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Creative Nonfiction

- We have to keep digging until we find that yellow stone that I mentioned to you, even if we have to work a life without resting, did you hear me, slave? - Asked the head of the mining search team composed of him and the slave.

 Dressed in a plaid corduroy cap that matched his coat, he caught up with a shovel and began digging through the dirt like a dog searching for a hidden bone.

 - - Chief! Here's a yellow rock ... is it gold? - bringing the stone to his nose - puff, it smells bad! - and the slave, covering his nose with his hand, sneaked out of the hole, without the boss seeing him and, of course, without ever being seen again .

 - Hope never dies, so let's see the finding of the servant - and the chief, named Joshua, went to investigate:

 -Yes, it is a yellow stone - and as if to leave the doubt, he brought it close to his nose as well, declaring with all solemnity that:

 "Smells like rotten eggs," she kept the stone in the front pocket of his jacket, at the same time that he hung his smile in her wide eyes.

 - - It's the stone I'm looking for, it's vitriol! - And he kissed her, bending down immediately, to dig deeper into the earth to find more of those stones.

 -      Hey! - He called the slave, without him answering - Surely he has gone to the bathroom. It doesn't matter, I can still dig with the shovel, without stopping, in an amazing rhythm that made him take off his plaid corduroy cap and English wool jacket, sweating profusely - I'm going to extract it and I'm going to take it with me Whatever it takes! - he sentenced, starting to work at nightfall.

 With a torch in his hand, and a small bottle of liquor taken from time to time from his pocket, he whistled at each shovel he hit the earth, like a toad without a frog.

 The stars all came and went, and he kept working, all night, nonstop.

 By dawn, Joshua was exhausted.

 -      Tired but happy! - Well, he had dragged the stone over twenty feet high out of the gallery.

 - I'm going to stay a little longer at the entrance of this gallery, and break it into smaller pieces, to take it to my laboratory - laboratory? Well, it was actually a table with clay pots and pans that were simmering over wood in the back of the hut he lived in, amid bouquets of oleander.

 And so he did, all day under the Valladolid autumn sun, gradually carrying the pieces to his, let's say, his laboratory.

 -      well ! Now I have to put these stones to boil with a little licorice syrup and a few oleander leaves, the concoction is ready, at two gold coins each.

 After more than two days of fighting with the pans to make the stones boil, he bottled the concoction, in more than a thousand containers.

 -      very well ! I change my outfit, and then I go to town, with my little bottles in my traveling bag.

 And so he did.

 Upon reaching the center of the square, he arranged his merchandise on an empty bench, and began to advertise the product

 -An effective syrup against all diseases of adults and children - he offered, making people who approached him taste the syrup, with the most diverse complaints:

 - my back hurts a lot!, Or:

 - I have a cough that has not stopped for more than two weeks! - among other.

 -Well, here is the solution for his problems - and he would put the bottle in their hand-take a spoon before the main meals, and you will see how in a week it will heal! - He promised.

 -      truth ? Give me three bottles, please - asked a grandfather with an archpriest's trunk in his hand.

 - Do you lose weight? - Asked a little chubby girl

 -      of course! Look at my pants, they are loose - putting eight bottles in their basket, and collecting the coins with an automatic grin from ear to ear.

 That was repeated all day, on various occasions.

 - I have almost no syrup! I'd better go back to my lab ...

 When he returned, he repeated the previous procedures, but this time for more than two thousand bottles.

 - I'm going to the market tomorrow, everything is sold there ...

 And he fell asleep, watching his bottles with one eye and the day's fair kept inside one of the pans with the other.

 The next day, he put the bottles in the traveling bag, and took the winding road that led to the town, diverting his entrance over the river bridge, which led to the market.

 It was sales time.

 However, the street was full of policemen, armed with wooden clubs.

 - Am I in or not in? - He wondered, deciding for him if he saw that the policemen bought demijohns of wine, and that they left.

 -Try this effective syrup that will heal all his ailments! –He continued, the same as the day before.

 Until a middle-aged man with red hair and without a tooth approached him, and asked:

 - And if it doesn't do me good, do you return the money?

 Return the money? What absurd idea was that?

 "This product is guaranteed, believe me," he happened to reply.

 - If it's good for me, I'll buy you more. But if it hurts me, I'm going to report him to the police, for scam.

 -Don't worry my friend, I am sure that this product will do you good, and take this bottle as a gift - putting the bottle in his hand, with a tap on the shoulder to finish the business for good.

 At the end of the day, after practically selling everything, he returned to the laboratory, to prepare more syrup for the next day.

 Another thousand bottles, because tomorrow is not a fair day and it will not be so good.

 - I'm going back to the market.

 The next day, he washed up, slung his traveling bag over his shoulder, and headed out onto the bridge path.

 However, he did not make it to the bridge.

 - what happens here? - He questioned, undaunted

 And a large group of people had little bottles in their hands.

 - It's the little bottles of syrup! - He observed, and they are with sticks in their hands!

 One of them, the one who said he wanted his money back, who was leading the group, said that in case of not doing him well, he led the mob.

 - that's it! - He pointed it out, running towards the scammer.

 Under those circumstances, what else could he do?

 Well, he opened the traveling briefcase and began to give the bottles to everyone who was looking for him, starting with the guard who had bought wine the day before.

 -       run away? - he asked, somewhat apprehensive about running away, as it was no wrongdoing.

- I am just trying to heal the people, to help them.

As a matter of fact, it was something he should overcome,.

 So, he ran away, carrying the bottles to the train line.

 - I think it is better to escape from here catching the train with an undetermined destination, but a very good number of new clients to be explored ...

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October 15, 2021 20:18

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