The Girl Who Lived
"Good morning cariño, did you sleep well?" Camila Noceda asked her daughter Luz Noceda when the 10-year-old girl entered the kitchen. "Si mamá" Luz responded, sitting to eat breakfast.
Camila was a woman in her late 30s, with shoulder-length brown hair in a small ponytail. Luz was very similar to her mother in appearance, but she had shorter, messier hair and always had a smile on her face. However, her most defining physical trait was a strange stain of greenish skin on her forehead, above her right eye, that she covered with her hair.
After breakfast, Camila went to work and Luz to school. The young Noceda, one of the most energetic and chaotic in her class, spent most of her day in silence and drawing. And even though Camila was way quieter and more serious than her daughter, her coworkers could tell that the day had come.
Around 1 PM, Camila and Luz went to have lunch together in a local restaurant, and they spent the whole day together. They went to the mall and the park. After that, they watched a movie together and then took pictures around town. "It's time..." Camila said and Luz nodded.
They bought flowers and went to the cemetery. It was around 5 pm, so most of the visitors were already gone. The two Nocedas walked through the cemetery and greeted some of the people they usually meet there.
"Holapapa," Luz said when they arrived at Mr. Noceda's grave. There stood a small grave with a few pictures: one of him alone, one of his wedding with Camila, and one of right after Luz was born. Mr. Noceda died in his mid-30s, he had short curly brown hair, eyes color of caramel, and a puffy beard. "It's me, Luz..." The girl didn't know what to say, tears started forming in her eyes. "I'll be making 11 in a few hours... I wish you were here. You could go to the movies and the park... maybe the zoo"
Camila switched the flowers from last year with the ones they brought while Luz kept talking. "School is... nice, I think... Everyone thinks I'm a weirdo, but I guess they're not wrong... I've discovered manga and animes a few months ago, they are like Japanese cartoons, but I learned never to say that out loud" The more the girl talked more tears formed and fell from her eyes.
"Mamá is still working in the zoo and the clinic... I wanted a pet but she said I was too young, I'll ask again tomorrow... I... I am..." The tears and sobbings took the place of her words. "It's okay cariño, it's okay" Camila hugged her daughter, tears falling from her eyes "Hola mi amor... there isn't a day that goes by when I don't miss you, but I know you would want us to move on, not to live in eternal grief... but it's hard... so hard... te extraño tanto..." Camila and Luz stayed there crying in silence for almost 30 minutes.
It has been 10 full years since they lost him, Luz was a day from turning 1. It was night when Camila arrived late because of an emergency at her veterinary clinic. By the time she got home, the front door was open and the furniture was thrown everywhere. Camila ran to their bedroom, only to find her husband lying on the floor, dead, and Luz in her cradle, with a strange green stain on her forehead. Right then and there, Camila's world almost fell apart, she was in a motionless state, holding her partner and crying uncontrollably.
Luz's cry woke Camila from her trance - there was still something she needed to protect - she called an ambulance and took them to a hospital. Luz survived with no lasting damage, apart from the stain on her forehead which could not be removed and no doctor could pinpoint the cause. But her husband's death was never explained, there weren't any broken bones, organ damage, or traces of poisoning, it looked like he just dropped dead all of the sudden.
"Goodbye papa, I love you," Luz said. "Well be back next year, but we are always thinking about you" Camila added and the two of them went back home. "Sorry I couldn't say more..." Luz apologized. "You did great, never let these feelings unattended cariño, they can devour all the good and leave only the worse within".
That tragic day 10 years ago made scars on the Noceda family that never truly healed and probably never will, but they held their heads high, walking towards the future. However, there was something none of them could have ever imagined, on the same night her father died, Luz made something no one ever did, something everyone thought was impossible, and because of it, her name was famous all over their secret society as The Girl Who Lived.