Jorge Vicario had a great banana plantation and hired a lot of people. Martina liked to go around among the plantations with her sisters and adore the nature around her. She was a timid child. She never spoke a lot and looked as if her sole was in another world. It seemed that she lived in a gloomy surreal world with no danger or worries. She always wondered where so many workers went because she never saw all of them in the banana plantations. When she asked her father where they all went, he answered; “They are working on the other side of the river with a new plantation”. But she was never allowed to go to the other side of the river. Martina was a very curious child. One day she decided to go to the bridge that crossed the river. There stood two men with guns by the bridge. She never had the courage to go past them. Therefore, she never crossed the river and forgot about the other plantation.
As the town faced the last day of the year, Father Almonzo was preparing mass in the church that had been built by Jorge Vicarios’s grandfather to suit the workers who arrived to the area for work on his plantations. He hired an architect from Europe and hired hundreds of workers from the biggest closest city, Bucaramanga. Thousands of people came to see the marvelous church that had been built with tons of marble and in a new way which had never been used in the area before.
Martina was very excited with the celebrations and felt a joy arise among the people in the town. When the evening fell the drinking and eating began. Jorge Vicario had slaughtered three pigs to the feast, which were now consumed by the people. Never before had Martina seen so many people together celebrating and dancing. When the countdown finally began, she was so tired that she must have fallen asleep for a moment because she never noticed when the New Year came.
The next day the town was quite and sleepy. Jorge Vicario had given the workers a day off and everybody were now regaining their strength after the long celebrations.
Martina went out to the plantations where she loved spending her time. She walked and listened to the white Kolibris in the trees. They were singing so beautifully that Martina totally forgot about time and place. When the sun was high on the sky, she reached the bridge where the two men were supposed to stand, but they were gone. She looked curiously on the other side of the river and the damp forest that she wanted to visit since as long as she could remember. “Martina, you want to cross the bridge right? You know what your father thinks about that don’t you?” said a man that appeared from behind the bush. “Go home now and don’t be wandering so close to the river, it’s dangerous” the man proceeded. Martina turned around and ran home. She was exhausted when she finally arrived at the kitchen door of her house where Nina was feeding their dogs. Martina loved the dogs that lived with them, especially one of them she had gotten as a puppy, she called him; Flipo. Flipo was a quite big dog. It was Martinas closest friend and she often used to take him with her on walks and play with him. While at the door Nina gave her a bun, “ Where have you been? Dreaming in the plantations again? Here, you have to eat and be strong”. Martina always got something sweet to eat from Nina. She was her favorite and Martina knew it.
The bananas grew rapidly and when the days had become the longest of the year and when the heat and tumid was very annoying, Jorge Vicario sold the first transport. His grandmother had taken a step to the other world and the funeral took place on a sunny afternoon at the town-cemetery. Martina wrote later about that day as one of the most important days of her life. It was the first but not the last time she had to see a relative die.
By the next day, while Martina was playing with her dog, she heard terrible screams arriving from the riverbank. Her father threw himself on his horse and with a couple of other workers, he disappeared in the forest. The whole town was alert and wondered what was going on. After an hour or so, the workers returned to the town, some where hurt, others where carried dead. Martinas mother ran up to the administrator Pablo and asked him what was going on. He looked at her sadly and she understood that a terrible thing had happened. Jorge Vicario was carried by a couple of workers, dying. He had been shot in the chest and was loosing a lot of blood. He was quickly taken to the church where Father Almonzo put him on the altar, which had to serve as an operation desk, and tried to stop the bleeding. After three hours of struggling with death Jorge Vicarios heart had ceased to work. Father Almonzo declared this to Martinas mum and crying could be heard from all over the town. Martina didn’t cry. She sneaked into the church where her father was covered with a white sheet. The church was quite, nothing could be heard from outside. The sunshine’s that entered the church made the dust visible, floating around in the main hall. Martina walked slowly up to the altar. She took the sheet of her father and calmly looked at her fathers pale face. She put her hand on her father’s chest and closed her eyes. The few clouds disappeared from the sky and the sun lightened the altar...
Father Almonzo ran out from the church and with a cry on his face shouted that a miracle had occurred. “He’s alive! He’s alive! It’s a miracle, Jorge Vicario is alive!”. People started to gather around him curiously. Some thought that he had gone mad from sorrow, others ran into the church and saw Jorge Vicario holding his youngest daughter in his lap with smile, a tired smile but full of joy and relief.
From that day on, people knew for sure that Martina had supernatural powers and they were happy with that Jorge Vicario had miraculously been given a second chance in life. Martina never saw her father or any other of the workers leave their side of the river again...
