Fatima: The Final Secret

“Bon día.”

They returned my greeting in the same manner and nothing more. It was the dog that accompanied them that wanted to be noticed, and spent a good amount of time barking, until one of the men, who must have been its owner, scolded it and it fell silent, and silence returned to the place, although only for a short time. The birds were already fluttering about, and even a child could be heard crying, surely that was his way of asking for his breakfast.

That was when I decided to go to the site of the apparitions. The weather was looking good and I wouldn’t have any problems getting there, but as I was lost in thought, turning what had just happened to me over and over in my mind, I didn’t realize that I was no longer alone and I was surprised to hear there beside me that someone was asking me a question:

“Are you going to Mass? If you don’t go a little quicker, you’ll be late.”

I came out of my thoughtful state, and saw two ladies hurriedly overtaking me, so I didn’t have time to answer them as they continued on their way.

I thought to myself, “Do I look like I’m on my way to church? They could hardly be more wrong. Of course there were not many other places that they might think I was going to wandering around here.”

I spent the rest of my time walking around, I wanted to see those places that I almost knew already because I had read so much about them. They had of course changed a great deal since the events had actually occurred. The passage of time is certainly not forgiving.

Instead of having deteriorated as usually happens at other sites, what had happened here is that many of them now had new structures.

I walked slowly, I wanted to feel the air, to smell what they smelled, I wanted to try to relive what I had seen and maybe to understand it.

As time passed, I grew more confused. I certainly did not doubt that what had happened to me had been real. But why me? I don’t believe in any of that, I just want to find evidence to prove that it was all a lie, that someone had orchestrated something that still evades my understanding and that tricked some innocent kids, so how could I possibly have seen them if two of them died a long time ago? From what I’ve since discovered, the third kid also died many years ago, although I have to study that controversy more thoroughly to see if I can clarify anything from it.

I suddenly noticed a sensation in my stomach, and when that happens to me, I know it’s my body warning me, and I feel that it’s telling me, “Manu, it’s time to eat, and if you don’t, you can’t go on much further.”

I was surprised. I didn’t think it was so late. I headed back to my accommodation, and when I entered through the door, the owner came toward me when he saw me.

“Hey there!” he said and immediately asked me: “What happened to you this morning? My wife put out breakfast on your table and seeing that time passed and you didn’t come down, she was alarmed that something might have happened to you, so she made me go up to your room.”

“‘It’s strange that he’s fallen asleep until so late,’ she said to me very seriously. ‘Go and see if he’s alright, or if he needs anything.’”

“I protested though. I told her that when you arrived last night, you were clearly very tired, but she insisted so much that I had to go open your door, and what a surprise I got when I saw your room was empty. When I got back down I told her, ‘He’s not in his room, could he have left without paying?’”

“‘Has the bed been slept in? Has he taken his things?’”

“Well, I don’t know what else she would have went on asking me if I hadn’t cut her off, reassuring her saying, yes he’s slept in it, it shows in the bed, and he’s left a bag on the chair, I suppose it must be his.”

“‘Oh good! What a fright,’ she said, calming down a little.”

“‘But a fright from what? Come on, don’t be silly,’ I told her, ‘he’ll have gone out early, he’ll be one of those people who like to get up early to see the sun rise,’ I said, thinking you’d be around here somewhere nearby.”

“‘Come on! If he’d opened the window and ran off, I would have seen him leave without having to get out of my bed,’ she answered.”

I interrupted him at that point and asked him:

“Don’t tell me I can see the sunrise from my bed?”

“Yes,” he said very seriously, “and where did you have breakfast?”

he asked me with a tone in which I noticed his concern. I kept talking:

“Well, you were right, I went to see what the dawn was like, but tomorrow I’ll watch it from my bed, which is more comfortable and that way I won’t get cold, because this morning the air froze my face,” I was saying with the intention of ending the chat so I could go on up to my room.

“You have to be careful, when the breeze blows here, you really feel it. Alright, but you’ve not answered me yet,” he said very seriously.

“Answered what?” I asked in surprise. I didn’t know at that moment what he was referring to.

“Where did you have breakfast?” he asked in a worried tone.

“Well, I haven’t had it yet, although… Ah yes!” I remembered at that moment, “I had some coffee and some cookies before I left,” I answered, smiling to calm him down.

“What did you say? Come eat quickly, you must be starving.”

Almost pushing me, he led me to the dining room. I glanced around and saw that there were two ladies sitting there despite how late it was, and they were talking to the man’s wife, the other owner.

“Excuse me,” he said as soon as we entered, “this man comes hungry, you have to take care of him.”

Apologizing to the two ladies who were there eating something that I couldn’t identify, his wife turned around and went into what I assumed must have been the kitchen.

“Good morning! Excuse me,” I said, “what is it that you’re eating there? It smells so good”

Looking at me, one of them answered with a smile:

“And it tastes even better, believe me.”

I went to sit at a table close to where they were seated. The rest of the dining room was empty and I didn’t want to be so alone. I’d been on my own the whole time I’d been walking around without talking to anyone and I wasn’t going to clear up many questions that way. I saw that they’d not minded that I had sat close to them, so once I sat down I asked them:

“So where are you both from?”

“From Spain, well from Madrid,” replied the one who seemed older.

“I never would have guessed,” I replied, “you speak Portuguese very well.”

“And where are you from? You don’t seem like you’re from around here either,” she asked me.

“No, I’m not from Portugal, I’m Galician, from Santiago de Compostela,” I answered.

“Also Spanish, well you can’t tell, you also speak Portuguese very well.”

“Well, it’s easier for us to learn, it’s almost the same as our Galician, but you speak it very well, and I think having understood that you’re from Madrid, that’s quite unusual,” I said.

Looking at me, they both said at the same time:

“We’ve come here so many times.”

We all laughed at the coincidence.

“But you don’t learn the language just by visiting a place,” I said when the laughter had died down.

“No, of course not, that’s true, but when one has an interest in the things that have happened in that place, it’s best to learn how they speak in order to find out more about those things, wouldn’t you agree?” the older one asked me, trying to engage in a bit of chat, or so it seemed to me.

“Are you here alone?” the lady who appeared to be the younger of the two then asked.

“I am,” I answered a little surprised by her question.

She turned to me and said, “You can eat with us, if you feel like it.”

“No, don’t worry, I don’t want to bother you.”

“No, you wouldn’t be bothering us at all, it would be better. That way we can talk a little. Well, if you don’t mind.”

I got up and was changing table when the lady came out of the kitchen. She was holding a steaming dish in her hands and when she saw me she said:

“You’re changing table? What’s wrong? Did you not like the one you were sitting at?” and she stood there with the dish in her hands.

“It’s just that these ladies have invited me to join them so that I wouldn’t be sitting alone, is it a problem?” I asked.

“No,” she said, smiling, “that way would be better, I’ve never liked eating alone either.”

She set down the plate that she had brought out for me. I looked at it and I saw that there were vegetables with an exquisite smell, but I also looked at the plates that were sitting in front of the two ladies and asked:

“What about what they had? Is there any left?” and I pointed to the dish that was in front of the lady next to me.

“Don’t worry, when you finish your soup, I’ll bring you a big helping of cod with cream,” she said smiling, “it seems you’re eager, that’s good.”

“Did you say cod with cream? How bizarre! I’ve never heard of that.”

“Yes, but don’t you like cod?” she asked me a little surprised.

“Is that what they’re eating?” I asked, looking back at their plates.

“Yes, that’s the cod with cream,” she said.

“I’ve never tried it, but it looks delicious, and given how hungry I am today, I would eat it no matter what it was.”

“Of course!” she said with a slight tone of annoyance, “says he to whom it occurs to go out without any breakfast.”

“Ah, so you’ve not had any breakfast today?” the older lady asked me, “I’ve had so much that I can hardly move. You’ve served us a truly delicious breakfast. I can’t imagine anyone refusing anything we had in front of us, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,” she said, looking at the owner:

“Tomorrow, please just a coffee with milk, otherwise you’re going to make me fat,” she fell silent and kept eating.

Not even a minute had passed when she said:

“How can this be so scrumptious?”

Once the meal was finished, I thought I’d go and lie down for a little while as I usually do, but it turned out to be impossible. The post-meal conversation lasted until well into the afternoon. When the owner of the place finished serving us food, she brought us a coffee each, and asked for permission to have her coffee with us. The three of us had said:

“Be our guest!”

I was actually quite surprised, what confidence! As she sat, she said:

“I don’t like to drink coffee alone and now that nobody needs me, would you mind if I spend some free time here with you?”

“Not at all,” said the older lady, “sometimes we need to rest and you must have been on your feet all morning non-stop, with so much hustle and bustle.”

“Yes, as I am every day,” she answered, “it never stops here, although less people have been coming recently, probably because of the rain.”

I was keen to finish and leave, so I started to get up and said:

“Well, I’ll leave you for now.”

“No,” the three of them said, “stay a little while longer, the company will be good for you too, because I’ve seen that you came alone,” the owner of the place added.

I sat back down a little disgruntled, but the feeling dissipated immediately, as soon as I heard the older lady saying to the owner:

“Now that you’re no longer rushing about, we could talk for a while, and you can tell us things you’ve heard in passing.”

I opened my eyes and thought, “Well, this is surely the kind of thing I came looking for,” and I kept quiet to see what would become of the subject.

The owner, as a decent small-town resident, and without the intention of offending anyone, liked to gossip about what went on in her town. She began to talk and talk, she knew a lot and she knew everything first-hand. She was not one of those people who tell you that they found something out, or that they’ve been told something. No, she had seen it, she had experienced it, and she told us so much, that I couldn’t keep up. I was so happy, here I had the subject I wanted, first-hand experiences.

“Well, since I don’t know what you’ll know about all of this, I’m going to refer to something you might not know, because nobody outside the town knows about it,” she began.

She told us so many things that she spent all afternoon talking without realizing it, and we’d sat there listening to her spellbound.

At a certain point, when the lady got up to bring a jug of water and some glasses, I said to the other two ladies:

“What she’s telling us is so interesting, right?”

“Yes, yes,” they said at the same time, “she always knows how to make us happy, that’s why we come here whenever we can, we spend a few days, and she lets us know everything that’s happened.

I looked at them carefully, both had a calm countenance, as if reflecting a great inner peace, which surprised me and I asked them both:

“So what is it that you’re looking for in such a place?”

The question must have sounded funny to them, and I have no idea why, because they both started laughing.

“And where could we go that’s better?” they both said at the same time.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I answered a little surprised.

“Look, in life we all go where we enjoy, and since we came for the first time, many years ago now, we haven’t stopped coming. It’s as if we recharge our batteries here, to be able to get on with our lives, until the next time we can get back here, for another short while.”

“It’ll be because of how well they feed you here, as you said before,” I said to them taking what they had just said to me as a bit of a joke.

“No son, that’s only a very small part of what one can find here, food for the body. Okay yes, we’re not going to deny that, but the best thing that can be found here does not enter through the mouth, it enters the body through all of our pores. It’s something inexplicable, something that you have to feel yourself, one can’t put it into words, one must experience that to continue living. That being said, don’t think of it as just a lovely thing that two lonely old women tell you. We’ve seen that so many events have happened here to different people, that we wouldn’t have enough time to tell you about them even if we were telling you for a whole month straight, right Mam?” they asked the owner, who came back to the table at that point to sit with us.

“What were you talking about? Although I can imagine the subject. If you knew what happens around here, I’m sure you would be coming back as they do,” she told me very seriously.

“But what you say happens here, what is it specifically? Or is it something so personal that it can’t be shared,” I asked quietly to see how they would respond.

“No, not at all, we don’t have secrets here, because we’ve seen that by sharing this stuff, what one person experiences can help others, I’ve been sharing this with everyone I know for years. Many people come here without knowing anything other than the fact that something happened long ago, with the sole intention of taking a look around, and they find themselves fully immersed in something so important that it changes their lives. And don’t think that’s an exaggeration, we’ve seen it happen many times.”

The husband entered at that moment and said in a surprised tone:

“Wait, your conversation is still going on? Well I’m sorry to have to tell you that it’s time to start making dinner. You’ll have to leave the chat for another time.”

Standing up, his wife told us:

“I’ll prepare this in half an hour. Don’t worry, no one will be going without dinner,” and she quickly left for the kitchen.

I took advantage of the pause to ask the husband: “What do you think about all of this?”

“Son, what do I think? I think it’s all good.”

“That’s all?” I asked a little disappointed by his succinct response.

“Look, there is something here, I don’t doubt it, but it’s something that everyone has to find for themselves. What I’ve found wouldn’t benefit you, just as what you might find wouldn’t benefit me.”

“But what is there to be found?” I asked him to find out what he was talking about. “I would imagine that only those who come looking for something will find it.”

“Well, I can tell you,” said the older lady, “that it does all of us some good, because good things never come amiss in this life.”

As I saw that nothing further would be forthcoming, I told them:

“I’m going to my room for a while. I’ll be back in time for dinner,” and I said goodbye.

I had to rest, even if it was only for a few minutes. My head was bursting with so much information. I couldn’t believe how I had gotten into this situation. Nothing had shed any light on what had happened to me, but I had been able to verify that I was not the only one who had experienced something strange around here, and I certainly had to look into it more closely.

<<<<< >>>>>

A bullet passed me by, almost grazing me. At that point I thought I couldn’t run any further, my legs were refusing to keep going, but it forced me to decide, I had to keep going, I could not let them reach me, my life depended on those moments.

But what was going on? Why would someone want to kill me? All I was doing was looking for information. If I wasn’t stepping on anyone’s toes, who would be so upset with me? Besides, most of what I was looking at was already in the public domain. I had only gone somewhere to verify that this was true. Of course, if I’d done it quietly from home, without verifying all of this, no one would ever have known.

I kept going over the question in my head, who was I bothering so much that whoever it was had to stoop to this? This must be a last resort, to kill someone, because, although they hadn’t hit me, I don’t believe anyone shoots at people just for fun. Surely they wanted to get me out of the way, it’s insane how serious these Italians are, how easy it is for them to pull the trigger, because I don’t believe they’re all in the mafia.

I have only been moving among “good” people, people from the Vatican or in some religious bookstore and I don’t think there’s much chance that there are thugs moving in those circles. How then can this pursuit and this eagerness to get me out of the way be explained, to even go so far as to use weapons to do so?

What secrets lie behind all of this? Every time I make a move, to ask a question, even to a bookseller, it seems that the information reaches someone who does not want me to find the true answer. How else could they locate me so fast?

Running as I was, I saw a taxi, it had just stopped and a man was getting out. I immediately asked the driver:

“Is this taxi free?” and without waiting for an answer, as soon as I got inside, I instructed him, “Alla stazione Termini veloce.”

The taxi driver was somewhat taken aback, but he started the car and we left the area. I looked back, and right then I saw the two men who had been following me, watching the taxi drive away. They stood there with faces full of disappointment, but I could also see the menacing gesture that one of them was directing toward me, I think he was sure that I was watching them.

Because of how easy it had been for them to take out the gun and shoot at me, despite the fact that I had been in the middle of the street, even though there was no one else around, I deduced that they were unscrupulous thugs, and that they would not be satisfied with having lost me. If they were used to getting rid of someone on request, they would be getting paid for it, and they would not let their quarry escape, which in those moments was apparently me.

When I felt that my entire body was hurting, I shifted in the seat, a sure result of that unexpected chase I had just been given. I tried to reassure myself, and I started to look out the window. Then I thought, “The most logical thing to do, if I want to escape and leave Rome, is to head to that station, but with a little thought, they’ll also come to that same conclusion. I can’t make it so easy for them… What should do I do?” but nothing came to me, I was still too rattled to be able to come up with a clear solution.

Suddenly it came to me, I couldn’t go back to pick up my things from where I was staying either, because it was as I was leaving there that I noticed for the first time that they were following me. They would surely assume that I would have to return there, so I decided not to go back. All in, I had only left my toiletries and the shirt I’d brought on the trip, all wrinkled and sweaty, it wasn’t much of a loss. Well, there was the travel bag, but I didn’t have any special attachment to it, nor was it valuable, I could abandon it there.

I made a mental review to see if I had left anything else, but no, nothing that was worth putting my life on the line for. I remembered that there were also the pajamas, but I would abandon them there, I was certainly not willing to return to that place.

I’m sure they would go through all of my things. That’s what I think spies do, to pick up clues from everything they can, but I didn’t have anything else there. I decided not to go back and expose myself to danger for a few unimportant belongings.

When I saw the Pyramid in the distance, I asked the taxi driver to stop. I had regained my bearings, because with the chase I had lost my way and didn’t know where I was going, I had just tried to run as fast as I could.

It’s a good thing I’m in shape, soccer keeps me healthy and deep down I was grateful for it. I think it was thanks to that that I was saved by the skin of my teeth. When I heard the shot, I had turned in the same way we do during team training: a quick change of position to catch the ball and take a shot at goal with a header. That was what had saved me, because if I hadn’t, the bullet would have hit me. Having turned, it passed me, just grazing me.

My body was still consumed with fear when the taxi driver, vexed by my change of destination, stopped. I paid him and said:

“Keep the change and have a good day.”

Once I was back outside, the first thing I did was to take a very deep breath, it felt like my lungs were empty and like I had been drowning inside that vehicle. My legs were still trembling and I looked absently at the Pyramid and thought, “It’s incredible that there are secrets everywhere. No matter what you look at, we are surrounded by them. Who built the Pyramids of Egypt? What was their function? Why do they have the measurements that they have? Look at the fact that they have been studied for centuries and still no one knows the true reason for such a construction. How would it have occurred to them to build them in that shape, a shape that has enabled them to last for so many centuries? Okay, I’m going to find a place to sit down for a while and I’ll have a coffee,” I thought.

Looking in that direction, I couldn’t see any coffee shops anywhere. There was traffic and I wanted to cross to the other side, where there was a group of people, I did not want to be alone.

Being accompanied, even by strangers, would be safer, because if those guys who had chased me had taken another taxi, to follow me… With that terrifying thought in mind, I turned around and glanced all around me, wanting to identify some indication that would tell me if anyone else had arrived.

They were very conspicuous with their huge raincoats; it must have been part of their uniform. Of course the frightening thing is if they did take them off, I wouldn’t recognize them and they would go unnoticed by me, while they did know me, so they would have a clear advantage.

Nothing, my surroundings were empty, there was nowhere nearby where they could have hidden if they had followed me. More calmly, I could cross the road and head over to a bench that I saw in the distance in a small garden. When I arrived, I sat down the way a person collapses after a long race, letting my body slump as if it weighed a ton. At last, I was free from danger, I was almost certain that they hadn’t followed me, and that they couldn’t find me anymore.

Looking distracted at that Pyramid that I saw in the distance, I kept thinking about the secrets that things hide, and about how we are, the people, some of whom don’t care and get on with their lives, while others, for some reason that I don’t really understand, are compelled to discover these secrets in the search for explanations. Why? When? Who? And a whole heap of other questions that come up, and how sometimes there is a lot of adversity to overcome to get to the answers.