The canyon was cool and dark as the evening birds began their melodies. The sky had a salmon-pink tint and the smell of pitch from the pine trees filled the cool recesses of the canyon. Francis walked slowly, dragging his feet. He had been walking all day and was exhausted. He had to keep moving be because he had run away from home. He had seen his picture on a milk cartoon in a grocery store and knew his parents would try to find him. Now, he was worried because soon it would be night and it would be cold that night. He hadn't had anything to eat and his stomach hurt. Francis began singing an old religious song his mother had sung to him every night and it reassured him.
     Now his mother was at home near death. She had refused to go to the hospital because she didn't believe in modern medicine. She had faith that God would take her fever away. Francis prayed for her every night but it didn't seem to help. Sometimes he thought God wasn't listening to him and even sometimes that there was no God to listen. However, whenever these doubts would come he pretended to be steadfast in his faith in front of his mother. The only person he told was the priest during confession.

     The priest reassured him and Francis regained his faith, but the doubts still haunted him. He had heard of a faith healer who lived in this area of Spain near Granada and thought that perhaps he could heal her. He pinned all his hopes on a desperate quest, to seek the faith healer in his remote mountain home.
     Francis heard talking. Francis's mother had warned him about strangers. He had heard terrible stories about what happened to homeless children on the road. He ran behind a bush. From behind the bush he saw a shepherd with a flock of sheep. Francis watched the shepherd, who was sitting against a rock gazing at a small spring which gushed out from the canyon wall.

     The shepherd knelt close to the spring and washed his face in it saying, "Ahh", to himself. The shepherd's face looked sunburnt and had lines. Francis looked at the spring longingly, because his mouth was dry and he was thirsty. The sheep baaed softly nudging the shepherd. He laughed and moved out of the way saying, "Thirsty are you, old Mendez? Well drink your fill. We've got a long way to go tomorrow."

     Francis watched the shepherd gather dry twigs and branches and build a fire. The shepherd then opened a can of chili which he poured into a pan and heated. He ate quickly taking large bites. Then the shepherd said his rosary and wrapped his thick wool blanket around himself. Francis watched the shepherd fall asleep as a cool wind gushed through the canyon.

     Francis remained quiet behind the bush. It began to get cooler and Francis began to shiver. He sneaked quietly up to the shepherd. The sheep began bleating and the shepherd awoke.

     The shepherd looked at Francis and Francis ran back into the bushes. Francis took fast deep breaths. He crouched on his legs like a frightened squirrel. He heard nothing but crickets chirping, the spring trickling, and the sound of his own breathing.

     Fearful thoughts ran through his mind like packs of wolves devouring him with anxiety. Francis crouched down crunching on dry twigs, listening to the trickling of the spring. Francis watched the shepherd approach the bushes he was hiding in.

     Francis cried out, "I have no money, nothing of value. I am just a poor beggar." The shepherd got closer and closer to the bushes. Francis screamed. The sheep began to scatter into the recesses of the canyon. Francis heard the shepherd yell, "I won’t hurt you. I’m not a bandit. I’m just a shepherd. My name is Alejandro". Francis remained silent.
     Alejandro yelled, "It is getting dark. You must be hungry. Come share my food with me." Alejandro called his sheep and then gathered dead branches and leaves. Again Alejandro wrapped his thick wool blanket around himself and fell asleep.
     Slowly the sky darkened and the Milky Way stretched across the pitch black, full of stars, shining like quartz pebbles in a mountain stream. Francis' hunger and thirst overcame his fear. He walked up to Alejandro. Francis began eating the remains of the chili from the pot.    

     Alejandro woke and asked, "What is your name and why are you out here tonight. Where is your home?"
     Francis answered, "I am from Granada. My name is Francis and I am seeking a faith healer who lives around here. I want him to heal my mother."
     Alejandro asked, "Is your mother sick, Francis?"
     Francis said, "Yes, she is near death. She sees visions. She says the angel of death is coming to get her." Alejandro nodded and a breeze blew through the canyon rustling the leaves of the trees. Alejandro wrapped the blanket tightly around his shoulders and say up.

     He said, "I feel for you young boy. My mother was taken by the Nazis when I was young. She was hiding Jews in her home. I know how much it hurts when your mother is in danger. I was so young when they took her that I barely remember her. All I remember of her was seeing her staring out at me from a boxcar door. I remember that her face looked pale and ghostly and she looked sad. Then a man in a uniform slammed the door shut. I will never forget what I saw or the pain that I felt."
     Francis said, "I'm sorry to hear that."
     Alejandro said, "That's the past." Francis began shivering and Alejandro wrapped his blanket around himself and Francis' frail shoulders. They both went to sleep.
     Morning came with a light mist filling the canyon. The birds were singing and all seemed peaceful with the world. When they awoke, Alejandro made a fire, and they ate cornbread together. As they sat around the fire warming themselves Francis said, "I had a strange dream last night."
     Alejandro asked, "What did you dream?"
     Francis said, "I dreamt we were in a distant place, somewhere in the north, praying in a grotto." They were silent for a few moments and sipped coffee.
     Then Alejandro said, "You know some dreams are prophesies." He sipped his coffee and went on, "Yes, I believe your dream must have been a prophesy."
     Francis asked, "Then will you go with me to seek the healer?"
     Alejandro said, "You are just a boy. You will need a companion on your trip."
     Francis said, "I am a man. I have taken care of my mother all these years. I am a man!" Alejandro laughed. Francis glared at him angrily and said, "What are you laughing at? No, don't come with me. I don't need your help."
     Alejandro said, "Even a man needs a companion."
     Francis said, "All right then we will go together."
Later in the afternoon, Alejandro left his sheep in the care of his friend, Jose. As they stood by a stream, Jose said, "You must be really loco. I thought I was crazy but you take the cake!"
     Alejandro laughed. He said, "Yes you are right. I must be crazy, but I am following what my heart tells me."
     Jose said, "Good luck. You'll need it."
     Alejandro said, "Thank you old friend, for taking care of my sheep."
     Jose said, "At my age I have no business taking on more work, but you are an old friend and I owe you for all the times you bought me food."
     Alejandro said, "You know if you didn't spend so much money on tequila you would have money."
     Jose knelt by the stream and splashed water on his face.

     He said, "As long as I have drunk tequila, I am better off with it than without it. I would die without it. It is an old friend."
     As Jose stood up, Alejandro patted him on the back and said, "Again, thanks old friend." Alejandro left Jose in the clearing wondering if Jose would be alive when he returned.
     Francis and Alejandro took a bus to Madrid. While on the bus Francis tried to read a magazine, but he couldn't concentrate on it. All he could think about was his mother. He recalled some of the good times he had with her, when he was five and they lived in the tiny village of Mijas. The village was on the Costa Del Sol up in the mountains, overlooking the sparkling blue Mediterranean Sea.

     Francis and his mother used to sit out in the park overlooking the sea and the towns on the brown coastal plain below. They sold brass pots, candle holders, and trays. Francis' mother told him some of the adventures Francis' father had. She told Francis some of the stories he had told her about being a sailor and fighting pirates in the South China Sea. Francis mother also told him of his father's heroic exploits in the Spanish Civil War. Francis told her that he wanted to be a soldier or a sailor, like his father, and make his mother proud of him.    

     Francis' mother told him, "Your father died in a drunken brawl with another sailor. Promise me you’ll never follow in your father's footsteps. I want my boy to become a priest and help the poor," she said.
     Since living in Mijas his mother had married another man, her third husband, and they lived in Granada. It was peaceful there and Francis never had to worry about being hungry or cold. However, he missed the old days when it was just he and his mother. Now, he feared he might never see her again.
     The bus went past the Madrid airport and Francis watched the jet planes roar across the sky. Francis asked Alejandro, "Have you ever been on a plane?"
     Alejandro said, "Yes when I was in the military."

     Francis said, "I was on a plane once too, with my step father."
Francis remembered how as they rose into the sky all around them was a world of clouds. Francis said, "Up there above the clouds it’s so peaceful and beautiful, like heaven." Francis remembered how when night fell as they flew, the cities below them looked like islands of light in a sea of darkness. Francis pulled a tiny locket out of his pocket. Francis opened it up and showed it to Alejandro. Francis said, "This is my mother."
     Alejandro opened it and gazed at it. Alejandro said, "You favor your mother. You have the same tiny chin, the same almond shaped eyes." Francis was tired. Night had come and they continued to drive through the dark countryside. Francis laid his head on Alejandro's shoulder and fell asleep.
     The next morning they awoke on the bus driving through fields bursting with arbors of grapes with green netting to keep the birds from eating them. The grapes sparkled with dew an the mountains were shined and beautiful in the soft spring sunlight.

     To Francis the world seem once more magical, full of promise and hope. The bus stopped in a small town. Francis had thought the healer lived around here. It looked like a place he had dreamed about, he told Alejandro and they got off the bus.

     They walked down the narrow streets, full of shops and restaurants, begging having spent most of their money. They had no luck with their begging. Francis spoke up, "I have a silver crucifix given to me by my mother. But I will pawn it and get us money for food." They went to a pawn shop. Francis looked at the shiny gold and silver watches and rings with precious stones pawned by others. He pawned the crucifix.

     With the money they got from the crucifix they got a cheap hotel room. The bill for the hotel room took the little money they got from the crucifix and they were broke again.

     Francis sat on the tattered mattress on the bed in the hotel room and said, "I am so hungry."
     Alejandro said, "Don't worry our trip will be over soon."
The next morning Francis said he had another dream. In it he saw a place in the mountains to the north with a tiny chapel high on the mountainside. They hitchhiked with a truck driver north and traveled through barren mountains with pine small pine trees. Suddenly they saw a chapel high on a mountainside.

     Francis joyously exclaimed, "This is the place in my dream!!!"
They stopped and got out. They were at a crossroads in a desolate valley which was dusty and dry with a mountain ridge looming above it made of grey contorted rock. It was getting toward night. Francis felt more exhausted than he had ever felt.
     Alejandro asked, "What do we do now? What did your dream tell you?"
     Francis said, "My dream didn't tell me what to do. I just saw this place."
     Alejandro said, "Well perhaps we should go to the chapel to spend the night."
     They started to climb the mountainside. Francis complained, "My legs and stomach hurt."
     Alejandro said, "We only have a little more to go."
     Francis sat down on a rock elbows on knees and hands holding head and said, "I can't make it."
     Alejandro said, "Moses could have given up climbing mount Sinai, but he had faith. If you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move mountains. The Bible says so. Have faith. God is with us."
     Francis angrily exclaimed, "If God is with us, why am I suffering so much?" They began climbing again and soon reached the church. They went inside and Francis saw a tiny altar. Above the altar was a painted picture of Jesus carrying a little lamb on his shoulders.

     Francis and Alejandro sat in a pew. Francis asked Alejandro, "Do you think God answer's prayers?"
     Alejandro put his arm around Francis' shoulder and said, "Yes. Once, my brother was in a terrible accident. His heart stopped beating and he died. The doctors did everything they could. I prayed to the virgin and my brother's heart started beating again. It was a miracle. The doctors couldn't understand it."
     Francis face began to glow. He said, "I know God answers prayers too. My mother's second husband used to get drunk, come home, yell and hit my mother. I prayed that he would go away and one day he didn't come back home. I never knew where he went but he was gone. My prayers were answered."
     Alejandro said, "Maybe God brought you here through the dream to test you. I believe he wanted to test your faith. I believe if you ask him now, he will heal your mother."
     Francis said, "I believe too. Yes I believe." They knelt silently praying. They slept in the church.
     The next morning when Francis woke, he was excited. He tugged on Alejandro's arm waking him. Francis talked excitedly saying, "I had another dream. In it I saw my mother well and cooking tortilla's in the kitchen, like she always does!"
     Alejandro said, "Well it could be a sign from God."
     Francis said, "Don't you see? My prayers have been answered! My mother is healed! We don't have to seek the healer anymore."
     Alejandro said, "Good. I am sure Jose is tired of keeping my sheep. It will be good to go home. I will go with you to see you safely to your home."
     Francis went up to the rack of candles. He dropped his last coin in the box and lit a candle. He told Alejandro, "I thanked God for his grace in healing my mother. I also prayed for food and shelter for tonight."
     Soon a priest came in and saw them. He asked them what they were doing there. Alejandro said, "We are tired and thirsty."
     The priest looked down. He said, "Come with me and I will feed you."
     They drove down the side of the mountain and Francis saw three white doves fly from a pine tree. As they neared the bottom he saw a tiny doe drinking from a stream. He knew it was a sign from God. It confirmed his dream. They told the priest of their journey. He said, "I will say a special prayer for your mother tonight. I'm sure God is with you. He brought you this far safely on your quest. God has a plan in everything."
     The next morning Francis called his step father. His stepfather told him his mother's fever had gone down and she was better. Francis jumped up and down and told Alejandro, "I knew it! She is going to get well." Alejandro picked Francis up and spun him around.

     Francis stepfather wired him some money to come home. They took a bus to Granada. Francis looked out the window of the bus at the snow covered mountains. He was excited. He looked up at Alejandro, smiled and hugged him. Alejandro patted him on the head. Soon they could see the Alhambra, a fortified palace sitting high above the city with its red walls.

     They took a cab to Francis house. As they passed through Francis neighborhood the flowers were in bloom in front of the houses. There were roses and mimosa blooming around them. Birds hopped from branch to branch in the trees. Francis felt exhilarated. He had called his stepfather before they left the priest and his step father said his mother's temperature was near normal.

     Looking around at the beautiful neighborhood he felt peaceful and safe. He thought that if God could make such beautiful things he could do anything, including healing his mother.
     Soon they were at Francis' house. Francis knocked on the door. Francis stepfather came out wearing a black suit. Inside a group of old women were huddled together in the foyer in black dresses with black veils over their faces.

     Francis's stepfather put his hand on Francis' shoulder and said, "I am sorry. Your mother has died. It happened suddenly. Her heart failed." Francis ran to his mother's room. Alejandro followed him and sat on the bed next to him.
     Francis had a vacant stare. Francis said, "I had faith, but it was not enough. I don't believe in God anymore." Alejandro held Francis silently. What could he have said? He could have told Francis that death was a part of life and that it was her time. He could have told him that God has a reason for everything and that she was in a better place now, without suffering. But he couldn't get it out. It stuck in his throat.
     Then Alejandro spoke. He said, "God does answer prayers. Sometimes the answer is no." Alejandro left the room.
     Francis lay back and closed his eyes. He hadn't slept much in the past few days and soon he was sound asleep. He dreamed he saw his mother soaring in a brilliant blue sky with clouds rolling peacefully by.