Discovered

by E. D. Brady

“Fernando had a profound love for medicine and as a boy he trained with a local surgeon. Although it was not proper for a man of his position to practice on a regular basis, Fernando would often go out into the villages and perform surgeries from time to time. It was on one of these occasions that he met a beautiful girl by the name of Lucia de Tovar. He took her as his bride in the year 1490.”

  Layla narrowed her eyes, the name Lucia eliciting recognition. She nodded again, a signal for Jay to continue.

  “The union between Fernando and Lucia was special in the sense that they truly loved one another, which was a rare occurrence in marriages of those days,” Jay explained. “Marriages were typically nothing more than arrangements used between families to better their social status or protect their wealth.

  “Lucia was a humble woman, and while she loved her husband very much, she didn’t care for all the fanfare of being a nobleman’s wife. She preferred to spend her days in her vast gardens, content to be outdoors surrounded by nature and solitude. A devout Catholic, Lucia vowed to live her life as best as she could in the fashion of her lord and savior, Jesus Christ. She was an uncommonly kind person, and the irony of the cruelty performed in the name of Jesus Christ, at that time, did not go unnoticed by her. Lucia believed that all men and women, along with animals, were precious in God’s eyes, so she abhorred cruelty of any kind.

  “A year after their marriage, Fernando performed an emergency surgery on a Portuguese business merchant who was stabbed by a local thug over a business dispute. Two months later, the Portuguese man returned to the area to thank Fernando for saving his life. By way of a gift, he presented Fernando with two slaves—a male and a female. Unbeknownst to Fernando at the time, the Portuguese man was a leading merchant in the African slave trade in Spain.”

  Jay noticed Layla wince at the mention of slavery.

  He nodded to let her know he agreed before continuing. “Lucia was appalled by the gesture. She was so deeply disturbed by the horrendous practice of slavery; it was against every principle that her Lord had preached. Realizing that to turn these two poor people out into the street would mean death or recapture, she took them in and informed her husband that they would be paid for their employ like the rest of their staff.

  “As it turned out, the male, Yusuf, was an educated man and spoke fluent Spanish. He explained that he and the woman, Miata, were married, and like Fernando and Lucia, they were very much in love even though their union had been arranged. Yusuf also came from a high standing family, but his home had been burned to the ground during a skirmish with Spanish soldiers. It was on that day that he and his wife were captured and forced onto a ship for Spain.

  “Lucia was overcome with pity for the couple and begged Fernando to give them a vacant cottage that was part of his manner. It was by no means an ideal situation for Yusuf and Miata, but they realized that if they even had a home to return to, to attempt a journey there would probably be nothing short of suicide. And if they were recaptured, they would more than likely be separated forever, so they reluctantly settled in as best they could and were granted the freedom to make their way around the estate as they wished. But on the occasions that they ventured outside the estate and into the villages, they had to be escorted by a member of the household under the ruse that they were slaves helping to run an errand.

  “As time went on, Miata began to trust Lucia, and a friendship was formed between the two women. She and Lucia were able to communicate thanks to the Spanish that Miata had picked up from her husband. It turned out that both women had something else in common: they were both desperate to have children, but both had been unsuccessful in that regard. It broke Lucia’s heart to think that she would never have children of her own, and so she felt equally for Miata.

  “One autumn, two years later, Yusuf fell ill with influenza, a particularly deadly strain that year. He didn’t live long enough to hear the news that his wife was finally pregnant. Devastated, Miata suffered a broken heart so severe that she lost her will to live. She dreaded bringing her child into a world that was hostel against her people and without even a father to lean on. Fernando tended to her constantly, but her health finally began to deteriorate. When it came time for Miata to deliver her child, her son was born normally, but to Fernando’s surprise, there was another child behind. Miata had been carrying twins. The second child was stuck in breech position and had to be cut from her. With her health already failing, Miata only lived long enough to hold her son and daughter in her arms before passing away.

  “Lucia took the children to the nursery that she had prepared for a child who never came, and cared for them night and day. As the days and weeks went by, she fell in love with the babies and informed her husband that she would be raising them as her own. Against his reservations that the children would never be accepted in their society, given the constant animosity between the Spanish and the Moors, Fernando gave in to her request, understanding how she suffered over not having children of her own. Lucia tried to console his fears by explaining that it was the right thing to do, and she felt sure that God would send them a miracle by providing a way for the twins to lead a normal adult life in their world. In the meantime, the twins were nestled away in the security of the estate, far away from prying eyes. Lucia named the boy Yusuf after his father, and the girl she named Isabella after the queen.

  “As is often the case, once her mind was occupied with doting on the twins and off her desperation to bear her own child, Lucia found out that she was pregnant when the twins were around eight months old.

  “Around the same time, one of her chambermaids, an unmarried girl of fourteen named Maria Ortiz, confided in Lucia that she was also with child. Lucia’s kindness and lack of judgment was legendary among the household employees, so Maria, having nowhere else to turn, went to Lucia for help. Maria explained that she also worked at a local inn on occasions and had met a yellow-haired boy from one of the northern countries of the continent. She and this boy had a brief affair, but he was soon called back home, and Maria doubted she’d ever see or hear from him again. Knowing how this poor girl would have been ostracized by society for being in that condition and without a husband, Lucia made Maria her lady-in-waiting and kept Maria employed to her private rooms only. She dressed Maria in baggy clothing to keep her condition secret.

  “One month before Lucia gave birth to her child, Maria gave birth to a son she named Sebastian. Lucia kept Sebastian in the nursery with the twins, and Maria was repositioned to the nursery so that she could spend all her time with Sebastian, with no one the wiser.

  “On August 24th, 1495, Lucia gave birth to a son she named Arturo after her father. At that point, Lucia’s little group of babies needed around the clock nurses even though Lucia and Maria spent most of their days with the infants.

  “As the years went on, these four children grew to be inseparable, and when it came time for Arturo to receive a tutor, Lucia demanded that the other three children be taught along with him.”

  Layla put up her hands suddenly, an apologetic look gracing her face. “I’m really sorry to interrupt you, but if you’re going to tell me about every ancestor you’ve ever had along with the stories of his or her employees, we’re still going to be sitting here on Christmas Day. And as fascinating as the story is, I really don’t see how it’s relevant.”

  Jay pursed his lips and nodded. He blew out a hard, nervous breath and focused on the beautiful girl before him. “Layla…,” he said, staring deep into her eyes. “Lucia was my mother!”

  “What?” Layla asked, pulling her head back slightly.

  “We are the four children I’m talking about,” he said matter-of-factly.

  She let out one hard chuckle. “Oh, and you’re Arturo, I take it,” she said sarcastically.

  He nodded. “I was christened Arturo Juan Fernandez de Valencia,” he said in all seriousness.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” she asked, her expression turning sour.

  “This is o
ur story,” he added.

  “Do you expect me to believe that you’re over five hundred years old?” she asked skeptically. She looked over to Joey and Issy as though she expected one of them to burst out laughing at Jay’s joke.

  Joey nodded to her without a hint of pretense on his face. “It’s true,” he piped in. “My real name is Yusuf, named so for my biological father.” He nodded toward Ben. “He was christened Sebastian Ortiz.”

  Layla suddenly looked bowled-over. She dug her fingers into her scalp and shook her head. “That’s just not possible,” she moaned.

  Issy walked across the room and sat next to Layla, placing her hand on the stunned girl’s shoulder. “It’s a lot to take in, I know, but if you let Jay finish, you might come to see the reason behind this miracle.”

  Layla shook her head frantically. “I don’t want to hear one more word of this nonsense,” she said. “Why on earth are you trying to convince me of such an elaborate lie? I’m not interested in hearing any—”

  “Please, Layla,” Jay asked with a moan in his voice. “Please, I have to finish. I have to make you believe that what I’m saying is the truth.”

  She stared into his eyes for a long moment as though reading him. “I…you’re serious, aren’t you?” she asked, having drawn a conclusion from his intense gaze.

  “I swear that what I’m telling you is the truth,” he replied pleadingly. “It’s the main reason I kept this from you. I knew you’d probably never believe it. But if you’d just suspend all logic for a little while and let me finish, I know I can convince you.”

  Layla bit on her thumbnail for a long moment, staring back at him. “Okay,” she said finally. “Let me have it.”

  Jay nodded and smiled, feeling relief wash over him. “Thank you, Layla,” he said sincerely.

  “I’m not saying that I believe you, just that I’m willing to suspend logic long enough to let you finish,” she explained.

  “I know,” he replied. “But that’s enough for now.”

  “So, go on,” she requested. “Tell me about your childhood.”

  “We were fortunate enough to have a very happy and peaceful childhood,” he continued, “but when I was fourteen, my mother died of consumption. The villages near my father’s estate had an outbreak of the aliment, and Lucia spent all of her time trying to care for and bring comfort to those who were afflicted. She finally contracted the disease and died within a month. It was very hard on all of us, but most of all, my father. His heart and mind fell apart. He was so devastated that he took to a life of wine drinking to dull the pain, and not much else. I never doubted my father’s love for me, but with my mother gone, he basically gave up on life and had very little dealings with me after that.”

  “That’s so sad,” Layla said quietly, looking at Jay with pity in her eyes.

  He reached up and ran his knuckle down her lovely cheek, grateful for her reaction. “Thank you,” he whispered.

  She nodded. “Go on,” she coaxed.

  “By 1510, voyages to the new world were becoming more and more frequent. My father petitioned a man he had once been acquainted with, a man who had since settle in San Juan Bautista and was the owner of a large tobacco plantation, to take me back to the new world with him as an employee. I don’t really know the full extent of their deal, but this man had some ties to very influential people at the time. So at the age of fifteen, whether I wanted to or not, I was bound for the new world with my new lord, Juan Carlos Nunez de Boa. I understood my father’s reasons. He knew he wouldn’t last much longer in his current condition, and the opportunity was too great to pass up, but more than that, he worried for Yusuf and Isabella, so he arranged to have Yusuf, Isabella and Sebastian make the journey with me. Again, what deal he made with this man I can’t say, but by some miracle, Yusuf and Isabella were left under my care, and no one bothered them on the voyage.”

  “But you were just a boy,” Layla said sympathetically.

  Jay smiled warmly, the idea that she might actually believe him filling him with hope. “Understand, Layla, children were not as molly-coddled as they are today, and fifteen was no longer considered a child. Many children were sent to work at the age of four and five in those days. This was long before Child Labor Laws.”

  “Of course,” she said.

  “At any rate, we worked very hard on that voyage and earned what little scraps of food that were awarded to us. We spent our nights in a small corner of the ship; the four of us huddled together, dreaming of this far away tropical land we were heading for. But nothing in our childish musings could have prepared us for the beauty of the Caribbean. It really and truly was a paradise—the warm balmy weather tempered with a soothing breeze, water the most unusual shade of blue, the lush plants and exotic flowers. As we approached land, all four of us stood on the deck of the ship in awe and wonder. At that particular moment, I didn’t care if I never saw Spain again.”

  “I imagined that heaven must look like the Caribbean,” Issy piped in. “Certainly, no other place on earth and beyond could be so beautiful.”

  “We worked hard that first year, tilling the land, harvesting sugar-cane, helping to build homes and establishments for other settlers,” Jay continued. “We lived outdoors, kept to ourselves as much as possible, sleeping under the stars.”

  “Bug bites became a common way of life for us,” Ben added in. “The only negative I can report in those first twelve months. The best memories are the many hours we spent rambling through the mountains, eating citrus fruits and picking coffee beans that grew wild in the fertile mountain valleys.”

  Jay nodded, a trace of a happy memory gleaming in his eyes. “Nunez was a good man. He treated us well and fed us well. After just a little over a year of working for him, he gifted me with a small patch of land in the far corner of his estate. I can’t begin to express how good it felt to finally have our own home. We built a small but comfortable house. We planted tobacco and sugarcane, and treated the Taino that helped on our farm with all the respect and dignity that Lucia would have expected of us.”

  “I had my own flower garden,” Issy said in a wistful voice. “Blooms of orchids, jasmine and hibiscus grew in abundance.”

  “Those were happy times,” Jay said, smiling at his friends, one at a time. “But we were still young, still restless, desperate to explore the other regions of this paradise on earth. We were not like the other settlers who were not eager to explore the wild areas. We were young and foolish, I suppose. We spent many days walking the wilderness, learning the hunting habits of the Taino. It was on one of these many expeditions that we uncovered a small, isolated river. Bending down to splash water on his face, Yusuf let out a loud gasp. The river was absolutely glistening with gold nuggets. We returned to that same spot three days later and filled as many bags as we could with pure gold, enough to ensure us a very comfortable life at that time. And because of the kindness we had shown the Taino, they rewarded us by telling us about the many rivers in that region where we could find even more gold. We managed to acquire a fortune.

  “As time passed, rumors began to reach us, whispers of a magical liquid, a mysterious body of water that could grant one who drank from it unusually long life—”

  “The fountain of youth?” Layla broke in.

  Jay nodded. “It was told to us that the King and Queen themselves had petitioned Juan Ponce de Leon to search the area for this fabled fountain. But whether that was true or not is still debated to this day. We questioned some of the older men of the Taino, and it seemed that they were also aware of the myths. They explained the general region that the fabled fountain was supposed to be in. So that September, we set out in a small boat to look for it. To say that we were clueless would be an understatement. As you know, in late summer that area is prone to heavy storms and hurricanes. We were not two days out at sea when the storm clouds began to thicken. Within another three days, we were desperately trying to keep the boat upright. Around our ninth day at sea is when a giant wav
e crashed into us. Whether I slammed into the side of the boat or not, I’m not sure, but the resulting injuries were at least three busted ribs and a left arm that had become dislocated from the shoulder. But by some miracle, I ended up floating to the shore, convinced that the others had been swept away by the sea.”

  “Just before the wave hit, thanks to a bright flash of lightning, I thought I saw the faint outline of land through the dense rain,” Ben butted in, “but didn’t have time to convey that to anyone before all hell broke loose. In actual fact, we were probably less than a half-mile from the shoreline.”

  “Issy had fallen over some time before and was knocked unconscious,” Joey added. “When the boat was torn to shreds by the force of the wave, she was luckier than the rest of us. She floated peacefully, allowing the water to take her where it would. Ben and I clung to each other, managing to break surface, and noticed her a few feet in front of us. We swam to her just as she was starting to stir. Together, we managed to make our way to the shoreline, having no clue what had become of Jay.”

  “We found him unconscious on the beach,” Issy stated. “While Joey and Ben flopped down next to him, exhausted, I was able to search around, looking for something, anything that might revive him. Low and behold, I stumbled upon a small pond at the foot of a hill, a fresh water pond no more than six feet wide. When Joey and Ben had recovered their strength, they carried Jay over to the area that I pointed out. We scooped some water up in our hands and tried to get him to drink. When we managed to get some water into him, we noticed immediately that the color returned to his face. He opened his eyes and, wincing from pain, sat up. He was able to tell us what his injuries were right away.”

  “My father had taught me a little bit about medicine,” Jay said. “I was able to recognize the broken ribs and the dislocated arm. But the strange thing was, as I was feeling around my body, identifying my various injuries, I could also feel them healing far too rapidly.”

  “As soon as Jay explained what was happening inside him, I suspected immediately that we had found the very thing we’d come in search of,” Joey added. “There was no other explanation for what was happening to Jay.”