The Enchantment of Shattered Illusions - Chapter 3

Tepi sat on Churro as the small group walked away from the bustling energy of the town square. Zalli pulled his reins gently, guiding him home even though he knew the route so well he could get there himself. She just wanted to hold on to something for comfort.

The load was light, only carrying the deconstructed flower stands, wrapping paper, leftover garnishes, and the cashier box.

A small sigh escaped from the older sister. She was figuring out about how they would need to sell fewer flowers to save up for the big order that would arrive within the next week.

The Mid-Summer Festival was fast approaching, and the council will soon ask for a bulk order of roses to decorate the market square and adjacent buildings. Zalli wasn’t sure if they could fulfill the usual amount they usually requested. She wasn’t the only flower vendor they reached out to, but she perceived she would feel embarrassed about the small supply she would be contributing.

A small snore came from her right side, and she looked up to discover her little sister was leaning on Churro, fast asleep.

Chuckling softly, she was content to find Tepi finally resting somehow. Even though she intended to have a conversation with her on the way home, she preferred her little sister to take a nap while her body would let her.

Zalli’s emotional levels had subdued since the incident from earlier, so she figured she should speak to Tepi now, before any leftover inner turmoil might turn into resentment. It looked like that would not be happening now.

Perhaps another time. As the idea occurred to her, she peered at Tepi again and observed how peacefully she slept. She softly caressed her light pink hair as it fell to cover her face. Her little sister always had her hair free, never up in a ponytail or in braids, as Zalli made a habit of doing.

A masculine voice could be heard from a distance, which made the farmer tense up in alarm. It was unrecognizable at first, but once she turned around to see who it was, a breath of relief left her body.

“Zalli, oye Zalli!”

Jogging towards the group was her childhood friend, Necalli. As he moved to yell out something else, she let go of Churro and outstretched both of her hands forward, commanding him to freeze everything that he was doing. In a dramatic rush, she had also brought her head down and bent her body over a little to emphasize the seriousness of her non-negotiable request.

Peeking from underneath her thin curtain of escaped hair, Zalli saw he had completely frozen in his spot with a confused expression. Satisfied she could prevent a disaster, she ran over to meet Necalli in his spot, which was only a few paces away from the cart.

“What’s happ—?”

His sound level was still a little too loud for her liking, so before he could finish his question, she moved her hand in a flash to cover his mouth. It was quite impressive considering Necalli stood at 190.5 cm compared to her 166. A ‘¿Qué demonios?’ could be heard muffled under her hand before she could explain the situation.

“Sorry. Tete is sleeping right now, and I don’t want you to wake her up.”

She muttered to her friend before she eased her hand away slowly. Zalli took a step back to allow him to speak, which was now at a much lower level.

“Why didn’t you say anything before?”

“I was going to! But you opened your big mouth before I had a chance.”

Necalli rolled his eyes before he shoved at the farmer’s shoulder playfully. They moved together to walk back to the abandoned cart and attached company.

“Why is Tepi sleeping?”

“She’s been having bad insomnia for the past month. None of my abuela’s remedies are working, and if they do, it’s short-lived.”

They both kept the voices low and hushed as they spoke—not whispering, but considerate enough to make sure it didn’t disturb the resting maiden. Zalli grabbed hold of Churro’s reins again and the group moved toward her home, which was a 20-minute walk from the outskirts of the town.

“Que maldición ... I wonder what’s been keeping her up at night.”

“She says she keeps hearing footsteps going around her bed—”

“How creepy.”

“Yeah. But only when she has her eyes closed. Every time she opens them poof, the noise goes away.”

“So your house is haunted now.”

Zalli softly laughed and pushed her friend away with her elbow in jest.

“Noo. The house is not haunted. Why would a ghost suddenly appear? Aren’t they present at a location before the fact, not after?”

“I don’t know. The paranormal is not my field of expertise. But I can ask Cocoli about it. Maybe she can put together a sleeping tonic for Tepi at least.”

“Cocoli, huh?” Zalli paused in curiosity. Or possibly in nosiness. She was a bit of a chismosa, anyway. “How are you and Cocoli doing? You’ve been going steady for a while now, no?”

His dark green eyes moved away from hers instantaneously and a small blush crept onto his cheeks. Necalli liked to keep his personal life private, but he figured he should at least indulge his friend for at least a little. They have known each other since their first year of school.

In their first week of education, she found him, only a desk partner at the time, crying behind a corner because some boy had broken his favorite toy he had brought for show-and-tell. Since she already knew the boy as the class bully, and had overheard him boasting about breaking the toy that morning, she left Necalli to find him.

When she returned, she had him in tow by his shirt, crying and apologizing to him. He didn’t find out what she did until later from the gossip; she had gone up to the boy without a word and punched him in the chest without warning. Ever since then, Necalli became friends with Zalli out of gratitude, and perhaps a bit out of fear.

“Well, we’re doing great. We’re going together to the festival next weekend.”

“GuuuuAu. Look at you, going to promenade your amor around the plaza, huh?”

He brought his hand on top of her head and ruffled up her hair, making her braid even more unkempt and disheveled. A ‘Watch it!’ came from under her breath, but he ignored it out of mirth.

“I am not showing her off. Just enjoying my time with her. What about you?”

“What do you mean ‘What about me’?”

Zalli’s hands were trying to salvage the mess her friend left behind as she went to smooth out stray hairs and soothe the frizz.

“Don’t you have an amor to take to the festival?”

A blush appeared on her cheeks. The memory of what had occurred earlier in the day returned to her in a flash. She was not considering him as a prospect, but she could not deny that was the closest she got to being intimate with someone as of late.

Before summer had started, there was someone she was seeing. They were only on the speaking stage at the time, and she had thought he could be someone for her to date seriously. But all her focus became directed to her farm once she realized her flowers were in serious trouble.

Now that she reflects upon it, she was supposed to give him a reply to something.

“I think I blew off Axolin.”

“Who did you blow?”

“I didn’t blow anyone!”

Zalli accidentally brought her voice up too high, and she heard Tepi rustle next to her. The small caravan made a dead stop, and the two friends made to peer at the sleeping maiden in panic. Once they realized she slept undisturbed, they continued their stroll down the middle of the road.

“So, when did you blow Axolin?”

Necalli decided to continue his joke, keeping his voice low as before. In retaliation for his teasing, his friend punched him in the arm, signaling to him to finish his jesting. He did it to honor her request, but also because his arm now hurt and he didn’t want to feel any more pain than necessary.

“I was supposed to let Axolin know the next location of our date, but I never got back to him. That was about 3 months ago.”

“No mames, Z. That’s bad.”

“I know, I know. I didn’t even remember about it until just now. I’ve just been so occupied with my work that I forgot,” she dropped her head slightly down in shame. Axolin was a very kind person during their time together and from what she heard from others, describing him. Even if they were to have a relationship, it would not have lasted too long since there were some non-negotiables she noticed he had. Still, she would have liked to at least try, even if it meant incompatibility in the end—at least she could say she gave it a chance. “I should reach out and apologize to him. What I did was rude and maybe even cruel.”

“It was so long ago, though. Why not just leave it as is?”

Noise from a car approached them from behind. It slowed down its pace as the group moved over to make way for it. As the vehicle passed by at a safe pace, the driver waved their arm out the window to say thanks. Zalli and Necalli waved back in acknowledgment as she gave him her response.

“I could. But that’s not right. At least, I shouldn’t do it to Axolin. He’s too sweet for that type of treatment.”

Her friend nodded his head in understanding.

“So then you don’t have anyone to go to the festival with. What was with that blush from earlier, then?”

With eyes opening wide in bashfulness, Zalli had forgotten why the topic of Axolin had come up in the first place.

“Nothing. You just caught me off guard, that’s all.”

“Yeah. Sure.”

Necalli didn’t trust in his friend’s explanation, but he left it be. Instead, he wanted to change the topic as the passing car from earlier reminded him of something.

“Zalli, weren’t you supposed to buy a truck for your family this year?”

She squished her lips into a thin line, feeling annoyed, not at her best friend, but at herself. She felt it to be a shortcoming of hers to not be able to fulfill her goals or her duties as the primary provider of the family.

“Yes.”

She bit out her answer harshly. Zalli was not trying to be bitter, but the reaction was sudden and too fast for her to regulate.

“What happened?”

Though they saw each other frequently, he did not realize the troubles her soil was going through as of late. It was just something she never thought to bring up in conversation. She was always either distracted by other random topics or she thought she was managing fine on her own to not seek him out for support.

Today was apparently the day to tell him, so she caught him up with all the important details. She spoke about all the strategies she has used so far and how a land investor was trying to buy her land from her.

“I am thinking about doing it. Selling to the Yoltzin group.”

Her pace slowed down to process his admission. Of course, they would reach out to surrounding farms, not just hers. A big, realty group like that would want a large piece of land at the end of the day, not just a small chunk.

“They reached out to you too?”

“Yeah. You know, I never wanted to be a bean farmer, anyway. I would rather sell it and buy a home closer to the town. A home I might share with someone and start a family with,” He placed his hands in his pockets as he spoke his inner thoughts to a trusted friend. Some silence passed over before he spoke again. “I’m sorry that your flowers are not doing so well this season. I know you care a lot about the land your mother left you.”

Zalli nodded her head, accepting his sympathy.

“What about your parents—where would they go?”

“With me, of course. But with the amount Yoltzin is giving me, I could buy two houses if I wanted to.”

“What would you do for work?”

Silence came from Necalli as he figured out his reply. He had options he was considering but had not made a concrete decision yet.

“I was thinking about possible woodwork. Something to do with like... building houses or creating furniture. I always did it in my free time, why not make a profit out of it?”

A nod came from his friend in understanding. He was happy to know she was not entirely against his idea. He expected she would argue with him to stay on his parent’s farm. Necalli always judged his friend to be too conservative, too stubborn, and too stuck in the past. He, on the other hand, considered himself to be progressive and forward-thinking.

“Thinking about sharing a home with someone special in mind?”

It was his turn to blush, albeit his cheeks became redder than what Zalli’s was.

“Not-not at the moment. You just have to be prepared for the future, you know?”

“Uh-huh.”

“A man needs to show he can provide.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And my parents! I have to think about them, of course.”

“Mhm.”

Zalli turned to glance at her sister as her friend got a little too excited during his rambling. Noting she was still dead as a hunted beast in her slumber, she continued her stroll until the group had finally made it to the small road that led to her house. Everyone stopped in their tracks, as it was time to say their goodbyes. She brought her arms up to hug Necalli, but his next statement stopped her movements altogether.

“I think you should do it.”

Her arms dropped to her sides with a thud.

“No.”

“Sell your house. Sell your land. Move closer, like how I’m doing. You can create a new business if you want to.”

“I don’t need to sell my land, Necalli.”

Zalli walked away from her cart in an attempt to not disturb Tepi in case her conversation became more heated. The man followed her, hoping to convince his best friend to choose the better option.

“It’s not even a matter of you being able to save your crops or not. Knowing how much they are offering me, the amount must be the same for you.”

“I’m not ... too sure.”

“What do you mean?”

“I haven’t opened the envelope they left me, yet. I was going to throw it out today.”

Necalli grabbed the woman by her shoulders, his grip a little stronger than necessary. He shook her to put some sense into her.

“Don’t be mensa Aurozalli. At least look at what they’re offering you. Consider your options.”

She shrugged him off and turned away to stare at some fields from a nearby neighbor. Zalli spoke to him from over her shoulder, not wanting to look at him as she spoke her inner thoughts.

“This farm. It’s my family's farm. You can’t just sell your roots away.”

“Then you are willing to let your family suffer—because you are too stubborn to understand that roots can be moved and replanted elsewhere. Roots are what you share with your family, not how long you can stay in one spot.”

“I’m not letting my family suffer. A struggle doesn’t mean that everything is lost. The easiest solution is not always the best solution. We don’t even know what the Yoltzin group is going to do with the lands.”

Necalli gently turned her to face him by placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Whatever they are going to do, it’ll be for profit. It will give a rise to our economy.”

“We need to find out what his plans actually are. Of course, his plans will lead to profit, but the issue is: will he share that profit with the community, or keep it all for himself?”

“Him—you mean don Calip?”

“Yeah, him. His group. His associates, whoever.”

“Zalli, I think you are overthinking this. Just ...,” he reached over to grab his friend’s hand, showing her he only has her best interests at heart with a gentle squeeze. “Look at the packet they left you. Don’t assume the worst and get a better idea of the whole situation. You might find their offer to be what your family needs.”

She looked down in thought before she amended to Necalli with a nod. She didn’t think the packet would change her mind, but she would listen to her best friend’s advice out of respect for his concern.

“Thanks for walking us home, Necalli. I’ll see you later on, eh?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you later. Say hi to your abuela and tía for me.”

They gave each other a hug and a kiss on the cheek before Necalli turned to walk in the opposite direction from where they came from. He only lived up the road, so the detour he made to get her home safely wasn’t too far.

Zalli walked to her cart and went to pet Churro, out of comfort. Tepi still had yet to stir from her deep slumber. She was going to feel bad when it came time to wake her to get her down from Churro.

Maybe I’ll just leave her on Churro, and I can cover her with a thin blanket. She can sleep in the shade for now until dinnertime. Thinking her idea was good for now, she walked down the small incline of the road that led her home, alongside Churro and Huizi.