La Flor de San Juanita

7. The priest and the flower

7. The priest and the flower

Across town stood the pearly belltower of the local church, swooping down to a one floor main hall that was filled every Sunday with the pious and faithful. Among the faithful was the local catholic priest, a bespectacled middle aged man of brown robes and sandals who took the word of the bible to always be god's honest truth. He sought it as his mission to defend his church and protect those who worshipped in it, as many more figures of righteousness should have been all along. After the funeral of Mr Duarte, the priest had taken a stroll out of town to clear his head. The riverside forest grew out into a tropical winding woodland filled with patchy clearings, thin canopies, and a small dirt trail leading through the forest to the nearby hills. 

The priest caught ear of the sound of a woman's voice, but as he drew in closer to the source of the voice, the priest only saw a gap in the woods where a single large purple flower was blooming on a grassy heath. The priest called out, to be greeted by the same voice, emanating from the purple flower. It spoke to him softly, regaling its plight of having been cursed by a woman of pure darkness many years before, doomed to remain as a flower for eternity. The flower than asked a favor of the kindly priest, to see the nearby town and reach the top of the nearby hill. Not having the heart to refuse such a request, the priest stuffed the flower into his large satchel and began his journey through town, making sure not to leave any sights unseen.

 Once the town had been visited, the priest began the trek up the beaten trail to the top of the wooded hill outside San Juanita. One morning, Felipe was washing his face down by the riverside, when he saw the white face of a woman emerge from the water. It was exactly like the one of the being that had attacked his father before his untimely death. Standing up and baring his fists for a fight, Felipe backed off for La Llorona to wade onto the bank. She too had remembered Felipe's face, and instead of attacking the young man, offered a bargain. She would leave the town of San Juanita in peace, for the price of a child sacrificed to her. Felipe refused this offer and stormed out of the conversation, leaving the ghost to plot her revenge against Felipe and the town. It was as if making deals with humans was beginning to lose its lustre.