Children at play
Darcy- 4 years old
Loki- 8 years old
Loki knew he wasn't supposed to abandon his mother's side but the man doing magic tricks on the end of the street was playing with fire, something that Loki didn't want to miss and so he ran for the man and the fire and completely ignored his mother's cries of reprimand.
The bigger kids, the ones allowed to be on their own during their annual block party, were already there laughing and clapping. They let him go to the front so he could see and Loki was spelled bound during the rest of the magic tricks, his mother came to drag him back and because the show was over he didn't protest.
His mother was scolding him for running off because it was dangerous, even if all the people they knew were there, when he heard the words printed on his back being said, or more accurately being sang.
Loki stopped walking and his mother knew immediately why, together they made their way towards the music and came upon a radio.
"I'm sorry, is the music bothering you?" There was a group of old people sitting around in a circle, the woman that asked looked nice and Loki shook his head, unable to say anything else.
"Not at all. It's a very nice song, we were wondering what it's called." His mother asked and Loki found her hand and squeezed it tight.
"It's an old lullaby song called a la nanita nana. My granddaughter loves it very much and I sing it to her before bed every night." The same old lady told them kindly, over sharing just like he learned that the grownups like to do.
Loki hesitated for a second before running up to the old lady and shoving up his t-shirt.
"Oh, I see." She told him in the same kind tone and Loki lower his t-shirt, embarrassed at his need to share his mark.
"We didn't know the words were a song." His mother explained as he grabbed her hand in comfort.
"Hey, maybe he could have been your granddaughter's soul mate. You know if it wasn't for the whole…" One of the old man in the circle said, waving his hands around.
Loki frowned because he wasn't sure what that meant.
"George! Please!" Another old lady in the circle said, while the old kind woman waved them both off.
"Please take the tape." The old kind woman told them.
"Oh we couldn't possibly…" His mother told her but Loki was looking at the radio with hope, it would be nice to not have to say the words to himself every night.
"Please my granddaughter has a million tapes lying around the house, it won't be hard for me to get my hands on another one." Loki needed not further encouragement and he took the tape from the radio with shaky hands.
"Thank you, I'm so sorry we didn't introduce ourselves I'm Frigga and this is my son Loki."
"It's nice to meet you, I'm Emilia Lewis. I hope you enjoy the song of your soul mate." Loki nodded his head and his mother thanked the old woman one last time before they left.
That night during bedtime his mother put the song on and for the first time in his young life Loki finally listen to the words on his mark like they were meant to be listen to.
"Darcy, your grandma is here!"
Darcy let out a squeal of delight before running out of her room and down the stairs, her small feet carrying her as fast as they could.
"Abuelita!" The greeting slip from her lips as her grandma picked her up for a hug.
"My beautiful Darcy." Her grandma told her softly and Darcy put her hand on her shoulder, happy to smell the perfume that was part of her grandma.
"You missed dinner, I had chicken nuggets and fries because it's Sunday and daddy said it was okay!" Mommy had said it was stupid to give her junk food but mommy was always mad about something and Darcy really wanted fries.
"That's great sweetie, why don't I put you down to bed and I'll tell you all about this little boy I met today?" Darcy squealed again because she loved her grandma's stories and there was always their song after the stories.
"Do you remember the party I told you I was going to go to?" Her grandma asked her as she tucked her into bed, Darcy nodded and settled into the nest of blankets.
"Well, there was this little boy and he asked me about your lullaby because he has the words on his back." Her grandma patted her hair before giving her head a kiss and Darcy suddenly felt very sleepy.
"He liked the song very, very much so I gave him the tape you recorded specially for me, I hope that's okay." Darcy nodded her head because if her grandma had given the little boy her tape then the boy must have really wanted it and her grandma was just being nice.
"Do you want to sing the song together?" Her grandma kept on touching her head and Darcy started singing with her sleepy voice.
"A la nanita nana, nanita ea, nanita ea,
mi Jesús tiene sueño, bendito sea…"