“This is a very special, sacred thing. A beautiful transition. It is intense and painful and crazy too, but beautiful and empowering because you are now connected to the cycle of the moon and the cycle of the earth herself. It is your divine right. It’s happening soon, that’s why I want to
show you something very important.”
“This weekend I’m going to give you the first key of what it means to be a woman. And for your information, young lady, it is way more important than a sheep festival that happens every single year.”
“I don’t want to be a stupid woman. I wanna be free,” I said. “And plus, I’m supposed to meet Aya, Violeta, Karen, and…also…um…Omepo is playing the violin (🎻💘💞💖💖💖) with his
band.”
She stirred the pot, adding sea salt and tasting.
“Ohhhh. I see. I remember. Hmmm. I love you sweetheart. I understand what you’re feeling. I once was in the cocoon too like you, long long ago, so I am sorry to have you miss your weekend. I know this means a lot to you, honey, but tomorrow, I don’t know if it will be my last breath. The great universe might have me breathe my last breath at any moment. I am old so I
can’t take any chances. As you know, my dear, I love you very much and as long as I am alive I have some very important seeds to water in you, do you understand?”
“No, I don’t understand and I don’t wanna understand.”
She laughed out loud. She knew I did understand.
It freaks me out to hear Áma talk about her laaaaaast breath. Why does she have to say things like that? She is so dramatic.
Anyway, so fast forward to this weekend. She packed her backpack and I mine and off into the woods we went.
I was starting to get a weird sensation in…not exactly my stomach but more like my private area. I wasn’t altogether sick sick, but I felt off. Tense. Slight stomach pains. And a bloated feeling in my intestines. It was starting to feel terrible.
I was able to hike fine, just these weird sensations kept worrying me because I did not want to get sick in the woods with Áma. Because, with her around, she might make me drink something
disgusting like deer urine or something even worse, like, I could totally see her saying, “Eat this squirrel poop, it will help your nausea.”
Even though I was doing ok, the second night of camping with Áma was THE WORST NIGHT
OF MY LIFE.