Amor matris

~

This is the story about a boy who lived in a village far away. His life was miserable and poor. Sometimes he lived under a bridge and sometimes he slept next to trashes. He never had a family. He was invisible to everyone and never had any help to survive. Everybody in the village seemed to live in peace with themselves and others, except the boy who never felt secure and loved. Actually, he never knew love at all. He never saw his parents and he never knew if he had a brother or a sister. The only thing that grew up with him was a pair of torn pants and a t-shirt too small for his age. He was used to live in the shadow of the village while everyone else shined and sparkled of thousands of colors. The only word people ever said to him was "freak", and he heard it so many times that he began to think it was his name.

Years of solitude lived in this poor boy's heart. He began to lose hope and wished only one thing; to be loved, just once. But what he ignored was that that wish wasn't in vain.

One day, he heard the people of the village shouting and throwing things. Curious like he always was, he jumped on a can and hide behind a long and big pipe. On the other side, in front of a block, a big crowd was surrounding a woman. The boy couldn't see well the silhouette of the person so he climbed on a house's roof and watched attentively. The crowd was so intense and moving so fast that he could barely see something, but it was clear that the woman wasn't from there. Most of the villagers hated receiving new people in the village and they weren't used to share with others. Their village had always been hided from the rest of the world and they didn't even like to leave it.

The crowd continued to shout and throw things to the lady but she fiercely pushed them away and walked up to a woodhouse that had been abandoned. The crowd stayed for a long hour in front of the house before returning at its occupation.
The boy who was still standing on the house's roof, jumped down and ran discretely towards the woodhouse where the strange woman belonged. He was so invisible to everyone that it wasn't so difficult for him to move surreptitiously. He climbed on a small wooden chair and looked by the only illuminated window of the woodhouse.

The woman he saw was mature and very beautiful. She had a long dress and a corset and wore shining jewels. Her face though seemed sad and her eyes never looked up. The boy instantly felt himself linked to this woman. They were both alone and they were both sad. He desired so much to enter the house and talk to the lady but he was shy and decided to wait. And so went on for many days.

Every morning, we could hear one of the villagers say horrible things about the woman. Some people thought she was a witch but others believed she was a werewolf.
"I saw her reading books!" shouted a man.
"She turned on the light with a trick!" added his wife.
"It's worse than that", said another man, "I saw her turning into a big black dog, like you've never seen before".

Everyone was so afraid and protective on their children but the boy never understood that. He didn't find weird the fact that a woman could possibly read books and he found very interesting and curious the fact that she could change into a dog. While everybody lived locked up in their houses, the boy finally decided to give it a try and knocked on the woodhouse door.

The woman answered with a smile on her face. She immediately accepted the boy and was happy to finally meet someone new. The boy told her about his life at the village but also asked lots of questions about the world outside. The woman, very calmly and patiently, answered to every question and began to gain affection for him. They first saw each other twice per week and then they began to see each other every day. The boy couldn't imagine a better life. He saw in her a mother figure while she felt for him a mother love. That was actually the first time the boy felt love. Their relation evolved and the boy started to live at her house.

Outside, the villagers strongly disapproved their relation. It was unthinkable for them to be so strange and so happy at the same time. They saw in them so much difference. When the boy and the woman got out to buy food, everybody looked at them as if they were monsters. People talked a lot, but only one main rumor became a legend. The villagers told their children the story of a woman half-witch-half-dog who wandered for a thousand years, sad of having lost her child, while a little boy as strange as his non-existent family lived for a long time alone before meeting each other and destroy the village. The villagers were so afraid about the two individuals that they started to seek help in other villages. But the woman and the boy never paid attention to those stories.

A part of the legend was true though but it never scared the boy to see his mother change into a big dark dog or to see her cast spells around the house. He was sure that he would never be hurt and so because he had been the only one to accept her. Indeed, the woman adopted the boy like her own son.

But quickly the villagers became uncontrollable and started to throw torches on the woodhouse. The woman had to put out the fire several times. The boy had never seen his neighbors so violent. One day a man threw his can in the garden of the woodhouse. Another day a woman came to abandon there her pigs. Three days later a group of kids came to break all the windows.

But one day the boy came back home with the face full of bruises and blood. The woman couldn't bear to see her son like this.
"Who did this to you?" she asked.
"They were a lot" answered the boy.
"Who? Kids? Adults?".
"Everyone".

On raged, the woman got out of the house and walked through the village.
"Who hurt my son ?!" she shouted repeatedly.

But no one gave her a proper answer. Instead, they all started to laugh at her face.
"You better leave the village, you freaks", said a man.

She ignored them and returned angrily at her house to heal the boy.
"I don't know what to do. We can't afford one more attack" she told him.

The boy watched her mother heal him. The woman seemed weaker than before. Her long brown hair was messy and her eyes were red. She cried a lot. While putting a pad on his forehead, her hands were shaking and fragile and her voice was trembling. But she was still beautiful, thought the boy.

Early the following day, the woman came in the boy's room.
"Wake up and come with me" she said.

Confused the boy stood up and followed his mother. They got out in front of the porch. All around the house, there was a crowd shouting and swearing. The boy began to panic and took the sweet hand of his mother.
"What's happening?" he asked.
"That's the only solution. It's now or never." The woman answered.
"What are you talking about? What are you going to do?"

The woman squeezed tighter the shaky hand of her son.
"Do you trust me?" she asked.

For a moment he saw the same look of the stranger he met a few months ago but then he saw something else in her eyes. It was a look full of power and intense love. It was the first time that the boy saw that look in his mother's eyes.
"Yes... I trust you".

As if she received this answer like a signal, the woman closed her eyes and came forward. She was extremely focus but the boy couldn't say on what.
After a few seconds, she took out a wand. The boy opened his eyes wide. He had never seen that object before. The woman swooshed the wand and pronounce very clearly the word "Obliviate". Suddenly the magic wand shacked and spitted sparkles. The boy turned to the villagers and saw them all frozen. No one was moving or shouting anymore. Quickly the sparkles dispersed and hit the villagers making them disappear.
"What did you do?"
"I erased them" answered the woman.

They looked at the deserted landscape for a long time before realizing that they would finally begin a peaceful life...