Morpho

Trinity arrived on Earth on May 20, 1990 at 3:33 P.M. in the warm waters of Tulum, Mexico. She weighed eight pounds and four ounces, had beautiful olive skin, and dark brown eyes to match. 

A couple of months before Trinity’s arrival, her young mother Nina was dealing with the death of her lover who overdosed on pain medication in their home in California. Broken-hearted, Nina tore through his belongings to find answers—anything to console her. 

Underneath a pile of his old clothes she found a tattered book. She shuffled through the pages until she came across an excerpt about Tulum being a holy island where Mayan women went to worship a Goddess who helped women birth sons. 

A month later, Nina found herself on the holy island sitting on the sand with a midwife who always smiled and only spoke Spanish. Although Nina couldn’t clearly communicate with her, she trusted the midwife wholeheartedly. 

The midwife chanted over Nina’s belly as the contractions came. Nina winced and began her deep breathing. They carefully walked into the shallow part of the ocean. Nina prayed,” Goddess, please give me a beautiful little boy.”

**

I am Goddess Rey. I was summoned by the Cosmos to integrate with Trinity upon her birth. When a Goddess is summoned to serve on the physical plane they can no longer freely roam the astral realm and must be tethered to a physical body. My kind saw the “Cosmic summons” as a punishment, but I saw it as an honor. 

** 

The salty smell and the gentle rocking of the waves against Nina’s body was a natural sedative. She held on to the midwife tightly as the ocean was determined to rock her to sleep. “Uno más, uno más,” the midwife said to Nina who sweated gallons and pushed until she felt numb. The island echoed with Nina’s moans and groans. Finally, a big weight was released. 

A crying baby appeared in the midwife’s arms, covered in vernix and salty seawater. Nina and the midwife ran to shore, but they moved slowly as if running in quicksand. Nina fell back on the sand and caught her breath. The midwife placed the baby in Nina’s arms and wrapped them in a thick blanket. Nina smiled and then weeped when she realized she had a daughter instead of a son. She looked up to the sky and closed her eyes and screamed at the top of her lungs, “GODDESS!” 

**

TWO YEARS LATER

Nina and Trinity stayed in Tulum and lived with the midwife who had a quaint and spacious villa by the beach. Trinity was a happy and chubby baby who spent most of her time with the midwife. Nina was pale and thin from the stress of not having her son. The disease of a broken heart kept her from seeing the blessing of having a daughter. Things got worse when Trinity began to speak. 

**

“Rey, Rey, Rey!” Trinity would call me, over and over while looking out a window or anywhere she could see her reflection. Our communication wasn’t clear at first, but she could feel when I was there. From ages one to seven, I could only communicate with Trinity through the senses. My favorite way of letting Trinity know I was there was through the smell of Plumerias—a peachy fragrance.

When she played by herself she’d stop in her tracks and inhale deeply as the sweet smell filled her nose. She’d whisper, “Rey” to herself and smile, then continue playing. 

**

Nina grew concerned as she observed Trinity’s behavior. Trinity often spoke to herself and to “Rey." Nina knew that it was common for children to have imaginary friends, but became alarmed when she heard Trinity laughing uncontrollably in the middle of the night. This happened for a few days straight. The midwife tried to explain to Nina that Trinity was laughing because she has angels around her. All Nina could think was, “This wouldn’t happen if I had my son.”

As many years went by Trinity grew more and more while Nina grew more and more distraught. She would get angry and yell at Trinity whenever she would speak to herself. On the days that Trinity cried so hard she would sniff around to feel comforted. 

The midwife began to notice that Nina would disappear in the middle of the night to go down to the beach and wouldn’t return until the wee hours of the morning. 

Then, one morning on Trinity’s sixteenth birthday, Nina never came back. Hours later, the police found her body in the ocean where Trinity was born. 

**

Trinity always needed me to guide her. I know her mother tried to love her, but she was not fit to raise this girl. 

From ages eight to eighteen, I could communicate with Trinity through animals.

On her sixteenth birthday, I came to Trinity in the form of a Blue Morpho Butterfly. After she found out that her mother died, she cried in her room for hours. She prayed to me asking for strength. 

I flew through the open window and landed on her hand. She wiped her tears and stared at me for awhile. She knew who I was and laughed uncontrollably like she used to in the middle of the night as a child. I flapped my bright blue, iridescent wings to let her know that she was not alone. 

**

The midwife cried as she closed the door on the police. She sat at her dining room table in a daze. Then, she heard Trinity laughing and rushed toward her bedroom. 

When she got to her door, the midwife saw Trinity dancing around her room with a big blue butterfly perched on her hand. She had no idea what was going on, but had a feeling that everything was going to be okay. 

Trinity let the butterfly roam around and trusted that when it flew out the window it would always come back. She called the butterfly “Rey” and spoke to it like it was her best friend. She took Rey with her everywhere, including the beach to say a prayer for her mom. 

Other tourists on the island would see Trinity talking to the big blue butterfly and looked at her like she was crazy, but she never noticed them. However, some of the tourist’s children would go up to Trinity and ask to see the butterfly. She gladly let them hold Rey and told stories about how magical this butterfly was. 

**

When Rey turned twenty-one, it was time to complete my integration with her. This meant that I could communicate with her through her thoughts rather than the smell of Plumerias or the Blue Morpho Butterfly. 

I didn’t want to just disappear as the butterfly she had grown accustomed to all these years. So, I completed my integration with her through her dreams.

She fell asleep watching me flap my wings on her hand. I flew on top of her head and told her, “Do not be sad that I left. I will always be with you in your reflection.” 

**

Trinity woke up in the wee hours of the morning of her twenty-first birthday. She dreamt of Rey morphing from a butterfly into a ball of light.  

She went to a mirror hanging in the hallway, gazed into her dark brown eyes, and smiled.