Found Catalina (Short Story - Completed)

Sinking in a green sea that smelled like freshly cut grass, my eyes distinguished blurred objects and figures; similar to those that you see through a wet window on a rainy day. It seemed to me as if I formed part of a painting made by kids with watercolors.

Was I in Heaven? I wondered. Heaven is really peaceful, but why is everything so blurred? I thought to myself. I heard the laughter of children, wondering if it belonged to angels, so I stood to find out. My head was pounding as if my heart was in my head instead of my chest. The objects and colors started to be less blurred, and then, I realized that I was still on the Earth; surrounded by a field of tall green grass that shined even brighter because of the immense hot sun. The figures surrounding me seemed to move; making me dizzy, but I managed to stand up without falling.

A kid noticed me from the distance and ran towards me; passing through waves of shiny emerald grass. When we were face to face, I knew that he was not older than ten years old. I could not help to stare at his big chocolate, brown eyes, who stared back at me just as intently. He smiled and stretched out his hand.

“Soy Eduardo” he introduced himself in perfectly spoken Spanish; waiting for me to introduce myself as well. That is when I realized that I didn’t have the slightest idea of who I was.

Eduardo with a bit of concern asked me if I was lost; I just nodded, so he took my hand on his and guided me through the never ending waves of tall grass. We had reached the end of the tall fields of grass and were at the golden fields now; the smell of pollen filled my nose. The sun was now setting over the Earth preparing itself to exchange places with the moon; making the golden fields a vivid orange. I passed my hand through the sunflowers; their soft petals tickling my fingers made me giggle. Eduardo turned around and smiled when he asked me if I liked flowers. I had no idea of what to say; I remained quiet.

For the rest of our journey we did not utter a word. Our silence was such that I could hear the voices of the wind. They kept saying the name of Catalina, searching endlessly for an answer. My feet had started to ache; when Eduardo called my attention and pointed to a house that was around six feet away from us. He smiled and ran with me towards the house.

A woman at the door kept whispering the name of Catalina over and over, but when she spotted us she dropped her basket and ran to hug me. I remembered everything then; I started to cry and the woman asked me what was wrong.

“Mama I am back” I said between sobs.

Those were the first words I had said when I found my true self, Catalina.