Chapter 2 : The Twelfth Night
Inside the mission a nice warmth welcomed Diego and Felipe. The padre and one of the nuns brought them sweet wine and asked the children to make some room around the long table for their visitors.
"Good evening Don Diego," most children timidly greeted him. A few of them also waved at Felipe, knowing that he couldn't hear them.
"Good evening, children. Have you already added the Magi and their camels to the Christmas crib?"
"No Don Diego," a little girl who clearly looked like she was a Mestiza answered. "Not yet."
"We are waiting until after we had the roscón de Reyes," a seven or eight years old green-eyed boy added.
"The one who gets the coin which Señorita Escalante hid in it will take the Reyes to the crib," an older girl explained. "And of course tomorrow he or she will then put the coin in the church's poor box before Mass."
How old was she? Ten? Eleven? She would probably have to soon leave the orphanage in order to work as an indenture servant. The mission wasn't rich enough to provide for too many children, so as soon as they could work they were placed as maids or ranch hands in the families around. Some others, if they could remain a bit longer in the orphanage, finally enlisted in the army around fifteen years old, just like Sergeant Mendoza did according to what Victoria told him earlier that day. Again, Diego realised how lucky he was: although he lost his mother rather young he grew up with his father, and his family had enough money for him not to worry about his own future and material situation.
"Well," the padre said, "Don Diego and Felipe have come to share the King cake with us. Julio, could you please get two plates for them? Filomena, take the knife and cut the cake."
"What if I accidentally find the coin while cutting the roscón?"
"Then you push it further inside the piece of cake," Diego said, "and you turn the plate twice or thrice with your eyes closed in order to forget in which piece it is..."
"Sounds like you have a long experience of cutting the king's cake, Don Diego," the padre told him.
"Indeed I have. Now, who's the youngest here?"
"That would be Jorge," the padre answered, waving at a two years old Indian boy. "But he is obviously too young for distributing the cake. The same goes for Josefina and even for Tomás. What about Ana Rosa?"
"Oh yes, yes!" a little Indian girl enthusiastically approved, clapping her hands in anticipation.
Ana Rosa, probably. How old could she be? Four? Yes, certainly something like that. When the padre nodded Ana Rosa disappeared under the table and Julio put a plate before Diego. Filomena took the first piece of cake and asked aloud, for all to hear:
"Whom is this one for?"
"For the padre!" came the answer from under the table.
Filomena placed the cake in the padre's plate, then she took a second piece and asked further:
"And this one...?"
"For Sister Maricruz!"
The distribution went on. Halfway into it Ana Rosa attributed the next piece of cake to 'the boy who doesn't speak'.
"His name is Felipe," the padre told the girl.
Once the last part of the roscón went to Julio's plate Ana Rosa came out from under the table and they all eagerly sank their teeth in Victoria's delicious orange blossom flavoured pastry. Out of the corner of his eye, though, Diego spotted Felipe look at the side of his serving of cake. Then the boy elbowed the young child on his left side and signed something, pointing at his own plate.
"He's telling you that he finds his piece of cake too big for his modest appetite and offers to swap with your smaller one," Diego translated.
"Do you think it is really smaller? It doesn't look that different to me."
But Felipe insisted that yes, it was smaller, and the child was too tempted by Victoria's wonderful roscón to give up an opportunity to eat a bit more than the average share of it, so he swapped their plates.
Diego looked through the window, expecting to see his father, Mendoza and Victoria appear on the plaza any minute. But there was still no one to be seen there, probably because they chose to give them time enough to share the cake.
"It's me, it's me, I have the coin!" the little boy sitting right beside Felipe suddenly shouted. "Look!"
And he pulled it out of his mouth. So this was what Felipe had been doing with his cake, and why he had swapped it with one of the children's: he had spotted the coin in his piece of roscón and kindly chose to give to his young neighbour the joy of finding it.
Diego smiled fondly: his father did a great job in raising the boy during the four long years he had been gone.
"I am the King!" the child happily said, beaming. A few of the other kids scowled a bit: everyone liked to get the coin, and they would have to wait until next year to try again.
The boy cleaned the coin and put it in his pocket for the night, to be sure to still have it at Mass in the morning.
"The Wise Men, the Wise Men! I will add them to the crib!"
"Go Flavio, go, they are in the kitchen, on the table."
The child soon came back with three wooden figures wrapped in colourful cloaks made with scraps of fabric tied around their necks. Flavio respectfully put them near the manger in the Christmas crib, in a corner of the room.
"Very nice!" the padre said. "Now finish your cake, all of you, and then you can prepare the bread for the Magi and the water for their camels."
Filomena put her plate down on the floor, near the door, and both Ana Rosa and another boy did the same. Tomás brought some bread and put a piece of it in each plate while the ten years-old girl poured water in three bowl.
When they were finished with that Felipe pointed at the window and patted Julio's forearm. Diego glanced through the window and smiled.
"Oh, look," he told the kids, "here they are!"
"Who...?" Filomena and Flavio both asked.
"Whom do you think I am talking about, on this particular night? Go have a look for yourself!"
And the children gathered at the window, glued to it.
"Hey, let me see! You're too tall, I can't see a thing!" Ana Rosa complained.
"Wanna see, wanna see, wanna see!" Jorge chanted hopping up and down.
Suddenly Felipe grabbed the little boy around his waist to lift him up and Diego did the same with Ana Rosa.
In the distance, three shadows could be seen slowly crossing the plaza, riding strange humped creatures. They stopped and pointed at the mission, waving in their direction. The kids happily shouted and waved back, overexcited. Then one of the Magi made the gesture of putting his head on an imaginary pillow he figured with his joined hands, and he waved again.
"He said it is soon time to go to bed," Sister Lucia told the children. "Get ready now."
But the kids remained glued to the window until the Reyes Magos disappeared behind the high wall of the cuartel.
"Children...!" the padre reminded them. "Up to bed, now. And don't forget to leave your shoes near the crib!"
Not a chance any of them would forget, Diego thought. They were all so eager! He looked at them as they hastily untied their sandals and carefully put them around the crib. Then with all the overexcitement of the night it was a bit hard to put these little ones to bed but in the end the nuns and the padre managed, with Felipe's and Diego's help.
Felipe sighed and discreetly signed to Diego that it was more exhausting than any of the missions he ever did for Zorro. And Diego inwardly agreed that perhaps yes, it was more tiring than any of Zorro's exploits.
"But before we can go to bed too, and now that any potentially prying eyes are closed, we can bring the few toys we made to the padre and the nuns: they will know whom to give each of these to."
And while they handed the presents to Sister Maria de la Cruz, the padre picked up the bread from the plates, taking great care to leave some visible crumbs in it, and Sister Lucia emptied the bowls to make it look as though the camels had lapped it up.
Everything was ready: the Three Wise Men had come and put presents under the children's sandals, they had eaten what the niños left for them and their camels had something to drink before getting on with their long night of work. Everything was perfect.
Or almost: if only the present for Felipe could have been delivered on time!