💜Snippets💜 - Urban Legend (Pt 1)

 Urban Legend (Part 1) 

Mia's POV

"Mia dear," I mimicked my grandma so well, my best friend Tanya was in tears, "try to understand." 

"Understand what abuelita?", I asked innocently, "It is just an urban legend." 

This is where Tanya interrupted me in her North American drawl, "Mia, Mia! Slow down gurl, urban what now? Ingles for a while por favor!"

I looked at her confused expression and replied hastily, "Lo siento Tay, I keep forgetting you don't know certain Spanish dialects." 

My entire family comes from El Salvador and my parents moved to Seattle when I was just a baby. I had a hard time making friends as there were no Spanish families in our neighborhood, and since my Mama and my Papi didn't know much English, they couldn't help me so I struggled in communicating with the others. I was shunned by many at school as I stammered a lot because of this. But, all of that changed when I met Tanya. Tanya has been my best friend from fourth grade and she started taking Spanish classes just so she could communicate with me whenever I got frustrated and reverted back to Spanish. 

Perdoname! I didn't introduce myself. My name is Mia La Reina which literally translates to Mia, the queen. My grandfather chose it for me just before he passed away as he said he saw great things in me, but abuelita says it's just because he liked the way it rolled off his tongue. Either way, it's just a name, and no, I don't come from the royal family.

"Legend", I said again, but this time in English.

"Well, what is it?" Tanya asked curiously.

I gawked at her. "You can't really want to know."

"Of course I do", she replied slyly, "especially if there's treasure involved. We could be rich, you know."

I smirked delightedly. An inside joke that never failed to amuse me. 

"So..." Tanya's voice trailed off, giving me room to speak.

"Oh well, here goes nothing. Close your eyes." I spoke on as Tanya did as she was told, "Long ago, in a tiny village, lived a little boy and a little girl."

"Twins?!?!" Tanya asked excitedly.

"Not quite, but they were extremely similar and shared a lot of traits and ideology. Could have been the same age I guess."

"So twins.", Tanya confirmed.

"Shush Tay, I'm never going to be able to finish if you keep talking like that!"

"Mhm, go on." 

"They were rich kids as their parents worked for a major industry and they would hail a hansom cab every week to their favorite hide-out spot which was known only to them. A recent tale I suppose, yet till date, no one has found the whereabouts of this so-called spot."

Silence filled the air as the sun set against the trees we were facing. Even the birds had gone silent, almost as if they had the intuition of what was to come. I took a deep breath and continued.

"One day, just as they were about to hail a cab, they noticed a change in the sudden atmosphere. The sky quickly blackened and dark, threatening clouds emerged out of nowhere. Since that kind of weather is normal in summer, they didn't think of it very differently. But the girl clung to her brother, as if she sensed foreboding. Their usual ride was from the one and only local driver, but this time, there was a ghostly pale figure behind the steering wheel. Someone who was definitely not the local driver. Even the cab was silvery-grey and it didn't appear to be drawn by any horses. The brother happily hopped into the cab and motioned for his sister to follow. Apprehensive, she climbed in. They were never to be seen again. The end."

"Huh?" Tanya squinted at me as I tried to play it off cool. "You're hiding something."

"No I'm not."

"Spill. Now."

I raised my hands in surrender. "Alright, alright, that's not the ending."

She looked at me smugly and closed her eyes again.

"Well, everyone thought it was the last of them, but the girl came back to her town one day; long after both her parents had died. She looked deranged with tattered clothes, greasy hair and a face that could have been youthful while it was young, but was now tainted with the scars of misery. The only words people ever heard her say were 'el reino maldito' and 'hermano'. It was like she didn't know how to speak, except for those four words. Now, this was no longer the tiny village as she knew it. It was replaced with many, many new buildings and cars and roads and.."

"It was modernized."

"Ah, there's the word I was looking for. Si, it was modernized."

"But wouldn't that mean that it's happening right now? How can it be an urban 'legend' then? Plus, it happened in a 'village'. How is that even close to urban?" 

I nodded reassuringly and said, "I know T, that's what I thought too, but give me a few minutes here."

"Alright Mama, you're da boss." 

I rolled my eyes and smiled, "Oh shut it. Here we go again." 

"Keep rolling them eyes M, maybe you'll find a brain back there."

"Oh Tay, at least we both agree I have one."

We both laughed as the night settled in. I texted my mom telling her I'd be home by dawn and that I was spending the night with Tanya. It took quite a while for us to set up camp and get the fire started. A gentle breeze swept through the trees, swaying them from side to side while dozens of fireflies flitted in and out of the shadows cast by the night.

"Remember the first time we did this together? Fifth grade when our dads took us camping to Alder Lake."

"Not now Mia, you're getting distracted."

"Is it wrong to reminiscence the past?", I grumbled.

Tanya shrugged so I went on.

"The townsfolk were friendly at first, trying to calm her down and take care of her, but how long could it have possibly lasted? She ran around screaming at the sky and crying every time it grew dark, raged at every grey or silver cab that went by, and became violent with any woman with long jet-black hair. The people had had enough. They locked her into a cell in an asylum and took no notice of her from there on. But our story continues."

I hadn't realized that I had closed my eyes while retelling the story my abuelita told me every year. Maybe I did feel a connection, even if it was the tiniest one in the world. 

"Ayyy no es justo," I gasped, "how could you eat S'mores without me???"

"Whoops, I just started shoveling them into my mouth while you reveled in that story of your gram's."

"Well now I'm not saying it anymore."

Tanya snuggled closer to me as I gazed off into the distance, still thinking about the legend.

"Lo siento Mia, you are mi reina. What would I do without you? I was an ignorant 'tonta' and I have offended you. ¡Tener compasión!" 

She pulled a puppy-face on me and I shook my head and chuckled.

"Un poco loca estas, Tay. Nevertheless, I'll continue. I mean, we're gonna pull an all-nighter aren't we."

Tanya didn't really answer me, but I could tell from her expressions that she completely agreed.

The stars dazzled from behind the clouds, much like our story will soon show. 

"For a few days, she raved on about her brother and a cursed kingdom in her tiny cell, as if talking to a being that did not seem to exist. But then, one day out of the blue, she stopped. When the doctors came around to give her a check-up, there was no one to be found. Absolutely no one. This is where different versions of the story come in. 

Some say that the being in the cab was part of a devious plan to destroy humanity altogether and would kidnap kids and drive them insane; whether in the literal or metaphorical sense. They think that the boy killed himself to end the torture while the girl ran away to save herself. But as the damage had already been done, she only survived for a while until the beast claimed her. 

Others like my abuelita, believe that the spirit in the cab arrived for the boy and not for the girl, but since they were extremely close to each other, the brother thought it would be alright for his sister to join him. They believe that the cab and its driver represent death, and that the girl's witness of her brother's death drove her to madness until her time came. Either way, it's just a myth... And let's leave it at that."

Saying so, I turned to Tanya.