SHE'S LIKE THE WIND

Natalia Ramirez was welcomed into the world on a sweltering September evening in Los Lunas, NM. Her parents had lived in the New Mexico village for years, preferring the idyllic small-town mentality that made the village what it was to the big cities. Her father, Antonio Ramirez, had made his living in Los Lunas as the village's chief mechanic, while her mother, whose heritage was laced in Comanche ancestry, acted as a valued historian of the Los Lunas Museum of Heritage and Arts, specializing in the Native American history and ties that abounded within the village. Though they both earned a modest living, both her mother and father couldn't have been happier to have their only daughter. As a child, Natalia quickly learned the values and detriments of innate curiosity. She loved to learn anything and everything that she could, and she was able to retain the knowledge of most things thanks to her excellent memory. Due to her parents each having such distinguishing ancestral backgrounds, Natalia learned as much as she could about both aspects of her heritage. She excelled at her schooling, though she always found time to do things outside of school as well. When it came to athletics, Natalia had always loved to run, but that was where her athletic prowess ended. She spent much of her time with more creative things like reading and writing, and though she loved the serenity that was ever present in her town, a part of Natalia always wanted something more.

Her childhood passed, untainted by trials or tribulations, until she was nearly fifteen years old. She could remember sitting in her high school classroom when the principal, a man she'd known since she was an infant, came to the room and pulled her from it. He provided her with the news of her father's death -- from what should have been routine maintenance on one of the resident's vehicles. She later learned that he had been crushed to death after one of his instruments had failed to act in its intended capacity. A personal tragedy to be sure, but nothing more than a horrible accident. Her mother was devastated, which left Natalia to act as the adult in the relationship. The situation got bad enough that Natalia finally contacted her paternal grandparents who were living just outside of Austin, TX in a small town called Rycade. They insisted that she and her mother come to live with them, but getting her mother to agree was a different matter entirely.

In the end, her mother acquiesced and they moved into the modest house her grandparents occupied. Having developed the tendency to naturally want to take care of her family, Nat settled into a similar role, often taking care of her mom and her grandparents, at least as far as helping them out the best a teenager could. In moving into her grandparents' house, Nat also found that she was living next door to a boy named Mason Pruett, a boy her age that had grown up in the small Texan town. She was quickly drawn to Mason and the pair developed a fast friendship. She found that, though they'd grown up in areas that were similar in size, that he was often impressed by what he perceived as a worldliness that he believed her to have. And in turn, she was always charmed by his chivalry, from the times he offered to walk her home (when neither one of them had a car) to the times he offered to drive her home (when he finally saved up enough). He became one of her first friends, and certainly one of her best, making the transition from Los Lunas to Rycade just a little easier on her.

If Mason helped with making her feel at home, though, so too did Amelia Bay, another one of Rycade's locals. Nat and Amelia met early on when Natalia went out for the track team in an attempt to reclaim some familiarity within her life. Track proved much better than that, though, as she and Amelia began to bond. They were different enough that Nat always found their friendship to be interesting and fun, and similar enough that they just got along. Nat was always the girlier of the two (which wasn't really saying a whole lot), and she had a love and passion for studying and learning, but those differences always seemed to fade whenever they were around each other. And Natalia always appreciated Amelia's free-spirited nature, so their becoming best friends was really just a matter of eventuality.

Making friends in general became easier once she'd settled in. Through Mason, she met Ryan Slobodian, Mason's closest male friend, and others as well. She and Mason also began seeing each other, though that didn't happen until the start of their junior year. They had become inseparable, both equally smitten with each other. He was the first person she ever felt this feeling of love for, and for awhile, that made everything okay. She was content in Rycade for the moment, with her family, her friends, and Mason. So content that after graduation, she and Mason were married.

It took time for the glow and light of marriage to fade. Their newlywed phase was blissful, but eventually, Natalia was reminded of what she'd always dreamed of: getting out. It wasn't Rycade that was the problem, of course, because she'd wanted that for herself even before she'd ever left New Mexico. It was the feeling of wanderlust, the feeling that she needed to get out and see more of the world. And her chance at that came when she was accepted to Tulane University. Still, she struggled with the desire to leave and the desire to be with her husband, to stay in the town that had really become her home. The decision was one of the hardest she was ever faced with, and not even confiding in her best friend made it any easier, though Nat always thought that Amelia understood why she wanted what she did.

With the decision heavy on her heart, Natalia brought her hopes and dreams to Mason. She wanted to get out, yes, but she wanted him to come with her. She rationalized that it wouldn't be forever, but Mason didn't want to leave his hometown. Hurt and frustrated, Natalia acted rashly. Taking her acceptance, she made the decision to go without him. There was no way she could have known that she was a couple of weeks pregnant at the time. Before she left town, she promised Amelia she would always keep in touch with her, and that she'd come back and visit as often as she could. It didn't take Nat too long, however, to realize she could only uphold half of that promise.

Once Natalia was settled at Tulane, she began to question things like her decision to go, her marriage, everything and anything that could be questioned, really. Amidst the vibrancy of New Orleans and the friends she made there, she decided to end Mason's misery -- by sending him divorce papers. In all honesty, she didn't realize how much that would hurt him. Not until after they'd been sent and she found out she was pregnant, which seemed to happen one right after the other, by the way. Feeling awful, Nat confessed to Amelia, on the phone one night, that she wondered if she'd made the right choices. At first, she kept the word of her pregnancy a secret from her best friend. She knew Amelia was still in Rycade and still close to the people she'd grown up with, and she didn't want to put her in the middle of the crossfire.

When Natalia's family found out that she was pregnant, they immediately insisted she return to Rycade. She refused their insistence, claiming that she had a right to make her own life, especially now that she and Mason were no longer married. Although they were frustrated by this decision, they weren't going to leave her hanging out to dry. So instead of her moving back to Rycade, her family moved to New Orleans for her. This was a huge relief when her son was born, a son she eventually named Mason Antonio Pruett-Ramirez, whom she took to calling Tony. After Tony was born, life was a constant balancing act. She continued to keep in touch with Amelia, and continued to keep the secret from her. It wasn't until she learned that Amelia's fiance, Chad, had been killed in a car accident, that Natalia really reinforced her vow to be there for her friend.

Shortly after everything seemed to happen, Natalia met up with Amelia. She had grown concerned when she'd heard that her friend was leaving Rycade. Though she couldn't see Amelia until she felt she could take Tony with her, the time finally came when Natalia could make the trip with her son. She found Amelia working her way through Europe, their reunion a mixture of bittersweet and happy, and it was then that Natalia revealed her secret. She introduced her son to 'Aunt Amelia,' and begged Amelia not to tell anyone. Nat always maintained that, when the time was right, she would tell Mason. Amelia agreed not to tell anyone, and for the rest of the time that Nat was there, she enjoyed reigniting her friendship with the other woman. Her departure was as bittersweet as her arrival had been, but eventually, Nat had to get back to the real world. She still had her schooling and her parents to take care of.

Time passed, each year bringing its own milestone (though most years, it was her son's birthday). Natalia endured the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina with the rest of the Tulane students, finished her dual degree in history and education, and eventually began teaching high school history in one of the areas of New Orleans that hadn't been affected by the natural disaster. For the most part, she was happy. She had a wonderful life, with a wonderful family, a wonderful career, a wonderful son. But it still always seemed as though something was missing from the puzzle. And the truth was, the older Tony got, the harder it became to deny that he had a father out there. A father that he didn't know about, that didn't know about him. Feeling guilty about the way she'd handled everything surrounding Tony, and the Mason situation in general, Nat returned to Rycade. It wasn't an easy decision, by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it was probably the second hardest thing she'd ever done. But, she knew she had to.

Needless to say, Mason was, initially, not at all happy in seeing Nat again. And, things got much worse when his best friend, who had found out, told him before she could figure out a way to bring the subject up. It was bad enough that she had to find a way to tell him anyway, but worse that she had to explain why Mason hadn't found out from her. It took a lot of time for them to really begin talking to each other again. But she tried to show Mason that she was back, and that she had no intention of ever taking Tony away from him again. It took awhile for any kind of trust to develop between them again, but eventually, things evened out. Though things were occasionally still rocky, they weren't nearly as bad as they'd started out. As they began to try and give Tony some semblance of a normal family life, Nat realized that there was still love there. Love for Mason, beyond just the fact that they had a child together. And yet, it never occurred to her to try and recapture that love. She wouldn't have thought she deserved a second chance, even if it had. Instead, she contented herself with what they did have. And that was their son.

Still, the peace they'd seemed to have found wasn't entirely without its bumpy roads, mostly at the hands of the gossiping townspeople in Rycade. It was tough to be back there, for more than just the Mason reason. It was such a small town that everybody talked, and Nat often found herself wishing for a way out. Of course, she never said that to her ex. She'd made a promise never to take their son away again. And, in thinking Mason would always want to remain in his hometown, Nat never brought the subject up. Which was why she was both surprised and relieved when he ended up bringing the topic up, a year or so after her return. It seemed that he had somehow come to the same conclusion on his own: that a fresh start, somewhere they might not be recognized, somewhere they could be free of the gossip, somewhere they could live in peace in quiet, was just the thing they needed. Nat agreed to go along with whatever plans Mason had in mind, wherever he wanted to go. She actually found herself excited about this prospect of starting over, in the town they finally settled on -- Brunswick, Georgia. And from there, she didn't look back.