so fast, but there was never anything.”
“What if it was just a homeless guy? Or someone looking to rob the place?” Maru asked skeptically. There were murmurs of agreement from the gang.
“Our bedroom was on the second floor.” Esmeralda explained. “No balcony outside our window, the trees were not close enough for anyone to climb up.”
Maru clamped a hand over her mouth and even Emily looked uneasy as she looped her arm through Maru’s and held on tight.
Esmeralda continued. “Sol, mi bebe, would have such a hard time sleeping. It would take me hours to get her to fall asleep and then she wouldn’t stay asleep long. An hour or so and she would wake up screaming bloody murder. I would run to pick her up from her crib and she would have these red, faint scratch marks all up and down her little legs.”
Small gasps came out of her friends mouths. Marisol has heard the stories many times before, she had been just as enraptured as her friends, more so because it had happened to her. So she was able to watch her friends' shocked faces and fully appreciate the feel of Harvey’s arms wrapped around her waist. His skin glowed orange and red in the light of the fire; she traced patterns all along his arms trying not to giggle when he would tense up behind her and tighten his embrace as if he was trying to protect her from the past.
“I was so terrified to sleep. I would stay awake all night, her crib right next to me and watch her through the night. But we’re all human, sometimes I could not help it and I would fall asleep from pure exhaustion. I only ever regretted it when I woke suddenly one night to hear Esteban calling me from the bedroom door. He was standing there, telling me to come with him and to bring the baby. He was so insistent, but something was telling me not to listen… and that’s when I realized that I could feel the weight of someone in the bed next to me. Someone was in the bed, I slowly turned to look, and it was Esteban! But how could that be? I turned to look at the door again and he was there beckoning me to come with him! ‘ven amor!’ But no! He's asleep in the bed with me! I grabbed Sol from her crib and took her under the covers with me and prayed that whatever it was would go away. It still called out for me into the early hours of the morning.”
“Why didn’t you leave? Why did you keep living there?” Maru asked in awe. Emily had tightened her hold on Maru’s arm, nodding vigorously.
“Because I loved Sol’s dad, because I was stupid? I should have taken Sol and ran back to my parents as fast as I could, but I stayed and it was a mistake.”
The only one who wasn’t listening as intently was Alan who has also heard the stories before, he sat across the bonfire from Sol and made faces at her from behind his hand every time their mom wasn’t looking in his direction. Sol rolled her eyes and decided that the current mood was way too somber to ruin by taking her brother’s bait. She ignored him (with difficulty) and tuned into her mother’s story.
“One night, all of us were in the living room after dinner. Sol had finally fallen asleep in Esteban’s arms. I was trying to take her from him, but he insisted on laying her in our bed. ‘She can’t stay in your arms all the time! She has to learn how to sleep by herself eventually.’ So he took her to our bedroom. When he came back, we all sat around the living room playing loteria, but I couldn’t concentrate on anything! All I could think about was going to check on Sol and how much time did I have to wait before I could finally get up and check on her without Esteban calling me silly. When suddenly the power went out and plunged us into complete darkness. I heard my baby scream and I ran up the stairs as fast as I could. I threw open the door and all I could see was the moonlight streaming in from the open window, the curtains blowing in the night air. We never leave the window open, did Esteban leave it open? I looked at our bed, y mi nina was hanging off the bed as if something had tried to drag her off and she was clutching the bedspread with her little hands holding on for dear life. Her face was red from screaming, tears running down her cheeks, I scooped her up and held her close to my chest. I looked at the open window again and knew I would probably regret it, but I had to look outside. I had to know. I walked over to the window, holding Sol away from it, and stuck my head outside to see.. Una Lechuza, it was flying in a circle over the house and my heart sank to my stomach when I realized what almost took my baby.”
“What’s a lechuza?” Haley breathed. She had been sitting next to Shane but had ended up in his lap as the story went on, he clutched her close.
“Witches.” Emily whispered, eyes wide.
“That’s right.” Esmeralda nodded. Shane shook his head in disbelief.
“What? What do you mean witches? and how do YOU know that?” He turned to ask Emily.
“Lechuzas are witches that can take the form of a woman during the day and a huge owl at night. The legends are popular in the northern part of Mexico, you can hear them imitate the cries of infants to lure victims in or in other cases, they abduct children.” Emily explained. One by one, they all turned to look at Sol, she even felt Harvey’s chin on her shoulder and his mustache brush her cheek as he also focused on her.
“Guys! I’m obviously okay!” Sol reassured them with a laugh. “That was like twenty-six years ago.”
But the way that Harvey tightened his arms around her even more than he already had them, you would’ve thought that there was a witch in the vicinity ready to snatch her up.
“Do you think Rasmodious’s ex wife is going to come by one night and finish what her sister started?” Shane snickered.
“I hope so, I’ve always wanted to be an only child.” Alan barked out a laugh. He got up on his knees and made exaggerated gestures towards the sky asking for Sol to get kidnapped.
“Ama!” Sol turned to her mom with a smirk. “Why don’t you tell everyone about how you found Alan in a dumpster? Now that’s a scary story.”
Sol could feel the deep rumble of Harvey’s laughter. Shane spit out his drink and even the girls giggled good naturedly at Alan’s expense. The fire was dying and soon they would have to get up and go to bed, she would have to say goodbye to her mom and Alan in the morning, but still she felt carefree and full of love. Harvey and Sol would visit them next until Harvey managed to convince them to move here, and she still had the family that she formed with her favorite pendejitos.
This was it, her family. Her life. And it was a damn good one.