Mexico ~ Magic ~ Melons

I've been in quarantine. I returned from my magical trip to Melaque, went to work last Monday and (the magic continues) the company sent me home (anyone having been in Mexico the previous 7 days, was to work from home for 10 days).  Quarantine become deep Spring cleaning - getting ready for company. And I've just returned from a 3 day women's writing retreat. My feet are still not on the ground ... so much magic. 

First day of magic at La Paloma, I was invited to join Pam and Constance on their sun deck - they were painting already. I've never done a watercolor in my life - unless you count those kids things (I don't). I settled into my chair, margarita in my hand. Pam (another so-called student, so-called because she should be teaching) gently brings me a wooden lap tray, with a sheet of really outrageously expensive watercolor paper, a round tipped paintbrush, and a few paints. "Join us," she says. "Mix some paint and just do something." My surprised eyes, as big as saucers with internal trepidation, landed on the gate to the beach. 

Later that week, after Jerry's beginning exercises and some shared tips from Pam and Constance, I painted something I like. We wrote first, choosing our own three words at random, the fourth word we were all to incorporate in our story:     Watermelon. 

My three words:  begging, smack, glass.  

My story:

For the three thousandth time, Mama served the beans and rice. "Ugh! I can't take it," Tita screamed at her Mama. "This is all we've had to eat for three years. And now, not even water to drink! I'm begging you..."  She smacked her empty glass down on the table. "I want WATERMELON!" she cried, as she ran away.

Lesson:  Write a Magical Realism, Mexico type of Tale. 

She'd vanished twenty years ago. He looked everywhere for her and the clues to her whereabouts led him from Sacramento, CA to Melaque, MX where he met three local witches who told him they knew where she was. He was overjoyed. They led him to the bay, through the alleys and down the cobbled streets lined with palms, past the bank, and the tall tower.

One of the witches (the youngest and prettiest) took his hand and led him down the beach, past the empty, hollow of an old hotel long ago lost to a hurricane. The second witch told him she was visiting Mami Wata, the local mermaid goddess, in her home under the sea and was expected back on the beach very soon. He believed her, as her words rang true in his soul (and she was a dark beauty ~ he'd always gotten into trouble with dark beauties).

The third witch, an older redheaded woman and quite trustworthy in his estimation, said, "Now you must wait, but it is so very hot! Let us bury you up to your face in the cool sand while you wait." He was sweating profusely, and he agreed. They dug deeply and laid him in the the hole carefully, covering him gently to his chin, letting his large mustache show clearly above the sand. The dark beauty offered him a cool drink through a straw which put him into a deep slumber. While he slept, while he waited, the sand washed up with the tides and covered his face.

When one walks the beach early in the morning while the tide is out, he can be seen waiting for her to return.

Comments

[Ellen Nicholas]

I am looking again at your first watercolor painting - the Watermelon. Would u consider making a few prints of it, so I can have it? It's really quite something, and its a small miracle
that you've never painted before, in this lifetime!