Sweet Disposition

Chapter 1

 

MUNDANE. The very word appropriate to describe the existence of the girl who'd just celebrated the sixteenth summer of her life two weeks before. Two long weeks and it had all been the same. From where she let her time pass, her eyes darted lazily at a far place. Her mind was wandering and she was more than dead that time. What does it feel to be alive? Victoria sighed as she stood up from the chair in their hut overlooking the famous salt flats of Bolivia, Salar de Uyuni. It was a very long day for her. Watching over the llamas, looking for thola, which was burned as a fuel, and answering her forever lousy algebra assignments. 4,086 square miles of salt, brine and lithium, llamas, fuel, x and y’s, mixed with absolute desolation, made Victoria feel like shit.

The place used to be good. Well, until the original owners died and was replaced with cruel ones. She worked there for a living—to sustain her needs, not her family. She used to go there to get some money for her schooling. Her mother would always shake her head toward Victoria. Mrs. Royce wasn’t in favor of her daughter working. She was used to girls staying at home, knitting or cooking or baking, and not feeding llamas, looking for grass, and stressing over some Math problems that wouldn’t feed them when they were hungry.

She picked her things up and prepared to go home. “Come on, Alejandro, let’s go home,” she said and patted her friend at its back. Saying that Alejandro was a friend might be a little bit wrong. Alejandro was Victoria’s confidante, only friend, her favorite amongst all, and her guardian. Since Victoria moved to Bolivia, she had no friends except for Alejandro and the other llamas.

“I will take you home, Alejandro, okay?” she whispered. “Don’t tell it to your friends. They might get jealous.” She giggled, and let Alejandro walk out of the cage none of her other ‘friends’ seemed to notice.

“Ungaa,” Alejandro uttered in response, his eyes filled with enthusiasm upon seeing the faint light by the east. Victoria didn’t seem to bother and started to carry him home.

They walked toward north. Half way there, Victoria felt the crisp air touch her skin. It stung whenever the Bolivian wind caressed her skin. “I forgot my coat at home, Alejandro. Mom will be furious when she sees me having a cold again,” she mumbled with hints of her English accent. She rubbed her palms and walked again slowly, feeling faint.

They were near the rural areas when Alejandro was startled by the light coming from the salt flats. “What is it, dear?” she said, half mocking her mother when she would ask Victoria how she felt. The donkey kept on pacing the east, dragging her. Victoria tried her best to calm Alejandro down but the llama acted as though her presence was the least that mattered at that moment.

“Let’s go there, then,” she said, giving up. Alejandro seemed to be happy upon hearing Victoria as if he understood what she had said.

The faint light intrigued Victoria. She tried to call toward the light, trying to startle whoever was starting the light across the salt flats.

Victoria was sure about two things. First, she was getting into trouble because of staying outside after five in the afternoon and because of going near the salt flats again. Second, there was an urge inside of her that wanted to go there so badly as if she were intoxicated by the light that radiated from afar.

Without thinking, she was near, almost five meters away from that thing that emitted the light. She was sure she wasn’t that much of a daredevil but she felt her hormones tell her to go to the east.

Taking steps toward the object, she started closing her eyes, summoning to ‘God'. Her mom believed in God. She said that He was omniscient, loving, and will answer her prayers. “Maybe it’s the time to address this God,” she whispered while trembling in fear. She didn't know what to pray for. Was it for her safety or was it for her mother’s endless nags after?