𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐞𝐬 // 𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨 [HIATUS]

𝟏.

"All I know is pouring rain and everything has changed." —

PEPA MADRIGAL:

Mum was being an asshole. Again. And so I left.

She always does this. She corners me somewhere when I'm busy, and starts telling me about all the things that I do wrong. Why can't you be more like Julieta? She asks. "WELL GEE MUM, I DON'T KNOW, MAYBE BECAUSE I'M NOT HER!" I think every time.

Julieta this, Julieta that, it's not a secret that she is the favorite out of us three. Bruno... well he tries his best, but his prophecies aren't something people want to hear normally. And me, how am I supposed to help or be of service to the community if I can't even stop my own storms?

Let's face it, my gift is not useful. At all. I wish I could freaking heal people by cooking a stew, or a bunch of arepas. I'd even take Bruno's gift, so people would leave me alone. But weather control... It's tricky.

People ask me to rain on their flowers, to shine on their houses when it's cold. But I've had this power for 16 years now, and I still don't know how to make it rain when I want. I don't think I'll ever know, so they better get used to it.

To calm down, I went to the fields on the other side of the village. No one is ever around, and I can just walk around until I relax. That way I don't flood the houses on my way back. So I walked around for a little bit, and then got tired and sat down on a big rock at the side of the road.

Suddenly, I felt someone tap my shoulder. Lightning struck right next to me. I saw someone jump to the side. "Wow, okay." A man said while holding his hands up in the air. "Hi, excuse me miss. Could you please, uhm maybe, if it's not a lot of trouble... stop raining in my field?"

I looked up to see a big, handsome guy standing over me. And I lost it. "Don't you think I tried?" I screamed. "Okay, let's approach this some other way," He said. "Think about clear skies and Uhm, little birds. Everybody likes little birds. Think of them; they might calm you down."

I rolled my eyes. As if I hadn't attempted that before. But this poor man's harvest was about to go to waste, so I tried again. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. Surprisingly, it worked. I opened my eyes, and I couldn't quite believe it. Just like that, the clouds had gone away and the sun shined. I couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, that was great! That's what I'm talking about!" The man celebrated. He seemed genuinely happy for me. Or for his fields, one of those. I couldn't help but laugh. He had a cute smile. "You are Pepa Madrigal, right?" He asked.

"Oh, yes. How did you know?" I asked. "Well miss, there is not a lot of people around here that can change the weather." "Oh, sure. Silly." I said. We were kind of well known in the village. "And you are..." I asked. "You can call me Felix. I'm the proud owner of these fields. Well, actually I'm not, my father is. But this year is the first year that he put me in charge of a couple of them, that's why I asked you to stop raining." 

My cheeks turned red. "Oh yes, Uhm, sorry about that. I didn't mean to kill your harvest." I apologized. It was always embarrassing to ruin someone else's land with my outbursts. "Oh yeah, don't worry about it, they are tougher than they look." He told me, signaling to the little green plants. "Also, I love the rain. It's really cool."

I smiled, but then I realized that the sun was going down. "Shit, it's getting really late. I should run, or casita won't let me in." I said. "Yeah, I should probably head back too. It was nice to meet you, Pepa."

"You too, Felix." I said. As I walked away, I couldn't help but smile. I had controlled my gift for the first time in a long time.