The History Mystery by Ana María Machado Read Free Book Online Page B

huge disappointment. They had all beensure that something was going to happen, but nothing did.
    The day would have been a total waste, only that when she arrived home that night Sonia found a printed sheet of paper on the desk, next to a brief note in Andrea’s handwriting.
    Unfortunately, Pedro was no longer with her. They had said goodbye outside her building and he had already left. And he had no mobile phone.
    Sonia read what was written on the two pieces of paper over and over again while she waited for Pedro to get home so that she could talk to him on the landline.
    The note from Andrea said:
    Sonia ,
    I talked to Colin and he sent this copy of the contaminated message for Pedro. Anyway, he wants Pedro to call him, because he also wants to investigate this computer virus thing .
    All the best ,
    Andrea
    On the other sheet was a much longer message. Sonia read it once, then she read it again, paying close attention.
    She closed her eyes to think. The language it usedwas so weird, some bits were hard to understand. She really needed to read it more than twice.
    Trading the safety of the closed seas for the amplitude of the surrounding ocean, after a few nights we started to perceive the Polar Star drowning in the horizon. After maintaining the course for a few days further, I reached for the first time your gracious lands. Others had already arrived in these parts, and about their finds I had read extensively. But none such reading had prepared this notary for the beauty of your coast, reaching wide as far as the eye could see. Nor for the great barriers it boasts along the sea in some parts – sometimes white, others red, with the earth above covered by trees – nor for its white beaches, ripe with tall palm trees and infinite waters .
    I appreciated it so and learned to admire the loveliness and goodness of your people with such strength that I continued to visit you throughout the centuries, even if rarely noticed by anyone. Or, on the rare occasion in which such a risk occurred, I have always succeeded so that the encounter presented itself as a dream, delirium or fantasy, as was required of my difficult condition. It has only been in these more recent times, faced with the unexpected possibilities of what you call the ‘newtechnologies’, that I have occasionally succumbed to the temptation of breaking the ropes that bind me and making rapid visits to some of you, with much caution and prudence .
    In previous times, the captain of a vessel would occasionally order a few of their crew to descend among the inhabitants of the land, to note how they lived and discover from them all that could be discovered, even if the languages spoken were not the same. I feel now as if I am acting as such .
    Today, however, as I perceived in your writings a reference to the job of notary, I came to the realisation that we are brothers in office, and that this may per fortune bring us together. If such a thing comes to occur, this notary officer, now a Christian, will find immense satisfaction on the path to redemption, and shall pray in grace to the Lord Our Saviour, who commences to free him of his millennial condemnation.
Vasco Manoel Coutinho
    Pedro listened while Sonia read him the message over the phone.
    When she had finished, all he said was, ‘Wow! Could you read it again, please?’
    So she read it again, and by now Pedro was really interested.
    â€˜That’s mad! Another one! And it’s signed! He says he’s a notary – some kind of lawyer, I suppose. It sounds like he’s one of the first Europeans to discover the Americas, don’t you think? That stuff about “your gracious lands”?’
    â€˜That’s what I thought,’ said Sonia, ‘but then there’s all that other stuff about computers and so on. Weird.’
    â€˜With so many messages coming, our man’s got to have slipped up some time; we just need to find out when and