The River Woman

“Beware La Llorona” the elderly woman says to the young girl that sits at her feet. “If you do not behave, she will take you away in the dead of night and you will never see me again.”

The little girl, whose attention is mainly on the homemade doll in front of her, giggles. “Silly abuelita”, she replies, “it’s not ME she’s after.”

The grandmother’s head tilts in confusion, and she gently prods the child by asking, “What do you mean mi cielo?”

“I sawed her last night! I heard the dirt crunch, like footsteps, and it woke me. I looked out my window and sawed a woman-”

“It’s “saw” mi cielo, not “sawed" '' Abuela replies, a smile tugging at her lips.

“I saw a woman, dressed in white, skirts dragging on the ground. I wanted to get a closer look because she was so pretty, so..”she pauses, unsure if she should continue but powers through, mustering the courage. “I sneaked outside”

Before Abuela could begin to reprimand the young girl for the many rules she had disobeyed, the story began to spill from the child’s lips as if a dam had broken.

“I sawed, I mean, saw her con el Señor Javier”

Abuela wrinkled her nose. She knew Javier was a mujeriego, a womanizer who would often leave his wife at home to go meet with other women late at night. Josefina must’ve confused this woman for one of his little friends.

“She saw me hiding behind el árbol de naranja. She told me to get closer. El Señor Javier was hanging off of her. I think he had a tummy ache because he kept groaning about something in el vino. He didn’t make much sense. He looked all droopy and sleepy.”

Abuela leaned in with morbid curiosity. Surely the child was spinning a tale.

But the girl continued, “I asked her if she was La Llorona and she laughed and said yes. Then asked her what she was doing with el Señor Javier, and she said he was in trouble for making la Señora Javier cry. She said she was going to make sure he’d never make her cry again. Said she was going to the river. Then, she patted my head and said:

“You will suffer no harm from my hand, little one. Que no te de miedo La Llorona, for I will always watch over you”

She then gave me this and sent me off to bed”.

The little girl opened the palm of her hand to reveal a wedding ring. Abuela remembered it well, and the ceremony that was the cause of the object’s creation. Remembered the excitement of the young bride, pride at the fact that the most eligible bachelor in town was now her husband. At the time, she did not realize that she would not just be marrying him, but his mistresses as well.

It was then that Abuela heard screams coming from the direction of the river, and to her horror, la Señora Javier, no longer a young, doe-eyed bride, came running up the path yelling,

“Auxilio! Algien por favor! Mi esposo, esta muerto!!!”

Abuela turned to the child frantically and said “Stay here Josefina! Don't move!” and with that, she went running towards the distraught woman.

Josefina went back to playing. She looks up suddenly and caught my eye from my hiding place where I had been watching her all this time. She brought her finger to her lip and showed me the ring I had given her. I smiled back and nodded.

How I loved children and their naivety, their willingness to believe made-up ghost stories. They had found the body faster than I expected, but that’s okay. Josefina would tell them who was responsible for the murder. Let her spread my legend.

The legend of La Llorona.