ARTHYR AURELIO AND THE MISFITS’ OASIS

Long before she came to live in Ernesto, Skyblue had found a way to escape the eyes of the village. She would go deep into the forest, until she was sure no one could hear her, and ask the trees the questions she dared not ask the grown-ups.

The trees never answered. But they never scolded her, either, and that was a relief in itself.

On one of those escapes, she sat beneath a great ceiba tree and began to cry. She told it about the things she did not understand, about her suspicion that something inside her must be wrong. She cried until she lost the thread of what she was saying.