Hello all! This is kind of part of a character study type thing I'm doing for Maria, because I want to understand better the relationship she has to her brother and Anita, and later Chino so that the emotions that come across on the stage when all of the horrible things happen in the musical are somewhat real. This will be a series of individual one-shots that focus on Maria's early life in Puerto Rico, and her interactions with her family and Anita and Chino. This first one is her and Bernardo when she is around age seven, meaning Bernardo was around age ten. These were all written rather quickly, so I apologize if they aren't too good. Please leave your reviews!
Bernardo remembered when his Mama came home one day holding a tiny pink bundle in her arms. He had not understood what it was until his Mama explained to him that the little bundle was a person, just like he was. And this little person was special because she was to be his little sister. Then the little bundle began to cry, and so Bernardo began to cry. Even at the age of only three years old, Bernardo hated the sound of that little bundle being sad. Almost every time she cried, so did he.
As they got older, Bernardo did everything in his power to keep the bundle (that had grown into the little girl they now called Maria) happy. He especially loved it when he made her laugh. Her laugh was the most wonderful sound in the whole world. Even just thinking about something making the little girl upset made him fuming with anger. When Maria was still only two years old and Bernardo was five, Maria became deathly ill. And Bernardo would simply sit on the floor and cry, knowing there was nothing he could do to make his poor baby sister happy.
Since then, he vowed he would always do anything to keep her happy. He would stop anything from making her upset or hurting her. He wouldn't let anything harm his precious baby sister no matter what. She was his treasure above anything else.
Maria walked through the doorway of her one room house. The hot summer sun kissed her already dark skin. She ran towards the tree that she had seen her older brother climb.
"Wait for me 'Nardo!" she called up. She tired to grab hold of the lowest branch, but couldn't reach it. "Wait 'Nardo, I am coming!"
"Maria, what are you doing?" Bernardo called down, unseen by Maria due to the many leaves and branches hiding him from her view.
"I am climbing with you!" she jumped as high as her petite body would allow, and she finally wrapped her dainty little hands around a branch.
"No, Maria!" Bernardo cried. "It is not safe!"
"I am coming!" Maria called again, ignoring his scolding. She had now pulled herself up so that she was sitting on the branch she had just grabbed. She carefully stood on top of it, and now she could reach another branch that would take her even higher.
"Maria stop!"
She climbed higher and higher until she saw Bernardo's foot hanging off a branch. She grabbed hold of one final branch and used all of the strength she could muster to pull herself up.
Bernardo watched as his baby sister's head poked out from underneath the leaves and branches. She smiled her toothy grin, despite the missing bottom tooth in the front. "Here I am," she beamed.
"Maria, we are much too high up," Bernardo insisted. "You must climb back down. You will fall."
"I will not!" Maria hoisted herself up so that she was sitting on a branch, facing her big brother. Bernardo groaned and rolled his eyes. "If it is so not safe, why did you climb?"
"Because it is fun," Bernardo said simply.
"Well I wanted to have fun with you," Maria said with a giggle. Bernardo couldn't help but smile at his little sister. "What do we do now that we are at the top?"
"I do not know," Bernardo said. "Not as fun as you though, eh?"
"Oh yes it is!" Maria exclaimed. "I love having fun with you 'Nardo."
Bernardo smiled again. He looked up and saw that higher up in the tree, there were little pink blossoms. "Maria look!" He pointed up. "Flowers!"
"How beautiful!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands together.
"Wait here." Bernardo climbed up and disappeared from sight. Maria craned her neck in an attempt to see what her brother was up to. Suddenly he dropped back down onto his branch with his hands behind his back. "See what I have!" Bernardo took his hands out from behind his back, revealing he was holding a tiny bouquet of pink blossoms. "For you."
"Oh 'Nardo, for me?" Maria cried and she seized the flowers from him. "They are beautiful!" Maria smelled them and her smile grew ever bigger. "I wish I could be a beautiful flower."
"You can!" Bernardo took the flowers from Maria and began arranging them in her dark curls. "See? Now you are a flower. The most beautiful flower in all the world."
Maria beamed brighter than the hot Puerto Rican sun that bore down on them. She suddenly giggled to herself and removed a single flower from her hair. She stretched her arm and placed it on Bernardo's head. "There. Now you are a pretty flower too!" Maria burst into a fit of hysterics, no longer able to contain herself.
In spite of his sister finding amusement in him looking silly, he too was unable to contain his laughter watching her giggle so.
"'Nardo! Maruca!" Papa's voice sounded above their giggles. "Supper is ready!"
"Race you to the house?" Bernardo suggested.
"Si!" Maria then giggled again. "And whoever wins is the most prettiest flower!"
And so, falling into another fit of giggles, Maria began descending to the ground, followed by Bernardo. Both of their bare feet hit the grass at the same time, and they immediately took off running toward their tiny house. Bernardo slowed his running and let Maria get ahead, and when she reached the house just seconds before Bernardo, she clapped her hands joyously.
"I won!" she cried. "I am the prettiest flower!"
"Yes you are!" Bernardo said. He wrapped his arms around his sister's middle and twirled her around, causing her to scream with delight. He set her down, and looked down at her. "You are the most beautiful, the most precious jewel. My precious jewel." He bent down and kissed her forehead, and Maria's tiny face lit up all over again. They then entered the house together for supper, Maria's giggles still persisting.