Author: Huascar Robles

Old Lady Pérez shouted one simple instruction: “You need to gulp it down. Todita la limonada.” Her command was an energy that traveled across Pedro’s skin, each pore. “I have seen the lemonade stand; it’s pink,” he whispered. Old Lady Pérez stretched her neck and through her only eye repeated: “If you want to save the Earth child, drink the lemonade.”

Pedro did not have a choice. His constant headaches were reminders of the nightmares. The distressed Earth child. The storm. Príncipe M.’s claw around the child’s throat.

He whistled for his beloved chupacabra, Perico. They flew over the Buenaventura sky, and landed on the lemonade stand guarded by los enanitos verdes, the most musical all of Buenaventura’s elves. “Quick, enanitos, serve us two tall glasses.” The elves complied. Pedro and Perico felt the fluid begin to transform them. Pedro’s body grew protrusions he’d never seen. He giggled. As with all temporal transfigurations, this one occurred to the beat of bomba and plena.
They reappeared in the unknown universe Pedro saw in his nightmares. As they stood in the backyard of the Earth home, an unfamiliar feeling overcame Pedro. He saw his naked body and rushed to cover it with items dangling from a birdbath. The sky darkened and bits of hail and bones rained over them. “Príncipe M. is here,” Pedro muttered. He instructed his chupacabra to stand guard. “Remember what to do, Perico!”

Pedro entered through the back door. He had memorized the interior of this home from his dreams. Second floor, third door to the right, that’s where the Earth child was. Pedro kicked the door open and before him stood Príncipe M., his claws gripping the Earth child’s throat.

Outside of the house, Perico let out a screeching bellow, the call to the Fairy God. The storm clouds ripped and a fountain of fairies flowed like pink lemonade unto the Earth. The Fairy God descended and sang “Yeh, estoy subiendo como espuma. Yes, I am flowing like bubbles,” over a syncopated trap melody.

Pedro’s eyes widened when he saw the Fairy God rise like foam behind Príncipe M. The volume of the song increased, debilitating the dark prince’s grip on the Earth child. The Fairy God pushed his hand through the window and seized the prince by his neck. In a synthesized, harmonic voice, he uttered the following words: “This is for all the boys in dresses.”

The clouds dissipated. The Fairy God kissed both Pedro and the Earth child on their cheeks. The fountain fairies left a rainbow trail as they returned to Buenaventura. Pedro and the Earth child embraced one more time by the birdbath.

For many years, the pair traveled between Earth and Buenaventura, bridging both universes with their undying bond. Many, many years later, Pedro, now a father of a beautiful Earth child of his own, took a stroll by the old lemonade stand. Perico strode by his side. He glanced at his child and said: “I have a story to tell you, but you have to listen to my voice, the sounds, the colors, this is the only way to travel between worlds, between universes and between bodies.

‘One upon a time, there was a magical boy who fell in love with an Earth child.’”