“O si no, you, and others who doubt just like you, will never see our Father in heaven!”

The audience gasped in unison. Someone whispered, “That’s the devil,” but refrained from continuing when Sofi turned to see who it was.

“Come down, come down,” the priest called to the child. “We’ll all go in and pray for you. Yes, yes, maybe all this is really true. Maybe you did die, maybe you did see our Lord in His heaven, maybe He did send you back to give us guidance. Let’s just go in together, we’ll all pray for you.”

With the delicate and effortless motion of a monarch butterfly the child brought herself back to the ground, landing gently on her bare feet, her ruffled chiffon nightdress, bought for the occasion of her burial, fluttering softly in the air. “No, Padre,” she corrected him. “Remember, it is I who am here to pray for you.” With that stated, she went into the church and those with faith followed.

Once the baby was able to receive medical attention (although Sofi took her child this time to a hospital in Albuquerque rather than to rely on the young doctor at the Valencia County clinic who had so rashly declared her child dead), it was diagnosed that she was in all probability an epileptic.

Epilepsy notwithstanding, there was much left unexplained and for this reason Sofi’s baby grew up at home, away from strangers who might be witnesses to her astonishing behavior, and she eventually earned the name around the Rio Abajo region and beyond, of La Loca Santa.

For a brief period after her resurrection, people came from all over the state in hopes of receiving her blessing or of her performing of some miracle for them. But because she was so averse to being close to anyone, the best that strangers could expect was to get a glimpse of her from outside the gate. So “Santa” was dropped from her name and she was soon forgotten by strangers.

She became known simply as La Loca. The funny thing was (but perhaps not so funny since it is the way of la gente to call a spade a spade, and she was called “La Loca” straight out), even La Loca’s mother and sisters called her that because her behavior was so peculiar. Moreover, La Loca herself responded to that name and by the time she was twenty-one no one remembered her Christian name.