"El huevo"[1]

http://urbanxic.com/books-zines/mujeres_de_maiz/index.html

Mother took the egg and blessed it in our small bedroom apartment. Then, she blessed my little brother with the egg and made the sign of the cross several times. For two days throughout the night, my brother kept waking up with a startled cry, for no apparent reason because he didn’t have a fever or colic. Estaba asustado.[2] Mother kept repeating several prayers—good prayers, of course, like the ones I learned prior to my First Communion while she carefully rubbed el huevo on my brother—not missing a single part of his little body.

When mother was done, she cracked the egg carefully and dropped it into a glass of water. The yolk dropped slowly to the bottom of the glass, and some spirits dropped to the bottom, and then other spirits rose to the top of the glass. He’ll need several limpias mom said aloud as she observed the glass of water and the egg. It was true—the boy was scared. But mother never shared her knowledge about the egg and its healing powers with anyone like the day she was talking to her neighbor while I was pretending to wash dishes.

“ . . . ¿Usted—sabe curar a los niños de susto?”[3]
“—Sí vecina.”[4]
“¿Y cómo los cura vecina?[5]
“—Pues, con rezos, ¿y usted?[6]
“Pos también—con un “Padre Nuestro” y tres “Ave Marías”[7]
“Igual—con rezos—vecina.”[8]
“— ¿Y cómo va su árbol de guayabas?”[9]
“Bien vecina. Este año el árbol nos dio muchas guayabas. Déjeme agarrarle un bolsa de la tienda la Lacky para darle unas cuantas guayabitas.”[10]
“Ay vecina—me da mucha vergüenza con usted. Va decir que nomás vine a pedirle guayabas. . .”[11]
“¿Cómo cre vecina? Por favor, ni diga eso. Bórrese esa idea de la mente. Ándele véngase.” [12]

[1] “The Egg”
[2] He was scared, meaning that something or someone, and sometimes something supernatural, had scared the child.
[3] “Do you—know how to cure a child’s fear?”
[4] “—Yes neighbor.”
[5] “And how do you cure them?”
[6] “—Well, with prayers. And yourself?”
[7] Well the same way with an “Our Father” and “Holy Marys”
[8] The same—with prayers—neighbor.
[9] “And how’s your guava tree?”
[10] “Good neighbor. This year the tree gave lot’s of guavas. Let me get a Lucky’s grocery bad and give you a few guavas.”
[11] “Oh neighbor—I’m embarrassed. You’re going to think that I just to ask for guavas...”
[12] "How can you think that? Please, don’t even say that. Erase that thought from your mind. Come on—let’s go."