5. Señora Estrella

One night Michael was wandering in a moonlit field, searching for his shoes.

It was not just any field. There had been a been a very bloody battle there in mediaeval times and traces of it could still be found if you knew what to look for.

His glowworms became very excited when they shone on a very old coin.

“Finders keepers! Finders keepers!” they chirped delightedly, already planning to spend it on goodies. “Losers weepers!”

“I’m afraid not,” said Michael. “First we ought to try and find its owner.”

“She’ll say it’s hers! Yes, she will!” protested the glowworms. 

They were lighting up a little old lady in a black dress with lace round her throat and a basket on her arm who was staring at them fixedly with one dark eye. A black patch covered the other.

“No, I won’t. In fact, I say I don’t!” laughed the little old lady, amused to see how anxious the glowworms were. “But I must say I think I know who it could belong to. There’s a  ghost that sometimes visits this field who has two coins just like that one in his belly. He’s quite transparent in that section. I thought he might be looking for his boots, for they were cut off him with his legs still in them. But that coin could be what he is searching for.”

“Is he anywhere about? We’ll ask him right out,” said Michael

“There are nights when these fields are thick with the ghosts of soldiers,” said the little old lady. “But I haven’t seen anyone out here of late.”

“Excuse me for changing the subject for a minute, but if you frequent this field, peprhaps you have seen a shoe or two out here.”

“No. Not a shoe. Not at all. I have come across Nuño's pair of bloody boots with his feet and the lower half of his shins still in them. That's the only footwear I've seen here.”

"I'm glad I didn't run into that," said Michael.

“Are you looking for your missing eye?” asked the glowworms brazenly.

Michael gave the lantern a shake because they were being impertinent.

“I’m gathering asparagus,” said the lady, quite unruffled. “That is what I do out here. My eye is right under my patch and it can see as well as the other. But I scratched it one night in the bushes and the brambles and for a while it looked like I might lose it. Oh, it healed. But now I never come here without a patch on it. I’m the kind that thinks lightning hits the same place twice if it isn’t reminded it has already been there and done that.”

Michael changed the subject back to the ghost with the coins and learned his name was Nuño Paez and that he was a knight of the order of Calatrava and wore a white tunic with a red cross on it.

“I’ve seen you before,” said the lady. “You´re the green elf who visits Don Alonso. This time he isn´t the only one who is seeing things. I can see you too. So you’re not just in his imagination, are you? We have always been wary of his imagination because it’s awesomely abundant.”

Michael stated his name and business with Squire Quijano.

The old lady said she was Squire Quijano’s housekeeper and that he could call her Señora Estrella. It was a lovely name because it meant star. Now that she was sure Don Alonso was not talking to himself, she would serve chocolate when Michael came to teach his pupils English. Of course, the glowworms wanted to be invited to some too. Chocolate, not lessons.

                     

 “Boo!”