Jane told me, while he was taking coffee, papayas, toasts, Butter, mangos and bananas was following in hand, that, beyond fales and beaches, of street markets and palm trees that border the sea, in Savaii there was "a miracle" -.
– What?
– A miraquel
– Miraquel?
And explained to me, showing me postcards and maps of distant times, that many years ago a volcano had erupted on the island, terrible, burning, and that the entire northern part had been devastated by tongues of lava that ruthlessly advanced, setting fire to villages, fields and houses in its wake. His advance was definitive and, Still today, a century later, many of those lands have not flourished again.
– Not even the graves were left - he explained very solemnly as he began to fry some balls with potato in coconut oil., local tubers, a lot of cholesterol and a lot of calm.
– Yes yes - commented spinning the oil.
– This is terribol – dije yo.
– Bat… -, and here comes the good, he told me that lava flows, the bombs that flew through the air, the impiety of those masses of burning land that conquered land without mercy setting fire to everything in their path they came to a white church, a weak frame construction and strong devotion, and diverted their trajectory. Even though the roof caved in in his wake, the walls and structure of the building were respected by the hungry volcano and still stand today.
– What!!
– Ahhhh, yes, lady, yes
– But ... did the lava bypass the church??
– Yes, yes - he said stirring the balls in the oil - volcano respected the church
The walls and structure of the building were respected by the hungry volcano and still stand today..
On that occasion I did not go to see her. I had no car, He was traveling on Samoan buses with a vital parsimony as unpredictable as the clouds that, suddenly, broke into pieces and broke into rain. But the following month Andrea and Tito came to see me and, I had just hugged them happy to receive visitors in such a remote land, I told them:
– Boys, we have to go see a miracle.
Skeptical as good geologists and glad to have plans in sight, They accepted more for the volcanic component than for the divine and in a few days we went to Savaii with our rented car.
How happens on these occasions when friendship and good vibes touch events with their magic wand, I remember more of Andrea's sandwiches and Tito's parsimony than of the church, but I remember we went, that lava, in effect, he had dodged part of the structure and that the most interesting were the signs of plant life that had emerged between the cracks of the petrified magma.
I remember we talked about pyroclasts until we were bored, We took pictures at the miracle and we ended up going back to Jane's for a few days, where we walked through the sand and looked for tiny gastropods and corals for Tito, who did a thesis on rough Carboniferous corals and spoke to us about it with absolute devotion.
Most interesting were the hints of plant life that had emerged between the cracks of the petrified magma.
That beach and its sunrises kept making me think of Juan Salvador Gaviota but, especially, in the simple magic of the sun entering and leaving the horizon with that redundant beauty impossible to ignore. As soon as Tito and Andrea left, I filled her void by reading the story to me again.
The book is wonderful. It is loaded with monumental truths and songs to freedom, but what I like the most, what rumbles me and makes me want to do stunts and night flights is the first sentence, that gigantic truth that every day the sun is born paints the big waves of the sea gold.
PD. I have just finished this text and I get news from the Writer of the manuscript, already by whatsapp, and not with meandering letters, who tells me that the story he copied is not Juan Salvador Gaviota but another superior, and I remember Salinger and the Taoist tale but that is another story that only he can tell.
