The Awakening of Miss Prim

by Natalia Sanmartín Fenollera

He always said that angels are in the simple things; you never find angels where things are complicated. He believed that the small things are important.”

“We know lots of parts of poems and stories by heart—it’s the first thing we do with all books,” said Teseris in her gentle voice. “He says it’s how you learn to love books; it’s got a lot to do with memory. He says that when men fall in love with women they learn their faces by heart so they can remember them later.

The Redemption is nothing like a fairy tale, Miss Prim. Fairy tales and ancient legends arelike the Redemption. Haven’t you ever noticed? It’s like when you copy a tree from the garden on a piece of paper. The tree from the garden doesn’t look like the drawing, does it? It’s the drawing that’s a bit, just a little bit, like the real tree.”

“My dear Prudencia, there are times in life when we’re all faced with a dilemma we’d rather not have to deal with. For each person the dilemma might come in a different guise, but in essence it’s always the same. There’s a sacrifice to be made, and you have to choose the victim: yourself or those around you.”

It’s she who blames herself, but she can’t see that. It’s easier to project blame into the eyes of others and defend yourself against that than to find it within yourself, where there’s no possible defense.”

It was from the little things that the big ones were made, it definitely was.

traditions are a bulwark against the decline of culture,

“You can fool children for a time, but we adults mostly don’t realize when the period of grace has expired.”