A Place Where The Sea Remembers by: Sandra Benitez

It appeared tia Fina had confessed to Chayo-it was her moral obligation to do so, she said-that before Tonito was born, Marta had gone to el brujo and placed a curse on him. Chayo ranted and stormed over the news of this betrayal while Marta begged to be forgiven, explaining that she had gone to Remedios to seek the spell's reversal. For proof it was sucessful, Marta said, wasn't Tonito a hale and hearty boy? But the fact that this was so did not temper Chayo's wrath. "From this day forward, I no longer have a sister," Chayo had pronounced.

Chayo stepped around the table at which she had been standing. "You know you're not welcome here," she said. There was that look on her sister's face that begged forgiveness. Chayo had seen it many times before and was hardened against it. What was done was done and no pleas from Marta would change what had come before.

Chayo bolted torward her son as the current spun him around. It was then that she saw his face. It was not Tonito in the river, but Richard. Richard, her sister's son.
Cande took up the rope and pulled the noose end of it over his head, tightening it under his shoulders. He dropped into the river even before Santos picked up the other end of the rope to steady him.
Chayo was at the river's edge and was ready to plunge in herself when the lime tree groaned. Gracefully, because there is grace even in such things, the lime treee was unhinged. Like a green leafy gate opening, the top of the tree swung away from the riverbank. Richard moved witht he tree, his little mouth opened in a noiseless scream. He lifted one arm toward his aunt and uncle before the river swept him away.