The Mistery of Belicena Villca
Shelves and furniture , everything fell and jumped incessantly , while I , absorbed , thought I was living a nightmare .
It took me a few precious seconds to understand that I was attending a seismic movement and when , at last , I decided to undertake the escape , the tremor already was almost over .
Chance ? Synchrony ? The reader might think what he wants , but he will not be able to avoid considering the fact that the earthquake of January 21 , 1980 , the only building that it irreversibly damaged was the one that I inhabited and that had to be evacuated as I could see by reading the newspapers of those days .
There were no casualties , but the building was inexplicably damaged in its structure , so the municipal authorities undertook , without results , an investigation into the architectural firm that built it . As there was no insurance , the losses were total for the owners of the Consortium , among whom I counted .
Of my belongings little is what I was able to save because , what was strong enough to survive the earthquake , succumbed to the fall of the ceilings . Among them my car , that although it could be repaired from the multiple dents , would not leave the garage for several days because the entrance ramp was obstructed .
I was ruined overnight like Job . But without his famous patience .
I am not going to deny that at first I was overcome by despair ; anyone will find it understandable by standing in my place . After the sinister experience narrated , with the weight of a long sleepless night and the load from the day before when I visited Professor Ramírez , I had to be more than strong not to give in and fall apart . But as a few days passed , my Spirit was regaining its usual fortitude , and things began to resolve . I rented an apartment in a nearby neighborhood and furnished it with the help of my sister and some friends . The things that were broken , and that was imperative to replace , I acquired them by drawing on my meager savings .
All these arrangements I made driven by my loved ones , who in their solidarity worried about my abstracted and indifferent mood . They thought – for ignoring the strange circumstances in which the earthquake occurred – that the disaster had plunged me into a volitional shock .
The reasoning was not mistaken because , although I was never too attached to material goods , the loss of four years of work and sacrifices was too painful a test , which on another occasion would have affected me a lot . At that moment , the truth was another : my mind , from the moment I regained my serenity , did not stop analyzing the moments lived . Being absorbed by the memory of that infernal night , it is understood that I appeared in the eyes of others as absent and dejected .
Far from being so , a deaf rage was growing inside me , a blind fury that , without dazzling me , rather seemed to nourish me with vital force and value . I wouldn ' t back down ! Now less than ever !
A week after the earthquake occurred , I was prepared and ready to go on a trip . The delay did not substantially affect my previous plans and so , with a healthy youthful impatience , I wanted to get out as soon as possible .
It was Monday again ; I planned to pass by Cerrillos to say goodbye to my parents , and if I hurried to leave , I would be in time to have breakfast with them .
I loaded a bag and a briefcase in the battered Ford , finally rescued from the rubble , and set off for adventure .
Chapter VII
To say that I was not the same man as seven days ago would be wrong . Well , essentially , nothing had changed inside of me . However I did not feel the same and I knew that I would never go back to the way I was before . --Like Dante , I went down to Hell and came back --I thought-- . To live from now on with the memory of the Abyss , logically , has to be different .
But it was not just about a sinister memory . I was looking for spiritual help and had received it . It is true that the aid came in coincidence with the attack of the Powers of Matter , simultaneously with the earthquake . But that did not detract merit from the fact but endowed it with a particular meaning , a meaning that for the moment I did not understand but that later , during the trip to Santa María , would absorb all my attention . What actually happened ? Well , that I had had a Vision : the most marvelous Vision of my existence , which was , at the same time , the help sought .
I will summarize it chronologically . Apparently the process really started when I had that intuition of not being the one who suffered and agonized , who endured the pain of the extinction of life . So , I said , " everything moved outside ”. In truth , in that instant it was clear to me that the pain and suffering , the agony of life and life itself , were alien things , of non-spiritual nature . That is to say , that at that moment , I had clearly distinguished between Spirit and Soul , between my spiritual Self and my animal nature . I had understood that the Spirit does not know pain or fear , rather , it
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