Desertshore Ch. 01

Hello. This is based on another original story of mine so it might seem like there's a lot of plot around it, but I consider it to be mainly a love story. Some of the political situations discussed are fictional (and also this is set in the future) but from what I know they're similar problems to what Mexican natives face today.

***I also want to encourage you to donate to this Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, since the pandemic has made it especially difficult for these families to have access to food and other essential items. Links aren't allowed in chapters but I'll have it in my profile.

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1. Garlands

It would have been better to go back to San Jose under any other circumstance, but nothing was stopping me from going before. Only Adriana calling me made me go despite all the shame I'd been associating with that place for years. First the shame of being useless, then the shame of leaving my family.

Believing that I would go there to stay with my parents again, I brought about half of my bedroom with me in the car. I arrived for Saint Joseph's day fest, on March 19th, 2054. The community was named after Virgin Mary's husband, so it was an important event. Some 140 people live in San Jose de la Zorra, but that day there were many more, as it was to be expected. Adriana was walking towards me before I even opened the car door.

"Jorge" I heard her say to her husband, "It's Magdalena!"

"Hey" I said once I'd gone out and was walking towards her.

"Hey, how are you?" she hugged me and with that I was close to being in tears. More out of guilt than anything. But I was relieved I saw them and from what I could see, all the people I was close to were still alive. Jorge looked at me from a distance and waved.

As we walked to where the others were, her granddaughter also walked towards us but stopped some meters away. I had last seen her as a teen, but she was already 20 or so.

"Hi," she said.

"Elena" I said "Do you remember me?"

"I kinda do" she said, I was guessing she was being polite because by the time she was a teen I had become more isolated.

"She's María Magdalena" Adriana told her and pointed towards the South by tilting her head "She was with the Russians from there."

"Are you going to perform?" I asked Elena, since she was wearing a pink and brown dress.

"Uh... Yes. I play the accordion." she said.

I didn't immediately recognize the figure that walked towards us right after she said that.

"Uncle," Elena said "Do you know Magdalena?"

Once he was closer I could tell it was him. Fernando now had longer hair, and even a pierced septum, and it was stretched judging by his thick jewelry. He was as gorgeous as I remembered. His dark eyes were on me and I remembered my not very Catholic feelings towards him.

"You drove here?" he asked.

"Yes." I said.

"Usually one says 'Hi, how are you?'" Adriana told him, and started walking away to where Jorge was calling her. Elena also didn't find it interesting enough to stay with us.

I was silent but he got closer and kissed my cheek.

"You should have asked me to take you." he said "I didn't even know you'd be here."

"It was just a two-hour drive." I said "And I don't feel any safer in a motorbike."

He was still staring at me with his brown eyes.

"I've gotten better with time." I said, and looked away.

"I noticed." he said "You couldn't even speak at all the last few times I saw you."

Although I appreciated his family's politeness, I preferred his direct way of referring to my post-injury issues with normality. I owed him honesty too.

"I could speak." I said "But I knew I sounded weird so I didn't do it. Of course I realized I could only get better by speaking more."

"Well, I'm glad you're doing well now." he said and didn't smile, but still looked into my eyes with not even a bit of the uncomfortable feeling I had when I had to look at someone so directly.

--

The trees were able to cast shade on the roofless structure where food was being handed out. The reunion included other kumeyaay from the Mexican side, some of which I'd seen before but didn't know or remember the names of. The presence of trees was actually a sign of people, they'd been planted for the sake of shade. The rest of that area was only cacti and a few thin trees.

"What's Tijuana been like?" Adriana asked when Fernando and I went there. Marina, Adriana's oldest child (and Elena's mother) was also there.

"Well... at times kinda lonely. But I've been alright."

"Yeah, I guess it gets lonely anywhere even if there's a lot of people around." Marina said "These days I feel we're less and less everyday."

It wasn't necessary to ask her what she meant. A lot of people had been leaving the community from what I'd heard, mostly those who worked in the city or even wanted to work in the US. The difference in wages for rural work was very attractive.

"He's even got a Visa now, too." Adriana said to agree, pointing at Fernando with her gaze.

"It's just a border crossing card, I don't have a working permit and I don't plan to live there at any moment."

Neither Marina nor Adriana seemed to be as certain as him.

"Speaking of which," Marina said to me "Are you going to stay?"

"I was thinking of it. I'm not sure what my parents are gonna say about it." I said.

The three were silent and looked at each other, and a few others around them turned to look for a second but then turned away and pretended to not be listening. Even Elena stopped waving her handheld fan for a second.

"What?" I asked, knowing something bad was coming.

Fernando probably saw in my face that I'd assumed at least one of them had died.

"They went back to Russia months ago." he said "You didn't know that?"

"What?" I was thinking they might have been joking because of how strange it seemed "But they're not even from Russia, they were born here."

"I don't know, baby, that's what they told us." Adriana said "I'm sorry."

I should have been more mad at my parents for not deciding to make sure to tell me, but the rage I felt at the world in general made me just stand up and find a lonesome spot away from the others.

After a few minutes, I heard someone's steps towards me and stopping about a meter away.

"I can't believe they never even told me." I told him.

"I mean... you kind of abandoned them." Fernando said.

I turned around.

"No. Abandoning means you leave someone who needs you and they didn't need me."

"Are you serious? They're your parents, they always needed you."

"Obviously they didn't if they could go away without me." I said "And come on, I had two siblings."

"It doesn't matter, they still lost a child." he whispered strongly as if he wanted to avoid shouting.

"So I had to lose my parents too?"

"What makes you think it was a punishment? Maybe they just didn't feel they could belong in Mexico anymore. And really, Lena, nobody had any idea when you'd be back or whether you'd ever be back."

He was at least right about that last thing.

"What happened to their house then?"

"Nothing." he said "Yet. It's just been there, empty."

The house was about a 20 minute drive from their property, from what I remembered. But it took us 10 minutes to get there in his motorbike.

Indeed, it was empty. The adobe house that once had been the symbol of both my childhood and the end of it.

"There's nothing there." I said, looking at it from the outside with the door open.

"I told you, it's empty."

"But there's nothing there." I repeated "Surely they didn't bring furniture with them on a flight."

"They sold some of it, told us to keep other things."

The whiteness of the walls made it so that the inside was bright even if the Sun was going down. I just went inside and sighed. That was a state I never thought I'd live to see the house in.

"Hey, but... Are you going to stay, then?" he asked.

"Stay where? Surely you don't mean living in this house by myself an hour walk away from your family."

"Just think about it." he said softly "You grew up here, you can't just go back to the city and pretend you didn't."

"I'll think about it, yeah." I said.

I was being honest even though it likely sounded like I just wanted him to leave the subject. Which was also true.

"The septum piercing looks nice on you." I said.

Instead of replying, he placed his palm on my cheek but looked away. I could tell he was thinking of something to say, but there was only silence for a minute. I'd be alright as long as I felt his touch. Both of us got closer to each other until I could feel his septum metal jewelry on my upper lip. The feeling of his lips on mine was a pleasure I never wanted to let go of. I wasn't sure how serious he was about me, but at least I knew he felt desire.

He then started touching the back of my neck with his rough fingers but gentle movements, and moved to my back. When he started kissing my neck, I moaned at the sensation. That made me look around.

"Someone could see us," I said.

"There's no one around." he said, and kissed my lips again.

I kissed him back because I couldn't let go of how good that felt. He kept kissing my neck and then pulled a bit at my dress' neckline to kiss my shoulder. I started unbuttoning the bodice part of the dress so he wouldn't need to pull it, but he finished unbuttoning it and started kissing the space between my breasts. I started feeling that pulsating sensation between my legs, I got on the floor and he followed me and was on top of me, still kissing. I got a hand on my crotch over my clothes. With that, he felt my hand moving and moved the skirt of my dress up and out of the way.

Then he looked into my eyes again, and this time I wasn't uncomfortable with the illusion that he could see through me. In fact, I wanted him to see how much I wanted him.

"Please touch me." I said, but kept my legs pressed together in the hopes he would spread them apart with his hands. He rubbed my pussy lips through my panties.

"You'd really like that, wouldn't you?" he whispered with a commanding tone that almost sounded angry. I wasn't sure what exactly he meant that until he took my panties off and took my knees in his hands to spread my legs apart.

His face was right on my crotch and he grabbed my thighs. I knew I was about to experience something I'd been daydreaming of for a long time: his face that had only gotten more beautiful with time, that close to my pussy.

I wasn't ready for the feeling of his tongue and gasped.

"Oh, God." I said as he kept licking and touched my clit with his tongue.

I spread my legs further apart so that I could feel his tongue all over.

"Please" I kept going, partly guessing the words would encourage him and partly because it just seemed natural to say things "I want you."

After that I felt his finger rubbing my clit as he kept licking. For a few intense seconds he made me feel the way I always wanted him to make me feel when I masturbated in bed at night, and sometimes I got on all fours or lifted my legs to pretend it was him doing it.

When I moaned loudly and then started to squirm away from his face, he smiled.

"Lena... suck mine?"