bluebee story: Sara Jiménez Molina

Sara responds to the immense and constant desire to investigate new ways of expressing ourselves, and to contribute to understanding the world in an effort to inhabit it through words. The multilayered interpretation of the following piece invites the reader to revisit their own gender stereotypes, cultural subtlety and see the world through the eyes of a child.

Luciano Sebastian Rodríguez knew he had a long name, but he had intended to make sure it fits fully onto the badge of the Boyscouts Camp uniform, even if he had to write it as little as ants. The last time he had put Luciano R, instead of his full name, had been in the holiday camp last year, and because of that, he had been mistaken almost every day with Luciano S, an effeminate boy who was always bullied. This year, Luciano R had asked to go to the School’s Boyscouts Camp for the first time, instead of the holiday camp. His mom, who at first was not very sure, had told him that if he was afraid at night she wouldn’t go pick him up. Are you sure you want to stay overnight? She had asked him again and again. He thought so. “What’s going to happen, Mom? In any case, I have my flashlight, the one that grandpa bought me, and that I put on my forehead, like miners.” The camp’s bus was picking them up at school by noon, but he was ready since the morning. By the time they arrived, it was early, so Luciano R sat on the floor of the parking lot behind his mother’s minivan to wait. She was waiting by his side, but she did not want to sit beside him. From where he sat on the floor, he listened to her chat with another parent who wouldn’t shut up for a second. Several times Luciano R wanted to ask her for a pen, because the one that he had was running out

of ink, and he barely managed to write “Lucia” on the pocket of his yellow backpack. “Mom, do you have a pen? Could you lend it to me? Mom?” Since last year, he had the habit of naming everything, because at the holiday camp things always went missing and afterwards it was not known where they were. But he was not going to leave the backpack marked like that. No way! Worse than being confused with an effeminate boy, it would have been to be confused with a girl. “Mom, do you have a pen?”, he insisted. “Mom, mom, mom, mommy, I need a pen.” Neither his mother nor the other parent would shut up for a second, and several times they had scolded him for interrupting the elders. At that moment, Luciano R heard the bus horn approaching and jumped up. By then, his mother had already been released by the other, so he wrapped his arm around her belly, and lifted his backpack from the floor to run to the bus. When he grabbed the strip from his backpack, he realized that it had a bug stuck on it, and he immediately released it. It looked like a worm. He had never seen worms at school before, perhaps it was there, because he had been sat near a sewer, and then the worm would have come out and walked to his backpack, as the bus was so delayed. His mother grabbed a stick from the floor and carefully removed the worm from his backpack.

“That’s it”, she said and kissed his hair. “What’s that, mom? A worm?” “I think it is a leech”, his mom replied. “It is like a worm that likes blood.” Luciano R was not very affectionate with anyone, but something about being saved from the leech, and having to spend nights away from home, made him feel this time he had to hug his mom tightly, maybe if he was afraid at night, he would remember that hug and maybe had no need to be picked up. Then Luciano R hugged her tightly.” Bye mom!”, he yelled and ran away. All the children were in line and went up to the bus one by one. As he advanced in line, Luciano R kept checking his backpack to make sure no other worms had come to the camp with him. His mother had just told him how those worms were called, but he had already forgotten. As he looked at the backpack, he noticed that it was still marked with the name “Lucia”, then when he went up to the bus, he stopped for a moment to ask the driver for a pen. The man looked grumpy. When he saw him properly, Luciano R immediately regretted asking him for something. He was very skinny and had eye bags as if he was a vampire, or rather a ghost. “How am I supposed to have a pen, kid!”, he said. “Hurry up! The night will catch us on the road!” The other children that were behind him pushed Luciano R and made him fall into the bus

aisle. A thunderous laugh stunned him and his ears began to burn as if they were set up on fire with shame. As soon as they left, the other children had already started throwing a rubber ball from side to side. The guiding teacher who was sitting as a co-pilot was chatting with the ghost and didn’t notice anything. Luciano R looked out the window as the houses and buildings passed by. He remembered that when they had just moved from grandpa’s house, just outside the city, he thought all the buildings were hotels. He was little, of course, now he knew they weren’t. Every once in awhile the rubber ball hit him on the back of his head, but he chose to ignore it. His mom had told him that it was the best way to deal with those children this way and that eventually, they will get tired of bullying him. Luciano R thought that in case he returned to the holiday camp, he could advise Luciano S. The next year maybe if he came back for sure, he was going to tell him. It had been a while since the rubber ball has stopped, and Luciano R eyes were almost closing. It seemed that the other children were also falling asleep, as if they had become tired, just as his mother said, of the rubber ball, of songs, of Barbies, and now they took advantage of the calm of the bus. The ghost also took advantage and smoked a cigarette, being careful to smoke through his window, although Luciano R could smell the smoke entering the bus again. It must have been because of the speed they carried, as something in the traffic made the ghost stop suddenly and Luciano R opened his eyes. It was already

night outside, as the driver had said. He thought it was surely his fault for asking for a pen. He did not like cars at night, he was more afraid of them than sleeping alone, and more so as now, it had started to rain. Luciano R closed his eyes to try to fall asleep again. That was also a bit of advice that his mother gave him every time they returned from visiting Grandpa, and he was so scared that he started to cry. His mother told him to fall asleep. That when he woke up he was going to be at home, in his bed, safe and clothed with his Spiderman blanket. Luciano R had chosen to leave it at home, just in case they gave everyone blankets at the camp, he wasn’t going to be the only one that has cartoons on it. Theirs were sure to be a single colour, blue or green, boy’s colours. But now that he could not sleep, and it was still raining outside, and it was already night, in the absence of Spiderman, he hung on to his backpack as if it was his pillow. Between asleep and awake, Luciano R dreamed that the bus stopped at a village just before arriving at the camp and that a bunch of leeches with backpacks climbed up and sat in the free seats. At first, the leeches entered one by one without doing anything to them. Then when there were no more seats available for all of them, the leeches started to stick onto the arms and faces of the children, and they all began to cry and scream. The ghost driver did not react but had his head glued to the steering wheel, who knows if he was hiding the smoke or if he was asleep. Luciano R at first laughed at those children who had laughed at him for falling down in the bus aisle. Some of

them seemed asleep as the ghost, others kept screaming all covered in blood. Luciano R stopped laughing. He looked at them from above, as if he was now on the roof of the bus. Everything was all blood and backpacks, and the laughter and the screams were slowly fading away. A bright red light blinded him. When he opened his eyes, Luciano R noticed that it was daylight again. A woman who appeared to be his mother was standing at the side of the road with other people. A blue blanket covered her shoulders, it would probably be the blankets from the camp, he thought. Beyond, lying on the grass, were some of the backpacks of his mates. In the background, he saw that the bus was upside down as if hooked on a device that it seems to Luciano R like it was a transformer. Then he first ran to look for his backpack, checked and checked among all the yellow ones until he found the one that said “Lucia”. How lucky no one had noticed. Luciano R lifted the backpack from the ground, checked that it had nothing stuck on it and, when he turned to take it to his mom quickly before anyone saw it, nothing could be seen. Neither the bus, nor the transformer, nor the lady with the blue blanket. It was no longer daytime. Luciano R felt lost. He thought about grabbing the miner’s flashlight from his backpack, but it would be better to do what his mother said. He closed his eyes to fall asleep. Surely, when he woke up, he was going to be at home, in his bed, safely, and clothed with his Spiderman blanket.

Sara Jiménez Molina