This seems like a pointless game. It’s more than a game. They’re building their map of the world. Every smell, every texture, every sound is a coordinate. If they ever manage to perceive light, they’ll first need this map to understand it. Ramiro sighed skeptically. Don’t get your hopes up. Lucía nodded respectfully. I’m not getting my hopes up.
I teach them how to live like eyeless cones. Ramiro didn’t answer, but as he left, he heard Leo whisper. “Daddy smells blue early.” And that phrase stuck like a sting in his chest. The session ended in the garden. There, Lucía made them take off their shoes.
The children walked on damp grass, then on smooth stones, and finally on warm sand. “What do you feel now?” she asked. “The grass tickles green. The stones are gray and hard. The sand, the sand is like warm gold,” Leo said. Lucía closed her eyes for a moment. There they were making their first color dictionary.
Not in a laboratory, not with million-dollar machines, but in the simplicity of a garden, in the skin of two children who were beginning to see things differently. When they returned home, Bruno took her hand resolutely. “Are you coming back tomorrow?” “If you want, yes, we want to,” they said in unison. And that night, for the first time in a long time, the twins fell asleep laughing.
The morning sun bathed the mansion’s large windows in a golden glow. Ramiro usually walked quickly through that hallway on his way to meetings or his private office, but that day he stopped. Outside in the garden, he saw Lucía spreading out colorful fabrics, though the children couldn’t see them, small jars of spices, and containers of water. Ramiro pressed his lips together.
His instinct was to ask what she was doing with her children, why she was messing up a space that had always been symmetrical and neat, but something about the scene stopped him. Leo and Bruno were standing there barefoot, touching the grass. They didn’t look lost or afraid. They were clearly expectant. Lucía crouched down in front of them. “Today we’re going to do something new.”
This garden will be our secret map. A map, Bruno asked, tilting his head. Yes. You don’t need eyes to travel, you just need clues. Every corner of the garden will have a color, a smell, and a sound that represents it. When you’re done, you’ll know how to navigate it without anyone guiding you. Leo laughed in disbelief. That’s impossible. We always stumble. So let’s try. If you stumble, we’ll laugh together.
Lucia took a small bowl of water and placed it near the rosebush. This will be the deep blue. Water will always be blue. If you hear the splashing, you’ll know where you are. The children approached cautiously. Lucia wet their hands. “They can feel it. It’s cold,” Leo said. “It’s a refreshing blue and smells clean,” Bruno added.
Lucia mentally noted pink plus water equals clean blue. In another corner, she left coffee beans in an open bag. The aroma spread. The strong brown color will live here. When they blow it, they’ll know they’re north on our map. Bruno inhaled sharply. I’m feeling hungry.
“It reminds me of Grandma’s kitchen,” Leo said nostalgically. Lucía paused for a moment. That spontaneous confession was pure gold. It meant that sensory memory could bring back memories, and memories could become compasses. Further on, he spread a rough wool blanket over the earth. “This will be the rough green. Every time you touch it, you’ll know you’re close to the east.”
The twins walked barefoot on the blanket. “It’s itchy, but it feels safe,” Bruno laughed. “So green is a protective color.” Lucia nodded. Finally, she led the children to the corner where she had planted some mint plants. “We’ll have the fresh white one here. When they blow it away, they’ll know they’re in the south.” Leo bent down, rubbed the leaves, and inhaled deeply.
“It’s like breathing snow. So, white is a cold that doesn’t hurt,” Bruno concluded. So, little by little, the garden transformed into a living map. Lucía led the way, but it was the twins who named the colors. Every smell, every texture, every sound was a coordinate. After a while, she took a few steps back. “Okay, explorers.”
Now I want you to walk by yourselves. Find the blue, then the brown, then the green, and finally the white. The children stood still, tense. They had never crossed a space without someone holding their hand. “What if we fall?” Leo whispered. “Then I’ll be here to pick you up. But try.” Bruno took the first step. Then Leo followed.
They moved forward slowly, feeling their way with their feet, their hands, their noses. The air held clues. First the smell of coffee, then the freshness of mint, then the splash of water as Lucía gently stirred the bowl. And suddenly, after a few minutes that seemed like an eternity, they reached the spot where the rough blanket lay. “We found it,” Bruno shouted.
“We’re in the greenery that protects us,” Leo added, laughing. Lucía applauded them enthusiastically. Exactly. They did it on their own. For the first time, the twins hugged each other, laughing. They hadn’t crashed into any walls, they hadn’t tripped over any furniture; they had navigated a space with their own map.
From the terrace, Ramiro watched everything without saying a word. His chest, so accustomed to the weight of resignation, felt a strange pang, something like pride mixed with fear. Because if this was working, if his children were learning to walk without depending on others, what did that mean? That he, with all his money and his hired doctors, had been unable to give them what that young woman achieved with cloth, water, and spices. He withdrew silently, not wanting anyone to notice.
As evening fell, Lucía sat with them on the lawn. Today was their first trip across the map. Tomorrow we’ll do it again. And one day this map will be so real that they’ll be able to walk across it without thinking. Bruno raised his face to the sky. And we’ll be able to see the sky one day. Lucía smiled tenderly, stroking his hair. Maybe not as everyone sees it, but in her own way.
The sky can be felt on your skin when the wind blows. It can be heard in a bird’s song. It can be smelled in the falling rain. You will have it too. The twins remained silent, but with a different peace on their faces. For the first time in a long time, they didn’t feel locked in a dark mansion, but rather walking through a world with new borders they could conquer themselves. And that night, before going to sleep, Leo whispered to his brother.
Did you notice? The world does have colors, it’s just that no one had shown them to us. Bruno, smiling in the darkness, replied, “And Lucía is like a lantern, but one that shines without eyes.” The Valverdes mansion had always been a silent place, an imposing, almost solemn silence, like that of an abandoned church.
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