The Samambaia

She lived on the 13th floor of an elegant building in a plush neighborhood in São Paulo, Brazil. She loved her nice apartment in that elegant condominium and they had worked so hard to make it look warm and inviting. Angela and Sergio would take about 13 years to pay mortgage. It didn't matter. They loved it because it was elegant, safe, distant (from downtown and its neurosis, strange people and dangers), it was a new all in one residential project with two pools, wet bar, sauna, restaurant, coffee shop, gym, spa center, nice employees and many catering services but the most important - all the residents were interested in maintaining a low profile. They all kind of had the same financial background and status quo. This was how São Paulo was. A dangerous place to be whether you were rich or poor but living in a gated community - so protected. But, this was until the financial crisis of 2008 hit the country and many of the apartments in the condo had to be rented, not sold as the owners first wanted.

They were married for 9 months now... still on a honeymoon - everything was perfect. They lived in São Paulo because of his job and she had to leave her dear Rio de Janeiro, Ipanema beach, the sun and the sandy beaches, her family and friends, the openness and happiness; transfer her university course and settle down in cold, windy, and rainy São Paulo! Sometimes she would find herself looking at the skyscrapers and the enormous trees from inside her living room with her nose glued to the coldness of the glass door which overlooked the large balcony and the gray big city from the distance - wondering if she would ever see blue skies and white clouds again.

The apartment had 2 bedrooms, two bathrooms, a lovely kitchen, spacious dining/living room and two balconies from where they could ser the condominium's gardens and pools - but she would rarely go down and enjoy the little pleasures of gated communities. It was always so cold. And rainy. And cloudy. What don't we do in the name of love, she thought. Yet, one thing pleased her the most: her many exotic and multi-colored orchids all over the balcony - covering one side of the wall. Many of them had been brought from Rio de Janeiro by car.

Angela had a green thumb and she had grown many of those orchids herself. She had found them in the Floresta da Tijuca woods by searching  them hidden over tress and by wandering in the greener, deeper areas and feeling the humidity and hearing the noises of the leaves blowing in the wind. She enjoyed nature, walking barefoot on the grass and dry, brown leaves, and if she really could, she'd have a forest inside of her apartment! Sometimes, she wo would see and elf or little green creatures hidden under mushrooms or behind the trees, so tiny and so precious and she'd walk carefully near them. She loved animals, plants, flowers and specially Samambaias, her true passion but all this after her husband, of course. He meant the whole world to her.

After some weeks in the apartment, she begged him to go with her to the local, big Garden Center near Chácara das Flores because she wanted to buy a long, green Samambaia - or Christmas Fern - in order to hang it in the living room's ceiling, by the big window. It would look lovely and there was enough light and air in that corner for the fern to develop happily and grow beautifully. She needed green and nature around her or she'd feel bleak and depressed just as the view that came from outside.

They bought the greenest and longest one. It was a Polystichum acrostichoides, a rare type of fern and it looked healthy, green and strong. A beautiful plant but needy of water and love - as all plants. They carried it in the car with care and lovingly hung it in the corner of their airy living room and from where Angela could open the balcony's glass doors during the day. Oh so exquisite! She clapped her hands and giggled with pleasure as her husband stepped back, admiring it too. She touched its long branches. It was home. It was happy. It "knew" her immediately. It moved its long green little branches. It knew who she was. They bonded immediately. Before she opened the glass door of the big balcony the fern delicately moved one of its branches and delicately touched, no - caressed her face.

The very next day - and normally weird things happen almost always immediately after we are the happiest - a neighbor from the 6th floor rang her doorbell, unexpectedly. This was when Angela had to test her hidden powers.

She introduced herself as Malvina, from the Curitiba, a city in Southeast Brazil. She told Angela that she was new in the building, had no land line yet and needed to call an important person today - an urgent matter - confirm her presence in the W & S Annual Meeting, a call of the utmost importance. Angela invited her to come in. Would be so kind as to allow her to make a quick phone call. The building's janitor had told her that Angela had a telephone and that she was a pleasant, polite person to ask favors to. Could she? Of course - but Angela felt a sudden gust of cold air that blew her long blond hair around her sweet, oval face.

As soon as the strange, short, plump, weird looking woman came in she immediately glanced at the lovely, innocent, green fern --- hanging majestically in the corner of the living room... and she... stared at it intensely. How beautiful it looked. Oh so nice. Why wasn't it mine? After a long cold night, a warm breeze was blowing from outside and the plant was full of strength and vitality, moving its branches softly... so impressive... so peacefully and so... NOT hers! She wanted one exactly like that one! Better, she wanted... that one. It was perfect. She had to have THAT one! The woman's evil, yellowish-dark eyes narrowed and she just stood there as a bad omen; malignant, jealous.

Malvina excused herself, approached the fern, looked intensely at it with envy and touched the plant but not really carrying about it. Her intense meanness and Evil Eye struck the plant with a powerful and mysterious force. Where could she get one exactly the same if not that one? She knew she could own it if she wanted to. She knew how to do make it happen.

Suddenly, Angela felt as if she were standing in the North Pole and wished that this Malvina woman was gone from her sight right now! Angela always felt strange, weird things when strange, weird people were around her, near her and sometimes she would predict things to happen; she had experienced overwhelming déjà vu's or  felt that "already seen" phenomena because... she had lived in the "twilight zone" when she fell in that deep hole, many years ago. She could have died, they had told her, from that mysterious, unexpected push... on that Halloween evening.  Yes, she knew she had been pushed into the hole. She could have died that very same day. How odd to remember this now but she couldn't help these thoughts from popping up in her minds like multi-colored soap bubbles.

When she looked at Malvina again, she was petrified! Oh, so desperate. Now she knew why. Quickly... and only for a few minutes... she saw a tall, skinny, horrible old looking woman, dressed in dark, ragged clothes, with big ears. She had a long twisted nose, long dirty, black hair and very big mean yellow, evil eyes. She also had a pointed chin with a disgusting hairy black wart on it and she was holding a long, black broom in her hand. She looked so old, so menacing, probably older than the human race itself. Angela covered her pink mouth in horror and her beautiful fair face became expressionless. She blinked her deep blue eyes and tried to find the courage hidden within her. She heard a long, nasty laugh coming from somewhere around them. That evil "thing" was a witch! That monster was an evil black sorcerer.

Oh, this "woman" had to go away now or she couldn't help herself, Angela thought hard - she might become that mighty-flying-little-being-from-the-woods-thing she had seen reflected in her mirror many times (and all those mysterious things that she knew deep in her soul  were able to happen - just with a blink of her eyes) and for sure, supernatural things would happen right now and... really radical ones! Oh yes, she knew that things were about to happen - right now; all assembled and aligned together with the forces of nature and the 4 elements of the universe that helped her, assisted her and protected her.

Angela moved softly and the air around her filled with magic sounds like chimes moving in an afternoon breeze. Malvina heard this indistinct, subtle noise and immediately stopped her evil eye curse... or whatever negative thoughts or spells she was pursuing and turned around and looked at Angela. She gasped for air. She opened her mouth in awe, shrieked loudly and held her breath. She tried to cover her eyed with both hands because of the radiant light coming from Angela. Her long fingers covered her face. She was caught red handed and this was bad, Oh so bad, specially if it occurred in "their" territory! How was she to know? Why did she always do this? Why couldn't she ever control herself and her little bad temper, her selfishness? Her desires and possessions of other people's things? Why did she hate people so much? Now... what, huh? See what you did, you old witch?  She had to escape, run, go! Where was her broom when she needed it? When would she ever learn? When would she ever ever ever learn?

Was she doomed? No! She was a powerful, black witch! She quickly walked toward Angela but saw Angela's long, beautiful, transparent open wings... the blinding whiteness and pureness of fairies. Oh all that goodness that she hated so much. And so, boldly, leaving the living room she started begging forgiveness and excusing herself by saying things like I didn't know, I didn't know, I couldn't know... my powerful "faerie", my fair little elemental sweet fair fairy... I'm so sorry... forgive me (but I hate you so), I will go away right now! I will never ever come back... (maybe later). Please, let me go and please don't cast your good fairy spells on me... I beg forgiveness... I am leaving now... see? Goodbye!

Sadly, Angela thought that meanness was everywhere in the world and all around - specially the so called unnoticed Evil Eye. The evil eye is a folk belief that the envy elicited by the good luck of fortunate people may result in their own misfortune, whether it is envy of material possessions, or of beauty, of nature, of health or of offspring’s. The perception of the nature of the phenomenon; its causes, and possible protective measures, varied between different cultures and civilizations for centuries. The fear of the evil eye is based on the belief that certain people possess eyes whose glance had the power to injure, waste away, dry, make babies sick, desiccate, wither or even kill - and that it was completely intentional - especially those of sorcerers.

Angela heard the door close behind her with a loud bang. She saw what the evil creature had done even before she had left the room. Her beautiful green fern was completely and totally... dry - dead! Oh... so dead. She had "killed" her nature friend, her plant, and her "home", her little domain! It was brown dry. How could somebody not love nature and beauty? She was really hurt and angry now and remembered the witches laugh from sometime in her past. Was that... her?

She sadly understood and quietly approached her "dead" Samambaia. She stood under it and cried pinkish-white crystal clear tears. She cried for all the trees and plants and flowers that had been destroyed by unwise hands and meanness. After a very long time and after reciting secret prayers and enchantments, she cleaned her rainbow colored tears from her sad eyes and, lovingly, touched the fern's dried out little branches while whispering languages from the Celts and the Runes and evoking ethereal, old, magic words. Her finger tips sparkled little shinny bubbles and tiny rainbows filled the room... and... the... reaction... was... immediate!

The fern's color and vitality started coming back, the branches were outstretching and growing miraculously in front of her and she even saw a lovely, pink, blue and yellow familiar sylph friend come into the living room through the balcony's door and fly over the fern lovingly, giggling with pleasure! She had succeeded after all. The eternal battle of good against evil, since the beginning of times. She whispered and sang, calling out for her butterfly friends that quickly flew into the room... moving their wings in soft dances around the happy fern.

She angrily thought about the sorcerer and whispered mysterious, sinister words she wouldn't dare recite before. Angela wasn't bad - only for those who weren't good - and she only wanted to brighten up her world and bring a sparkle of life, joy and lightness to her home and to those she loved with all her heart. Angela promised herself never ever allow strangers into her house again. Beware of the Evil Eye. She had to be observant because she was vulnerable and easily accosted by malevolent spirits of the dead as well as of the living. Evil eye, so true. She needed to be constantly vigilant and act as the evil eye talisman --- known as the blue Nazar, from Turkey, by drawing and bending the malicious gazes right back to its sorcerers. One had to be really careful nowadays because envy is the only universal, unstoppable feeling and just as powerful as love.

Malvina? She mysteriously disappeared without leaving a trace of her whereabouts. They looked for her for many months but she was never to be found or seen again; as if she had left her life... behind her.

As for the apartment on the 6th floor, somehow it was never bought or rented by anybody. It remained that way for years and years to come. People said that they felt freezing, mysterious vibrations and heard a high-pitched humming coming from inside the walls during the night.

The unexplainable forces and mysteries that constantly defy our reason.



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