from Trevor’s window - a novel in progress

One thing you need to know about Hilcias is that he has small ears. 

Well, they arevless than small. 

They are minute. 

He used to be self conscious about them. 

When he stepped into a classroom for the first time his glasses slipped off one of those ears and hung crooked across his face. 

His ears weren't big enough to hold his glasses.

"We come from a family with little ears but big hearts," said his abuelo one day as Hilcias was moping down a row of tomatoes, thinking about his classmate’s laughter. "Good thing you don't talk. You can use your brain for listening. Your ears sure won't help you out much."

As he grew older and fell in love with whales, though, he discovered that blue whales, the biggest animals to have ever lived on earth, have ears the size of the point of a pencil. 

"The blue whales know how I feel," he thought. 

And that made him feel better.

Another thing you need to know about Hilcias is that he has a big heart. 

Really. 

Literally.

One day he fell at the end of a long row of tomatoes and hurt his ribs on the corner of a big rock. 

His mamí and abuelo took him to see Dr. Maria at the Free Medical Clinic in the evening at the end of the workday. 

His Abuelo put a giant, calloused hand on his chest to monitor his breathing and help him keep still. 

He took quick, shallow breaths because his whole body hurt if he breathed deeply and slowly.

“Wow!” Dr. Maria exclaimed as they looked at the x-ray with her. “His ribs are just bruised, but, my goodness, look at the size of his heart! I’ve never seen a heart so big in a child so small.”

An echocardiogram confirmed it. 

“It’s rare in children,” explained Dr. Maria, “But his heart is enlarged because his heart muscle isn’t squeezing as well as it should and his heart is growing bigger to compensate. 

The good news is we can treat him so he can lead a nearly normal life. 

The bad news is he’ll have to use his heart for something other than professional soccer.”

Later that night, when his abuelo was reading a book to him before he fell asleep, he said, “I want you to have a broad mind and a big heart, mi niñocita, and it seems nature is helping my hopes come true.” 

Then his abuelo kissed him on the forehead. 

“Te amo, Hilcias. Te amo.”

As Hilcias drifted off to sleep, he was comforted to remember that blue whales have the largest hearts that have ever beaten on Earth, and that they were so big he would be able to walk around in one and go through the swinging doors of it’s ventricles without lowering his head.

“I have a blue whale’s heart,” he thought.

And he did.