Meet Me Under The Ombu Tree Read Online Free Page B

sensible girl and should know better.’
    ‘I know, I will tell them,’ Chiquita conceded wearily.
    ‘Good.’
    There was a brief, uncomfortable silence before Chiquita tried to change the subject.
    ‘The asado tomorrow, before the match, can I help with anything?’ she asked, somewhat strained. ‘Anything at all?’
    ‘No, I’m fine, thank you,’ replied Anna, softening a little. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Chiquita. Sometimes I don’t know what to do with Sofia. She’s so headstrong and thoughtless. The boys give me no trouble at all. I don’t know who she gets it from!’
    ‘Neither do I,’ replied Chiquita dryly.
    ‘Tonight is the most beautiful night of the summer,’ sighed Sofia from one of the highest boughs of the ombu tree.
    There is no tree in the world like the ombu tree. Gigantic with low horizontal branches, its enormous girth can often exceed forty to fifty feet. Its thick roots radiate out over the ground in long bumpy tentacles, as if the tree itself has begun to melt, spreading like wax over the earth. Besides its peculiar shape, the ombu is the only tree indigenous to those dry plains. The only tree that truly belongs. The native Indians had seen their gods in the boughs and it was said no gaucho would sleep beneath it, even in Sofia’s day. To the children brought up at Santa Catalina it was a magic tree. It granted wishes where it saw fit, and being tall it was the perfect lookout tower allowing them to see for miles around. But above all, the ombu had a mysterious allure that one simply couldn’t put one’s finger on, an allure that had drawn generations of children to seek adventure within its branches.
    ‘I can see Jose and Pablo. Hurry up, don’t be boring!’ she called down impatiently.
    ‘I’m coming, be patient,’ shouted Santi to his cousin as he busily tended to the ponies.
    ‘Santi, will you give me a leg-up?’ Maria asked her brother in her soft, husky voice, watching Sofia climb higher into the spaghetti of thick branches.
    Maria had always admired Sofia. She was brave, outspoken and sure of herself. They had been best friends all their lives, done everything together - plotted, conspired, played and shared secrets. In fact Maria’s mother, Chiquita, used to call them ‘Las Dos Sombras ' (the Two Shadows) when they were smaller, because one was always the shadow of the other.
    The rest of the girls on the farm were either older or younger, so Sofia and Maria, being of the same age, were natural allies in a family dominated by boys. Neither had a sister so they had decided years ago to become ‘blood sisters’ by pricking their fingers with a pin and pressing them together to ‘unite’ their blood. From then on they had shared a special secret that no one else knew. They had the same blood and that made them siblings. They were both proud and respectful of their clandestine bond.
    From the very top of the tree Sofia could see the whole world - and if not the whole world then at least her world, laid out before her under an awesome sky. The horizon was a vast cauldron of colour as the sun had almost set, flooding the heavens with splashes of pink and gold. The air was sticky and the mosquitoes hovered menacingly about the leaves.
    ‘I’ve been bitten again,’ winced Maria, scratching her leg.
    ‘Here,’ said Santi, bending down and taking his younger sister’s foot in his hands. With a swift movement he lifted her up so she could lean on the first branch with her stomach. After that she could make it on her own.
    Santi then scaled the tree himself with a lightness of step that never ceased to amaze those who knew him well. As a small child he had suffered a polo accident that had left him with a slight limp. His parents, desperate that this handicap might hinder him in later life, flew him to the United States where he saw every possible specialist. But they needn’t have bothered. Santi had defied doctors’ predictions and found ways around it. As a little boy he