All For One (304 hits)
Category: UberMadness! EntryRating: 0.66 on 3 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Pentameter (View user info) at 2006-12-04 20:02:51 EST
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When Guadalupe Martina Rosa Maria Sanchez-Domingo was born, her mother Lena was clutching a small statue of the Virgin Mary which supposedly wept when Lupe passed through her cervix. Lena believed that this was a sign from Heaven. The doctor and her husband both believed that it was simply something she imagined.
Lupe's brown hair was soft and curly, and her hazel eyes even sparkled in complete darkness. As time wore on, she developed quickly, much to the shock of her family. No one spoke of how rapidly she had advanced, and at fourteen months old, she was more intelligent and well spoken than most adults.
It wasn't unusual for Lena to sit up all night watching her sleep, and her husband Renaldo became so concerned that he sought counsel from their church's priest.
"Father," he said in his low voice, "I think that something's wrong with Lena, and I'm scared for her."
Father Martinez cleared his throat and asked, "Is it because of what she believes?"
"Yes, yes it is, Father."
The priest placed both of his hands on Renaldo's shoulders and said, "Have faith and take joy in God's will."
As Renaldo walked home, he wondered what exactly the priest had meant. Was it true? Could it be that Lena was right all along? Strange things had happened, but he refused to believe that his child could be anything other than his sweet little daughter.
The air was heavy as he made his way down the street. He thought of how his daughter had spoken before she was even a month old, how she had taken her first steps before she was three months old, and how she had begun reading and writing before her first birthday. Those thoughts made him sweat even more than the hot summer air had.
Church bells began to ring, and he was reminded of old movies he used to watch at Christmastime. He remembered how completely infatuated he was with the pretty blondes and the snow covered streets. It was so quiet and still that for a moment, he felt as though he was the only living person on Earth. Renaldo stopped walking and just stood there with his eyes closed, feeling the light breeze across the back of his neck and pretending that it was the snow he had seen in the movies.
Suddenly, a little hand was inside his, and when he opened his eyes and looked down, Lupe was standing there.
"Hi Daddy!" she said.
"Lupe? How did you get here?" he asked.
"The bad men came to the house and Mommy told me to crawl out of the window," she said, "But it's all right, though. I sent them away."
"How did you do that?" he asked.
"I'll show you," Lupe said.
When they arrived at the house, Lena was in the middle of the room, kneeling with a rosary in her hand. All of the furniture was pushed up against the walls, and the house smelled faintly of smoke. Every piece of glass in the room was broken, from the windows to Lena's vases.
"Lena, what happened?" Renaldo asked.
Instead of answering him, she began to cry and shout the names of all the saints in Heaven. Fat tears rolled down her tan cheeks while Lupe and Renaldo stood there in silence.
"I didn't mean to scare Mommy," Lupe said.
Renaldo grabbed her arms and said as calmly as he could, "Lupe, I need you to tell me what happened."
"I told you. The bad men came and I sent them away," she answered.
"But how did you make them go away?" he asked.
Lupe looked down at the ground and said in her squeaky little voice, "I sang to them the way the angels taught me to, but I wasn't supposed to do it. They told me I wasn't supposed to do it in front of other people."
Suddenly, Lena stood up and shouted, "Lupe, go to your room!"
Lupe's eyes filled up with tears, then she ran out of the room and up the stairs. Renaldo turned to Lena and said, "What happened?"
Between deep breaths, Lena said, "If you heard the sound that came out of that child.... It was as though demons were crawling out of her mouth."
"She was just talking about singing...is that what she meant?" he asked.
"I don't know. All I know is that those men that were here meant to kill her, and I know if she didn't do whatever it was that she did, the two of us would have been dead," Lena said.
Little Lupe sat at the top of the staircase, listening to everything her parents were saying, but she wasn't afraid. She knew that the angels were going to take care of her, and that no matter what, she would always be safe. On her tiptoes, she made her way down the stairs and stood between her parents, who lifted her up and kissed her and held her. She felt nothing but love.
She didn't understand why that memory popped into her head right before she was about to be interviewed for a job. That was one of the last times she and her parents were all together. About three weeks after they moved away from their hometown, the men came for her again, but instead of killing her, they killed her mother. Not long after that, he father mysteriously died in a freak accident where he worked.
Out of all the gifts she had been given, none of them involved making money grow on trees, turning things into gold with the power of her touch, or turning the cockroaches in her apartment into Cadillacs.
Since every member of her family, both immediate and extended had given their lives so that she could live, Lupe didn't even have anyone in her life. Every last person had died for her because they believed she was the next Savior, the next Messiah, the next Jesus Christ. And there she sat, waiting to be interviewed for a job that probably wouldn't even put a dent in her massive debt.
How far from grace she had fallen.
The only thing she felt was rage. She felt rage at God for allowing her entire family to die in vain. She felt rage towards her family when they refused to believe that she wasn't so special anymore. But, more than anything, she felt rage at herself for not being able to save any of them.
One day, she just lost her power. Those bad men who were chasing her were demons, and the only thing that could drive them away was the song that the angels taught her. It was June and she was staying with her aunt, and they came. When she opened her mouth to sing, the notes fell flat. The angels were there to protect her, but they came too late to save her aunt, who she watched get flayed alive by the demons' vicious tongues.
"Guadalupe Sanchez-Domingo?"
"Yes?" she answered, waking from her reverie.
"Mr. Answini will see you now."
Lupe smoothed her skirt before she walked into his office. She had been to three interviews that week alone and none of them had panned out for her, so she knew she had to make a good impression.
"Hello, Lupe," the stately gentleman said.
She stretched out her hand and placed it in his. His hand was warm and his touch instantly put her at ease.
"Good afternoon, sir," she said.
"No need to be so formal, dear. Take a seat," he said.
When she looked at him, he seemed so familiar. Throughout the entire interview, she couldn't take her eyes off of him. She stumbled over her words, stuttering and saying things she didn't even mean to say because she was so preoccupied with placing the man in her life.
Before she left, she asked, "Do I know you from somewhere?"
He looked at her and said, "I think you should go home, dear."
Without saying a word, she walked out of his office feeling completely dejected. It was dark and cold, and she did want to go home. Her life had been lonely, full of let downs and promises that were made to her but never kept.
She had watched so many people who she loved die. And their lives were lost in vain, because she was not who they thought she was. Lupe was too weak, too scared to ever embrace the great task of being the Savior of the World. Between tears, she told the angel Gabriel that she was not the one He was seeking, and at that moment, Gabriel took all of her gifts. Except for one.
That was seventeen years ago.
Guadalupe Martina Rosa Maria Sanchez-Domingo returned to her apartment, where she got a bucket of clay and her sculpting knife. She then went to the local park, where she sat on a bench, carved ten birds and placed them on the sidewalk.
When they went to her apartment, they would find nothing but cockroaches and some half eaten food in the refrigerator. When they looked through her drawers, they would be empty. Her name wouldn't appear in her landlord's records. She would be erased from any earthly record that once held her name.
And that was exactly what she wanted.
A small crowd had gathered around her, mostly homeless men and prostitutes. One of the women asked, "What the fuck are you doin', lady?"
Lupe said, "I'm getting ready to go home."
They stared at her in disbelief as they watched her scale the church and stand on top of the highest spire. With her arms outstretched, she called out God's name and took her final leap of faith. Right before she hit the ground, the birds became alive and took wing, carrying Lupe towards the heavens.
"The fuck?" one of the men shouted.
They flew past the Milky Way, past the stars and past a million other planets until they arrived at the Gates of Heaven. It was filled with light and shone as though it were encrusted with trillions of tiny diamonds.
"And who are you?" Peter asked as he emerged from the Gate.
"No one important," she said.
"But Miss, you are of flesh and bone!" he exclaimed.
She snapped her fingers and the birds shattered.
And so did he.
The iconoclast, Lupe, was finally home.
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