Julio contest: A dream of carnations

After feeding her cat "Mimí", Mrs. Maria Isabel, a retired nurse, goes to the kitchen to prepare some camomile tea. She runs her hands through her gray hair and sighs. Lately she has been feeling some discomfort in her stomach, she has been living a lonely life since her husband Julian died and her two children Ana and Carmen went to live in another country. Sitting on her kitchen stool she remembers the years gone by, where there was a lot of activity and her children and husband would talk about what had happened to them during the day. She missed their voices and laughter and now the house is silent.

At night while she sleeps, she dreams of Julian. They are in the city and he points out a path where she begins to walk, she tries to follow him and arrives at a field planted with flowers, they are white and red carnations, they are beautiful, but there are many bees flying over her and they begin to sting her, she tries to run away, but she can't move. At that moment she wakes up and sits on the bed, although it is cold, beads of sweat dampen her forehead.

Maria Isabel wakes up when she feels a soft furry body that has climbed on her bed and does not stop meowing Miau miau, miau, Mimí, let me stop, "I know you are hungry, pretty kitty". Mimi is a medium sized cat, seven years old, with her black and brown striped fur and beautiful green eyes that stare. Like every morning Maria Isabel, who is now 65 years old, goes to the kitchen and serves the cat her food.

"Come here, cat eater," she says with affection and prepares to make coffee and toast. Then she dresses and goes shopping and later goes to visit her friend Marlene, who is ill.

On the way she buys the newspapers because she is determined to work again and believes that she can still do it, not in a hospital... but taking care of people in their homes. After making her rounds she arrives home with a bag of bread, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and Mimi's lunch. He sits down at the dining room table and with another cup of coffee starts looking through the classified ads.

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"Let's see, Mimi, what's interesting today. Let's see... look here."

We need a companion to take care of a man who suffers from advanced Alzheimer's, she must have experience in nursing and as a mandatory requirement she must live here. The pay is very good. Call the phone numbers.

"No, this one doesn't work for me, I don't plan to live anywhere else but at home. Let's look for another one."

At that moment Mimi has jumped on the newspaper playing with the moving pages and spilled her coffee on it.

"¡Crazy cat! Look what you did, thank goodness I didn't have much coffee left in my cup." As he approaches to clean the page, it strikes him that the stain is on a notice that reads.

A person is needed to take care of a house in the countryside, it is close to a population center. It has all the services and is very comfortable. It can be cultivated in an adjoining land where carnations are planted. If you are interested, please call the telephone number.

Maria Isabel stared at the advertisement, it seemed to her a coincidence that the carnations were repeated as in the dream. How strange, she thought, and at that moment she remembered what Julian had once told her. My dear wife, when we are old we will go to live in a little house in the country, there we will spend our last days, living happily, growing our food and surrounded by cats and dogs, hahaha as you like it.

At that moment Maria Isabel acted driven by a strange sensation, an inner voice telling her to change, to explore another way of living and immediately called the number of the ad.

And just like in a dream, she went to live in the country. She told her daughters, who told her why she was doing that, that if she had lost her mind, they did not understand her. She closed the house and asked a good friend to open it from time to time and clean it. She took only her memories and of course Mimi with her.

When she arrived at the house, she felt a great emotion, her world had changed completely. There she was, a small woman, but with a lot of energy, who had never worked in the fields, she didn't even have plants in her house and now with a land planted with carnations at her disposal.

The house was small but comfortable, with a corridor where some ferns were hung, with a brightly lit living room and kitchen, with white painted walls. Two bedrooms were furnished with beds and closets and the bathroom was very large with a bathtub, which Maria Isabel loved. Outside there was a small swimming pool with a cement border and surrounded by bushes that kept it hidden. They didn't give her any information about the owners, but she imagined they had been happy in that house.

She began to get used to the place, to get to know the people who lived near it. A family with four children, two boys and two girls between 12 and 7 years old, who seemed very naughty, as she saw them running barefoot through the dirt streets. A young couple, Pablo and his pregnant wife Maria, were farmers, planting potatoes and corn. He was helping her plant corn in the house field. When she finished planting the seeds her hands were all calloused and her back hurt a lot. Pablo told her that if she wanted he could continue doing it, but she refused, she had to learn and she liked it. Every day she went to watch her corn plants grow and to water them when necessary because it was the rainy season. When she saw the first ear of corn, she felt a great emotion. All she could think about was the cachapas and the jojotos cake she was going to make.

She also met the teacher, the doctor and the nurse at the health center. She also met Mr. Joaquin from the bodega and his son Carlos, who were very kind to her.

One day Mimi did not return to the house, they say that cats do not like changes and that they miss their old place. María Isabel was very sad, although she did not lose hope that she would return someday. Her friends advised her to get a dog to keep her company and warn her of any danger, so Motita, a black shepherd puppy, came to the house and the two hit it off very well.

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One afternoon while watering the ferns Motita began to bark very loudly and Maria Isabel heard the screams of the children. As she could she ran towards where the sound was coming from, but as she got closer she heard a loud buzzing sound, they were bees she thought and saw the children running and a huge black cloud behind them. "Run children, I shout, go to the house, get in the pool. The children were desperate and the smallest one fell to the ground. Maria Isabel took off her jacket and covered her with it, while she felt thousands of little needles in her back, as she could she lifted the girl and they both ran to the pool and jumped into it, trying to keep their heads under the water.

It was an agonizing few minutes, waiting to get out and feeling her breathing become more difficult. When they got out, they entered the house and María Isabel looked for the phone to call the firemen, but she knew they would be late, So she put on an allergy medicine and so did the children. Milagros, the youngest, was the most affected.

It has been a few days since that incident and they have all recovered thanks to the help of Maria Isabel, if she had not been there at that time, perhaps the children would have died. She still has some after-effects of the attack because she wakes up screaming at night, but little by little that will pass.

One afternoon while she was harvesting the first ears of corn, she saw a small brown and black figure coming along the dirt road, he was limping on one leg and his face had the marks of scratches and in some places the skin was bare. Maria Isabel walked over to him and carried him in her arms. "Crazy cat, you've kind of been scouting around. I'm so glad you're back" ¡Meow,meow!, was Mimi's response.