a piece of fiction on my birthday 🙂
It’s morning, an early South Carolina low country morning.
A cool breeze is blowing off the ocean.
Dew drops are sparkling in the grass at my bare feet.
It’s the dawn of a new day.
It’s the beginning of a new year in my life.
Today is my birthday.
I was born ten years ago on a Friday the 13th.
“Your birth changed Friday the 13th from an unlucky day to the luckiest day ever, Little Salt,” says my abuelo every year. “You’re a lucky rabbit’s foot for the world.”
He always smiles like the sun as he says it, and that makes my heart feel like the sun, all warm and bright.
Two maple saplings are in front of me, one to my right and one to my left, at the end of the dirt path that leads to the hollowed out school bus where we sleep.
My abuelo planted them for my birthday.
“Little Salt,” he whispered early this morning before he headed out to the fields and orchards before dawn, “I planted two trees for you.
I planted two so they will never be alone.
Every year, they’ll take in sunshine and rain.
They’ll grow tall and broad and strong.
Every year they’ll face hurricane winds that might break them apart in the ground.
I planted them so they can give tired campesinos a place to sit down and rest when they’re hot and tired from a long day in the peach orchards and tomato fields.
I planted them so they can give niños a place to climb and laugh and swing.
I planted them so they can give birds a place to perch and sing for the people.
I planted them for you.
When you look at them, remember.
You are loved.
Love in return.
It’s the best gift I can give you for your cumpleaños.
And that’s the best gift you can give to the world.
Love.
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