Now, the town of Fawn is on the west coast of Spain. Recently, reports of creatures not from this world ‘lurking and stealing.’
“Do not go causing more trouble for yourself. Uhm ...what was your name again?" the barkeeper asked as he cleaned out a used glass.
With his clothes covered in dirt, hair brown, now blackened by the smog, and his mind torn apart, Emmanuel Antonio tries to find his chest to calm his soul. "It's Emanuel…" he says, trying to recover from what had just happened.
“It would be best if you stayed away from the sheriff; his mission has been to capture this, whatever it is, the bartender continued.
"He will find nothing - nor the help in tracking such things if he accuses every new face he sees,” Emmanuel replies. The bar was full of men lost in ale and thought while women with no dignity fonder their veil to persuade them.
"Why don't I help you instead, gallant," one of the women from before. "You can call me Salina." Salina was a Roma woman. Emmanuel had heard of them during his sail to Fawn. Romas travel to places where men lust. Their slutty ways fool men into bed to take their deeds and notes. Our boy Emmanuel, troubled, must have the scent of attention as Salina dances with her hands, rubbing his legs and groin while he sits on the barstool.” I am sure there is a beast inside of you that I could ...anger," she says, pulling vigorously on Emmanuel's trousers. "I won't tell the sheriff-" whispering in his ears, "if you let … me … bite-". Emmanuel leaps from the stool only to lose his balance, now kneeling! With his body tired and weak, stomach warmed with rum, Emmanuel falls onto the bar ground.
'Emano!' a voice call to someone. Emmanuel wakes up to the smell of Majadito, a dish of rice and meat. When he got out of bed, he was under the yellow sheets and pillows covered with white linen. The sound of music crowds his mind. Crawling towards the edge of the bed, he smells a familiar thing. It was Arepa de huevos! Our boy Emmanuel Antonio is a man with great taste in food! They were fried dough filled with eggs. A tall shadowy figure leaned over him like a hungry Emmanuel near the end of the sheets.
"Papa!" a young girl says leaping onto Emmanuel.
With a laugh, Emmanuel replied, "Elis! What are you doing sneaking up on me?” Elis had brownish red hair with brown eyes. She was beautiful and joyful in every way. They say a daughter makes a man into a father who sees the world through her eyes rather than his own. A daughter tutors a father about love. Elis always woke Emmanuel up like this by climbing on him.
"Papa! My birthday!" she was nine and would turn ten this Sunday.
"Patience, Elis…you have a couple more days before your day, do not rush to be older.
"Emano!" there it was again, the voice that had called onto Emmanuel from before. His heart ached whenever he heard it, but his eyes could not seek out the sound source. Emmanuel picks up Elis, resting her on his left forearm. They toured around the room, finding the door. There were pictures of people hung and framed across the wall and side table in the hall. Turning a corner, Emmanuel and Elis saw the front door; it was open. They could feel the sun, but a cool breeze hit them, like when Emmanuel gave Elis a horse ride. They both head towards the front door, then suddenly he heard the voice again say, "Emano?" The voice, now direct, traveled from his right ear through his left. With Elis still in his arms, Emmanuel became weak. A prolonged feeling ran down his spine. He could feel her fingers run down his back every time she called to him. His stomach begged while his eyes melted. To us, he had turned his body so quickly to see, but to him, the time had stopped to its lowest point so that he could see to every perfection of her face.
"Mami,” Elis ran towards her, ready to eat. Her name was Bellalina, and for our troubled-minded, love-stoned friend Emmanuel Antonio, he could not articulate his love for her. I will try it for him. She was gorgeous.
She had the darkest shade of brown hair, as brown as trees towering in the sky when the morning sun shone on it. Her skin was as smooth as an earthen stone. It made her tough and strong inside. Her long neck was like a dune that sloped to perfection between the desert sky above and the calm ground below. When Emmanuel was a lad, he dived into rocky waters to save her fishing net and lure. The pain given to him by cuts and burses that day was never more painful than the love stabbed in his chest for her. But she was no damsel (and Emmanuel was no great savior in agony all day trying to pretend he was gallant).
"Emmanuel, are you alright?" Bellalina wondered. "You look lost, my love…". Emmanuel did seem lost in his own home, one that he built himself. It was a one-story log house made by a method called tink where one pushes moss and fur between the piles of logs. Emmanuel had once worked for the Euros on their "discovered" land, clearing earth and wood. The three of them all sat around the table. They prayed and ate; they drank and sang. Elis always ate her dessert on Emmanuel’s lap. Bellalina was a woman of wonder; she had the voice of choir birds. Every night after dinner, she would sing Elis to sleep. Once Elis fell asleep, Emmanuel and Bellalina would sit outside reminiscing about their youth. Bellalina had a good memory of the past, a gift she got from her father. She was the only girl of eight. Emmanuel was always in awe of her upbringing. When she was younger, people called her BeBe; she hated that name. He would call her by that name to get on her nerves, a big mistake as Emanuel would find himself sleeping on hay and moss.
'Emano..." she said worriedly. "Why did you look so lost today?" Bellalina could always tell when our boy Emmanuel was pondering and wondering, a gift of his mind.
"No... but this morning, I had an awful dream", he replied. "I was in a dark town of gloom and everyone there accused me of -". Before he could finish, Emmanuel Antonio realized something. Bellalina was asleep. He combed her hair with his fingers and smiled. "Nightmares…" he whispered. "Nightmares may come for me, but they will never... for you.", He says as he kisses her and falls asleep.
The following day Emmanuel woke up, but no Elis to greet him. She was playing outside, and Bellalina was chopping wood. Emmanuel went out and turned towards Elis when suddenly he heard a cry, “Emano!” Emanuel Antonio woke up again.
“There it is!” a man screamed.
“I gotcha...Oh, it's only you... foreigner,” It was The Sheriff. 161Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEIcD89gEtJ
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