De Tierra by C. T. (no david read aloud .txt) 📕

      The people were too busy to notice the ufo which looked like a giant burrito covered with lights far above their heads. They were all too busy except for El Parroco, who had, in fact, prayed for the burrito.

      Pablo Parvulo dare not look up.

      "Gimme your hand Parvulo!"said the dark shadow. The shadow was of a criminal not of the ufo burrito. The ufo had no shadow.

      "Don't give him your hand Pablo," said Maria Parvulo, Pablo's little sister. "Ma said no."

      Pablo reached up his hand into the shadow. Into his hand was pressed a packet of powder. "It is a gift for your madre!" said the dark shadow.

      "I don't want it. Take it back!" said Pablo's madre when Pablo gave her the packet of powder which was drugs.

      "I can't take it back ma! They won't take it back!" said Pablo. The rug upon which Pablo and his mother stood began to turn inside the room until Pablo was facing the cross his mother had long ago hung on the wall. Blood dripped from the cross onto the wall and floor.

      "Where is Maria?" asked Pablo's madre.

      "Maria?" asked Pablo. "Maria is gone." Pablo ran from the house into the street. The dark shadow had taken Maria where it had filled the windows of a car.

      "Help us," prayed El Parroco.

      "Did your mother like the gift?" asked the dark shadow at Pablo's heels as he ran down the street toward the church. The dark shadow grabbed Pablo and put him in a jail cell where he found his sister and the priest. "In time you will learn to do as I do. The most unhappy boys make the best criminals!" said the dark shadow which spit corpse flies through the bars of the cell with every word.

      "God Help us!" prayed El Parroco.

      Then the dark shadow recoiled into the corner where the corpse flies settled on suitcases of dollars. The dark shadow began to count the dollars at a table until it slumped over. Then it quivered and shook as it snored and slept.

      "God help us," prayed El Parroco who was in the jail cell with Pablo.

      "What's up, Parroco?" asked Pablo.

      "They want me to bless their ammo. I won't," said El Parroco. "Mary cannot walk to Bethlehem. That is why they are killing all the donkeys."

      "I will kill you both soon for what you are saying," said another young man in the jail cell. "Soon I will be paid well!!" This young man was wearing sandals and his toenails glowed like ten digital screens of flickering flames. His finger nails glowed also.

      "The cross was bleeding in my mother's home," said Pablo.

      "White man's cross!" said the young fellow with the burning toes.

      "My mothers cross," said Maria.

     "Listen!" said El Parroco. The dark shadow continued to snore but outside the jail walls could be heard the sound of a rattle.

“It's Johnny Aztec,” said Maria.

     Even while the dark shadow slept, the jail was filled with feathers, shells, and fur, human arms and legs and a human painted face.

     "What's up, Johnny?" asked Pablo.

      "I want to cut out your heart and put it on a stone platter!" said Johnny Aztec, smiling.

“You should not dare to touch me,” said the man with the flaming toes.

“I will have your heart!” insisted Johnny Aztec. “For the sun! For the moon! For the rain! For the wind! For the stars! For the gods of the pyramids!”

“My heart belongs to Jesus,” said El Parroco.

“Then you have no heart?” asked Johnny Aztec, puzzled.

“My brother and I have given our ankles to the sun, moon, rain, wind, and stars and the pyramid gods,” said Maria.

“Good,” said Johnny Aztec.

     “You must get us out of this jail cell," said El Parroco.

     "True," said Johnny Aztec who pulled the keys from the sleeping dark shadow.  When Johnny Aztec opened the jail cell door, he fell upon the young man with the flaming toes. And he began to do the deed...separate the ribs, and remove the beating organ.

      "Come with me," said El Parroco pulling Pablo and Maria by the arms out of the jail cell. Together they ran from the dark shadow's jail. The dark shadow had just awoke and begun to engage in an epic battle with Johnny Aztec. Mario Maya came quickly, rolling down the street , to join the fight against the dark shadow. His jade teeth were glinting inside his smile.

El Parroco, Pablo, and Maria ran to the edge of town. "There!" said El Parroco pointing at the giant ufo burrito with lights in the sky. The desert below the ufo was covered with thousands of little donkeys. "Praise GOD! Mary will ride to Bethlehem!" exclaimed El Parroco.

     Inside the giant burrito the captain was drinking seven blossom tea and writing in the captain's log, "dark shadows of temporary eclipse". The stone cutters and carvers on board the giant burrito quickly worked to inspire history, humanity, hope, hospitality, humility, and health. They let their work fall to the earth below.

Copyright C.T.2014

Publication Date: 10-27-2018

All Rights Reserved