“This is the only one in the world you can truly rely on, little one. The only one in the world. You remember that.”

Jesus Helguera By sundown all the children were around her with the smallest ones resting in her lap. She kissed them on the head and sang and spoke to them in Spanish. They loved the queer language and mimicked most everything she said. One came out with Maria’s things and this she found quite astonishing. They did not seem to have a concept of ownership or privacy of things.
The child found Maria’s old mirror and was looking it over. Maria called her over, pulled her down onto her lap and held it up so the child could see herself. Maria smiled and looked, pointed at the image in the mirror, “This is the only one in the world you can truly rely on, little one. The only one in the world. You remember that.”
The child looked at herself and smiled. She did not know what the pretty woman had said but it didn’t matter. To her it sounded like magical birds singing in her ear. Maria's Trail