Juan Moisés De La Serna - The Mysterious Treasure Of Rome

Our parents had gone out to make one of those visits to which we were so used, due to the constant social activity of our mother, sometimes against the strict and regulated life of our father, but this is how she had overcome his constant absences, when he was assigned for months to different operations.

It had started as a form of entertainment, and it had gradually taken up longer and longer, until it had become an important part of her life.

At the beginning it was just a way to amuse herself. She started going once a week to an innocuous painting course, then twice a week, then … until she set up one the rooms of our house to be her studio. From there, becoming a professional was just a matter of time and lots of practice, because she had the essentials, a great skill with the brushes and a good eye for details.

Her teachers, proud of her work, encouraged her to start having exhibitions for the base staff personnel, but little by little that went further.

Some time after, she started a tour of several neighboring military bases, which invited her knowing her talent and her skill with the brushes. Then it came her public life, to call it so, since she was invited from different cities to take part in exhibitions, both collective and individual, to show her work.

In addition to that, the army supported her, since she improved their image among the general population, showing that life in a military base did not have to be necessarily boring and dull. That the women of the military did not have to give up their expectations and their lives, and they could develop them, just like the rest of the population.

Before long, that family changed its identity. From being the family of my father, a renowned captain, decorated in various conflicts and respected by all who had served under him, it became the family of my mother. It was a family known throughout the country. She was the pioneer, and in many cases a role model of progress for women, in and out of the military, so much that several prime-time shows invited her for interviews.

At the beginning that was quite a joy for all of us, because we saw our mother was happy, but after a while it turned out to be somewhat awkward as far as the economics.

My mother began to have her long-awaited financial independence, with her own income. This allowed her to buy a number of objects and vehicles not really fitting for military personnel or for their families.

My father insisted that she should restrain herself, that she could spend what she earned in any other matters, that she should not be notorious in the base for her financial expenses. My mother would not listen to him, tired, she said, of living like the rest of the base, when she knew she could have greater comforts.

In addition to that, she constantly traveled for several days to museums and exhibitions, or to show her work. She was even preparing to sponsor the creation of a foundation for young artists, for which she spent several months touring different institutions, to give scholarships to those accepted by the foundation.

All this meant that we often were at home alone, under the care of the mother of a friend, but it was not the same as having our own family.

No one seemed willing to leave part of their life to spend more time with us, so I had to become a little bit responsible for my sister, and I saw her back and forth from the base to the school.

Although of course, that activity was not too difficult, because transportation from the house to our school was on the base bus, but on that particular afternoon, my friend’s mother had not yet arrived. I do not know why she had not called or anything.

So we came back from school and ate the two of us alone. After that, and since it was a day of scorching heat we decided to go to the pool.

This one was located close to where we lived, so we only had to go through the yard of a couple of houses and there it was.

When we arrived to the pool, I did not know what to do since usually there was a lifeguard and a rescuer nearby, in case something happened, but there was none around.

Maybe there was not still the time and the pool was not yet open, but we wanted to open the season, taking our first swim.

Perhaps there were still a few days before the official opening. Anyway, then it would always be full, especially with those big boys who seemed to love to have the pool all for themselves.

I was still watching all over, trying to figure out which will be the shallower side where we had been last year, when I saw my sister suddenly plunging herself in, doing the bomb, as she had seen me do so many times, but after she went in, she did not come out.

I stared intently at the bottom of the pool how it went back to its static calm, until there was not a single wave caused by the plunging of my sister, but she still did not come out of the bottom.

I put my head into the water and did something my mother had forbidden me to do, open my eyes under the water, to see if I could find her, because she did not pop up. Until finally, someone behind me jumped in, moving again that huge mass of water, separating it when coming in, and then pulling my sister out of in his arms.

Coming out of the water, he handed her for me to take her, while he left. For his clothes, he was a soldier, quite young, and wet from head to toe.

He had had no time to take off any clothing before diving into the water, and even his shoes were dripping.

My sister lay motionless in my arms, with her white face, breathless, all wet. All I did was look at her not knowing what to do or what to say. I waited for her to react and to get up, wishing that was just a joke that she was playing on me and nothing else, but she did not react.

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