Leña – Lost amongst the Llanos
Estraviados en los llanos de las Brisas
It was a mission we had been sent to accomplish – it felt as if we were in one of James Bond's episodes...there was no turning back. We needed to go fetch some wood for the woodburning stoves, dinner was pending for our arrival. I was the oldest of all kids who were on the mission. Along were Tony, Juan, Roberto, Marixa, and Sandra.
This particular day it seemed as the sun was disapearing at high speed. We tried to keep up and hurry with our “chore” before the sun hid its face from us and leave us in total darkness and at the mercy of the Llanos. It was said that there lurks many mysterious beings and spirits around the llanos that only come out when the protective rays of the sun leaves those vulnerable souls to make it on their own. With this in mind, we had to hurry and gather as much firewood and head home.
We had ventured a little further than we had anticipated, as we could not find a single log where we had originally decided to go. Therefore, we continued to go futher into the Llanos and followed a path. We had no machetes with us, or anything that could protect us should we face the creatures of the night. We had also heard that if we are caught by the night in such circumstances, that we should stay away from the paths, as spirits travel the paths in search of their victims, with this in mind, we knew we had to pick up the pace as we had no light with us.
The sun kept sinking faster behind the dirt roads and past the tiguilote trees, casting eerie shawdows behind us. We continued; we knew we could not return the same way we had come through as darkness was after us. We kept going further and further into the llano, until our youngest traveler lost it in fear and began to quietly cry. We stopped and comforted each other, I knew not to show my fear although in me, I was devastated and was terrified of the thought – “we were lost.” No one dared to ask, as it was obvious, so we kept walking straight, skewing some rocks, up small hills and past the scary shadowy trees, staying in the clearings as much as we could. The firewood we had managed to collect did not become important any more, however, we dared not toss it as it was the only “weapon” to our existence. It was evident that no one wanted to say anything and no one wanted to cry at loud as to not attract attention to the spirits...we had heard to never show fear when in such situations.
We were told to say prayers should we ever be in such situation, this came in handy, we prayed, quietly, but in unision and we marched on forward. It seemed as there was no end to the torture of being in a desolate land with such mysterious thoughts evading our minds. We grabed rocks and had them ready to fire, should we have to defend ourselves, and kept our eyes fixed straight ahead. And there, before us lay a road…a road that once we had heard to never enter alone much less in a night situation. We had heard of la Bruja (witch) who mourns the loss of her son and walks non-stop and sometimes confuses kids and kidnaps them believing that one of us could be her kids. With that in the back of my head, I slowly entered the road, followed by my siblings and cousins. I prayed, passionately, and desperately to be sure of picking the right direction of where to go… I knew we had cut across through the back side of our “village,” therefore; we needed to make a triangle form and walk back almost diagnoly towards home. By this point we had not realized we had been lost for almost 3 hours and that our grandmother, papa Chico and Victor were worried sick about us. We walked and hurried our pace as it was our only hope…there was no moon in sight, no stars to lighten our path, however, somehow the red dirt road seemed to be so clear. We had selected the direction to walk correctly, and we were on our way home.
It was then by ten at night that we managed to get home and after seeing our faces in the light, it was evident that all of us had suffered the near death experience of being frightened. Our faces were sweaty, covered with some tear marks on a dusty face. Such was the fear that we had lost our appetite…
This mental picture I will never forget, it is embedded in the back of my mind and when I am feeling a bit scared or down, I remind myself that that night could’ve been worse. That night I lost whatever fear I had of the darkness. I lost fear and gained strength. It was my only way to pull my younger siblings and cousins out of this horrific situaion that I had unconciously taken everyone into. Voluntarily we had made that trip to complete one of the chores, yet turned into one of the most difficult experiences of mind clinching and wicked fear to conquer…to survive and use our instincts of guidance, support, and faith…
Again, as kids we believed just about any stories our gullible minds could fathom. In Latin American Cultures, we believe in witches, spirits lurking the land of the walking man, and that there exists the possibility of the supernatural can take advantage of such vulnerable little souls and minds.
*Llano - is a type of desolate land where lots of people pick fire wood, go hunting, etc...there are different types of trees that grow there, however, mostly torny, bushy trees.
written: sometime September 12th, 2010
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