Sated

Originally published as La Vidente ("The Fortuneteller") in De Fantasmas, Mitos y Fatalidades ("Of Phantoms, Myths, and Fatalities").

I wrote the first version of this story long ago and entirely in Spanish. While translating this embryonic draft I decided that there was a lot of room for improvement. Almost everything, and especially the ending, has been changed. What began as an attempt to write an arabesque tale about a prodigal son and a prophecy transformed into a tragedy playing out beneath the desert sun. Truly, the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. 

Many thanks to my friends and comrades of the TerraGenesis Collective who read this tale and gave me feedback for it!

"A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie" by Albert Bierstadt — Banner
 "Ruth & Naomi" by Jean-François Portaels  — Cover