from fragments of Hilcias’ and Taki’s notebook
Hilcias had small ears.
Well, they were less than small.
They were minute.
He was self conscious about them.
When he stepped into a kindergarten classroom for the first time, his glasses slipped off one of those minute ears and hung all crooked across his face.
His ears weren't big enough to hold 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.
“You can use your heart for listening.
Your ears won't help you much.”
As he grew older and fell in love with whales, though, he discovered that blue whales, which are the biggest animals to have ever lived on earth, have ears the size of the point of a pencil, but can hear other blue whales all the way across the ocean.
"The blue whales know how I feel," he thought.
And that made him feel better.
Hilcias really did have a big heart.
Literally.
One day, when he was a toddler, he fell at the end of a row of tomatoes and bruised his ribs on a jagged rock.
His abuelo and mamí took him to the Barrier Island Free Medical Clinic in Johns Island.
His abuelo wrapped his arms around him and placed his giant calloused hand on his chest to keep him still.
He took quick, shallow breaths because if he breathed slowly and deeply his whole body hurt.
When they looked at the x-ray, the doctor exclaimed, "His ribs are bruised but, mio Dios, 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,” said the doctor, "But his heart is enlarged because the muscle isn't squeezing well and his heart grew bigger to compensate.
The good news is, we can fix it.
The bad news is, he won’t be able to play soccer in the Oremier League.
He'll just have to use his heart in different ways than other people."
Later, at Hilcias’ bedside, with a book in those calloused hands, the old abuelo said, "I want you to have listening ears and a big heart, mi nieto, and it seems like nature is helping my hopes come true.
Don't you worry.
There’s nothing wrong with you.
I'll always love you just the way you are.
You’re perfect for the world.
You’re perfect to me.”
His abuelo kissed him lightly on the forehead.
It comforted him again when he learned that a blue whale has the largest heart on earth.
It's as big as a Volkswagen Beetle.
"I have a heart like a blue whale," he thought.
And he did.
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