The Mystery of the lagoon - TheInkwell Creative Nonfiction Prompt #46

Source from pixabay

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In the middle of July 1997, before the natural phenomenon of the earthquake in the state of Sucre, my neighbor Maria de Romero, a native of Cariaco, invited me to spend a weekend in that town. I accepted her invitation and went with her and my four children.

When we entered that place, I noticed that it was located on the eastern coast. On the shore of the beach there were many coconut trees, harmonizing with the environment. The houses lined up side by side with wide doors and windows that made the atmosphere very pleasant.

Arriving at the house of his sister, Margarita. I felt the kindness and hospitality with which this lady treated us.

We arrived at about one o'clock in the afternoon. Margarita served us an exquisite fish stew with boiled yucca. Then she invited us to rest in some hammocks that hung from under the shadows of the trees in the courtyard of her house. There we took a long nap.

At about 6 pm. we organized ourselves with Maria, Mrs. Margarita, my children and other relatives of Maria. And we went to the beach, where we made a big bonfire to keep warm from the cold. We began to tell mysterious stories.

Margarita told us that a few kilometers from where we were, there is a village called Campoma. There is a fresh water lagoon, which is very mysterious, it was formed about a hundred thousand years ago, inside it is a snake that is very large.

Seeing the fear reflected in my children's eyes. I asked Margarita:

"Have you seen that snake?

No!

With fear reflected in her face, which was outlined under the moonlight, she made the sign of the Cross and replied:

"Hail Mary most pure! God forbid that I should see such an animal!".

A cousin of Margarita's added:

"They say in that town that a few years ago a young woman was standing on the shore of that lagoon and saw the huge snake, and the young woman was petrified and transformed into an inmense rock, which is on the shore of the lagoon".

Margarita replied:

"For as long as I can remember, when I was very small, my great-great-grandfather used to tell me. That that immense snake is in that lagoon. Its head rests at the beginning of the lagoon, and the other end of the snake is at the end of the lagoon. Yes, this snake is trying to get out, or move sharply out of this lagoon. The day that happens, the State of Sucre will be gone forever.

My youngest son clung to me tightly. I told him:

"Calm down, my love, they are road stories".

Margarita, very excited, added:

"Tales that have veracity!".

Sitting in front of that bonfire, and between tales and stories, the night went by. We decided to go to sleep.

The next day I was curious. I proposed to Maria and Margarita to go to the town of Campoma, to get to that lagoon. There I interviewed many of Margarita's local friends, and they confirmed the stories she had told me the night before. Once I killed my curiosity, we returned to Margarita's house very early, the next day we went back to Cumaná.

A few days after returning to Cumaná I was in Cerro del Medio in the U.D.O. Suddenly I felt that my feet could not walk. In seconds all of us present were running, we did not know the reason. When we arrived at San Luis Ave. A friend gave us the tail, turned on his car radio, and we heard that there had been an earthquake of 6.9 Mw. That caused havoc in several towns of that state, especially in Cariaco, where all its physical structure was destroyed. There were human losses.

When I arrived home, I ran to Maria Romero's house, she was crying, her hands were shaking, I took them in mine, they were cold as an ice floe. As soon as she calmed down a little, I asked her:

Do you know anything about Margarita?

She answered:

"Not yet. I'm afraid she's dead

A lump in her throat from so much crying prevented she from continuing. Late in the morning a cousin of her arrived at her house and said:

"Margarita is alive, she lost everything, they left her in the street. They have her located in a tent, along with other survivors, they are writing them down to locate them".

Maria replied:

"Tell Margarita to come to my house, until her problem is solved".

A few days later, Margarita came to live at Maria's house. While the government agencies were building her house, since hers had disappeared. When I saw her I approached her, hugged her and kissed her, I was very happy that she was one of the survivors and I addressed a few words of encouragement to her. She, very serene, answered me:

"Did you realize that the story I told you about the mystery of Campoma Lagoon came true on the day of that tragedy? Thank goodness the snake only moved, because if it had come out of the lagoon, the whole town would have disappeared".

I was surprised by her attitude, and I could tell that her knowledge of the mystery strengthened her to accept the catastrophe with serenity.

The facades of those houses with large doors and wide windows disappeared because of the earthquake. The state governments built new houses, schools and sanitary modules. Now the village has a new physical structure.