/uno/

It was a temperate Saturday afternoon when he arrived in Argentina. The place he was headed to was a small village called Valle Daza, smack dab in the middle of La Pampa, a district in Argentina where the population was very small. He had just gotten ordained in Sydney, Australia weeks earlier and there was a big need for priests in the rural communities of Argentina. The arch bishop of Sydney thought it would be a good experience for the young priest that had lived most of his life in the seminary.

From the airport in Bahía Blanca he took a bus that would take him all the way to the village. He only had with him some money he had exchanged at a bank near the airport, and a backpack with some clothes. The rest would be provided for him by his new church.

The drive into the village was hours long and the young priest did not know what to expect. Though from the very beginning he felt much like an outsider. From the moment he got on the bus, the other passengers stared at him. He was different. He was tall, blonde, and blue eyed. Those kinds of people were not seen much in Argentina, at least not outside of the capitol Buenos Aires.

He sat next to an elderly man who immediately started making conversation. He told the young priest that he was going to another little town nearby to open up a store with his son. The priest understood most of what the man said. While in the seminary, what he liked to study most in his free time was math and languages. Over the years he had mastered Spanish, latin, Italian, Portuguese, and German. But it was harder listening to a native speaker because they tended to speed up their words, shorten them, or use slang.

Still, he tried his best to continue the conversation.

As the bus went further into the rural area, they saw a woman with her car by the side of the road. She was waving the bus to stop and help her. But when the bus came to a stop and opened the door for her, she quickly climbed on and got a gun out, putting it to the drivers head. From out of nowhere, four men from outside joined her. They all got on the bus and went to each passenger, threatening them to hand over their money.

When they got to the priest, who was not dressed in any religious attire, one of the robbers yelled, "Give me your money!"

He shook his head, telling them, "I haven't got any."

"The watch." He said instead, "Give us the watch."

The priest quickly complied. From the elderly man beside him, they took all his money. And they disappeared into the woman's car. she with them, and sped off down the dirt road.

-

It was several more hours before they arrived in the village. And when the bus stopped, the priest got up to leave. Grabbing his small backpack, he opened the side zipper and got out a small stack of cash. Handing it to the elder man, he smiled, "Take it. It looks like you need it more than I do."

With teary eyes, the elder man nodded in gratitude and took the money.

From the bus station, there was a short walk to the church where he would be meeting Father Cesar, the man whose place he would be taking in a year's time. It was Father Cesar's job to prepare the Australian newly ordained priest so that he could take over as head of the community upon his retirement. Luke didn't mind the walk from the station to the church. It gave him a chance to see the village and its people.

The walk took him almost twenty minutes and he arrived at the back doors of the church. Outside were children playing soccer and two women were supervising them. Both were young, about his age, or maybe not much older. They were trying to stop their game when he walked in. The ball fell in his direction and he picked it up, holding it over their heads with a laugh as the children jumped to try and take it from him.

He handed the ball to the younger of them, a beautiful young woman with long brunette hair and dark eyes. She was dressed almost like a Sunday school teacher and there was a sweet innocence in her face.

"Thank you." She smiled shyly at him, taking the ball from his hands.

"I'm looking for Father Cesar." He informed them with a polite smile.

"He's inside." The younger girl said to him. "They're having a small party to celebrate the arrival of our new priest."

Luke nodded and followed their direction to head to a small reception room behind the church. On one side was a buffet styled table, and everything was decorated with balloons and banners. The priest walked in shyly, and headed to the back of the room where he saw a middle aged man talking to a group of people.

As soon as Father Cesar saw the blonde haired man, the older priest smiled. "You must be Father Hemmings. The arch bishop in Sydney told me all about you. You know, before he was ordained, he spent a lot of time here in Valle Daza, serving the community." He informed Luke.

Luke nodded. "Yes, he told me about his time in this village too."

"We've been waiting for your arrival." Father Cesar continued. "That's why we organized this party for you."

Luke smiled at the older priest's kindness. He had heard from the arch bishop that Father Cesar had quite a temper. "Thank you for receiving me in your town so warmly. I was a bit worried that the people wouldn't want a new priest. Especially a foreign priest."

"The community understands that this will be a positive change." Father Cesar said.

"And," One of the older women in the group cooed, "He'll surely attract more young girls to church services with that handsome face of his."

The rest of the people in the group laughed. And Luke felt like he was one step closer to being accepted by the community.

-

He had been at the party greeting people and talking to people he didn't know for hours. The sun had gone down and the moon dimly lit up the sky when he left the small room. The young priest felt like he needed some fresh air.

As he headed outside, he spotted the young woman again. This time she was outside by herself, the children and her friend who had been helping her were long gone. She was sitting on her own at the stairs that led up to the room. And it seemed that she was waiting for someone. She wore a short floral print dress and a cardigan sweater to cover her from the cold that was beginning to pick up. Her legs were exposed and he saw her playing absently with the hem at the bottom.

He passed her, heading in search of his new room when she stopped him. "Hey there," She smiled and gave a small wave of her hand. "You're that new guy I saw earlier. My name is Fiorella, but everyone in the village calls me Ellita. What's your name?"

Luke stopped in his stride and turned to her with a smile. "Yes, that's me. My name is Luke Hemmings." She still didn't seem to be able to connect that he was the new priest.

"What are you doing in Valle Daza?" She asked. Her index finger went to twirl a strand of her long brown hair subconsciously. "You don't look like you're from around here."

Though his Spanish was fluent, there were still tiny hints that he had learned it as a second language. She noticed these subtle differences that only a native speaker could hear, and she concluded that he was probably not from Argentina.

Nodding in agreement, he answered, "I'm not from here. I was sent from Australia by the arch bishop."

That was when her smile dropped and a small gasp escaped her lips. "Oh my gosh, you're the new priest?"

-

ayee the first chapter for this story. i wanted to make the setting in australia, melbourne to be exact. but for this plot to work out, i needed a rural area. thus, i picked the pampa province in argentina. my teacher is from argentina, and she said the pampa is a very rural area. and i thought it would just be more interesting to have an argentine main character.

i gave her the name fiorella vanella because i love how it sounds. fiorella. she might be portrayed by mariana van rankin, ariadne diaz, livia brito, or ana claudia talancon. i kinda like mariana van rankin bc fiorella is supposed to look super innocent. and i think mariana or ana claudia can really pull off the innocent look. but so can livia and ariadne, which is why im conflicted.

im not sure yet.

but thank you so much for reading. it means so much to me. its going to start getting steamy soon. lol.

blessings, clary xx