September 19 - Esmeralda the Giantess

Esmeralda Vandelis was a 15-foot-tall giantess who lived with her (normal-sized) husband Pedro in a dilapidated cottage overlooking the Vandelis Vineyards outside the Spanish village of Santa Terreno.
She was a big and bulky woman. Beefy and lumbering. She had hairy arms, hairy legs, and a bit of a beard. At least that's what all the children in Santa Terreno swore. They never got close enough to her to be sure. The nearest they ever got to her was on the days when they would dare each other to go up the hill to Vandelis Vineyards, step onto the property, and touch the front door.
No one ever made it all the way to the door.
Any time she saw children anywhere near the cottage, she would pick up a rock the size of a beanbag chair and heave it at them. She got pretty close a couple of times--according to the children who all called her the Queen Gorilla.
Esmeralda hadn't left Vandelis Vineyards for as long as anyone could remember. People said that whenever she used to come to town, the cows in neighboring farms would stop giving milk and the chickens would stop laying eggs. Flowers would wilt, crops would wither, children would cry. It got to the point where if anyone caught a glimpse of her coming to town, everyone would run inside, shutter their windows and slam their doors, and wait for her to go away.
And she may have been big, but she wasn't stupid. She knew she wasn't wanted. And since she didn't much care for people anyway, she was content to stay at the vineyards and make wine, and that was that.
Every day Esmeralda and Pedro would go out into the vineyards to pick grapes that Esmeralda would then stomp into oblivion. Her formidable weight and the extra oomph she put into the task made for a far more thorough stomping and thus a much more flavorful and robust wine. It was by far the most popular wine in Santa Terreno.
Esmeralda made it, and Pedro sold it.
Every Friday morning Pedro loaded two casks of wine onto his loyal mule Guapito and took them to Santa Terreno to sell.
Every Friday night after selling all the wine he would stop by El Corazon Peligroso for one quick drink. And then one drink would become another and then many more for both Pedro and his loyal mule Guapito and then suddenly Pedro would realize how late it had become and hurry back home.
She was always up waiting for him and the scene was never pretty.
He would apologize for being so late, and offer her the bag of coins he made from selling the wine, and it was never as heavy as it should have been because at least half of it had been blown at El Corazon Peligroso earlier that night. There would be yelling, apologies, and promises to never do it again.
Then he would go inside, sleep it off, and go through the same routine again the next day.
And so it went for months, years.
Until one late summer Friday night when Pedro came running up to their cottage, hyperventilating.
There had been an accident.
On their way home from El Corazon Peligroso (drunk as usual), Pedro and Guapito had stumbled in front of a wagon. To avoid hitting them, the driver of the wagon had swerved suddenly and the wagon toppled over. Pedro was hysterical. He wasn't sure how bad the scene was, but it looked pretty serious.
"Calm!"
Esmeralda slapped Pedro and he stopped crying. Then she put him on her shoulders and quickly followed his directions to where the accident had taken place. There she saw the wreckage of the wagon, two horses nursing their wounds, and Guapito passed out drunk under an olive tree.
She picked up the wagon and turned it over like it was a toy. Underneath where the wagon had been, the driver and his wife lay unconscious. Esmeralda reached down to pick them up but then heard crying from nearby.
A baby.
It had been thrown from the wagon and landed in a bed of clovers. There was a small nick on his forehead, but other than that he appeared to be OK. He clucked once, turned his head to the side, and fell asleep.
Esmeralda went back over to the wagon, and put the driver over one shoulder and his wife over the other. Then she went back and picked up the baby, cupped him gently in her enormous meaty hand, and started jogging toward Santa Terreno. Pedro stumbled behind her in the dark. Guapito continued to sleep.
She went to the doctor's house and nearly kicked down the door.
"Accident!" she barked when he answered the door.
After the doctor recovered from the shock of seeing the 15-foot-tall Esmeralda (he'd heard the stories about her, of course, but assumed (erroneously, as it turned out) that they were exaggerations), he set about tending to the family of three.
The man and his wife were the worst off, so the doctor focused on them while Esmeralda watched over the baby who delighted in pulling the hairs of her beard.
More help was summoned.
The police came and questioned Pedro about what had happened. Pedro started off using the same tone he would use when lying to Esmeralda. She glared at him.
"Truth!"
The baby giggled at her husky voice and Pedro contritely told the police that it was he who had caused the accident.
The doctor and his helpers continued to work on the man and woman, and their baby fell asleep in Esmeralda's gigantic hand.
When the sun came up the next morning, the man and woman were still in critical condition, Pedro was in jail, and nobody seemed to know what to do with the baby while his parents remained under the doctor's care. However, after seeing how safe, comfortable, and serene he looked under Esmeralda's care--and how protective Esmeralda was of him--everyone agreed that it would be best if she looked after the child until her parents' condition improved or until his other relatives could be located.
It took a long time.
The boy's parents remained unconscious for more than three weeks, and all the while Esmeralda looked after him at Vandelis Vineyards. She fed him formula made from an old family recipe, entertained him by juggling baby sheep in front of him, let him help her squash the grapes for the wine, and gave him the most amazing piggyback rides imaginable.
By the time his parents awoke, such a bond had been forged between the boy (Marco) and Esmeralda that he cried inconsolably when they took him away from her.
Like most people, Marco's parents were initially terrified of Esmeralda when they first encountered her, but they were also grateful for everything she had done for them. Moreover, they could see how attached to Esmeralda Marco had become. So much so that although they had been moving to the next village down the road when the accident occurred, they decided to stay in Santa Terreno instead so that Marco could be near his giant friend. They cautiously asked Esmeralda if it would be OK if Marco came to play with her occasionally.
"OK!" she grunted and almost managed a smile.
Following the example set by Marco and his parents, everyone else in Santa Terreno gradually warmed up to Esmeralda, and she to them. Over the years, she began accepting more and more visitors to Vandelis Vineyards, and ventured more and more frequently into Santa Terreno, first on wine deliveries and later on social calls. In time, the sight of the 15-foot-tall Esmeralda became a normal, everyday occurrence in Santa Terreno.
Although Pedro was eventually released from jail and quit drinking, Esmeralda decided to continue being the sole delivery person for Vandelis Vineyards while he mostly stayed around the vineyards and worked on trying to be a better husband.
Guapito also quit drinking.
In time, Esmeralda was in town nearly every day to deliver the non-alcoholic grape juice that she'd developed and that had become such a hit with all the kids in Marco's school.
All of them now called her Big Juicy Mama instead of Queen Gorilla. All of them except Marco who called her Aunt Esmeralda.