1
Fishing for eternity. 
This story is related to the myth of Beast and Beauty, so often taken to literature and from it to the cinema), the maimum example of which is —in my opinion— the literary jewel by the French writer Victor Hugo, Our Lady of Paris, in which the ugly hunchback Quasimodo falls in ove with the beautiful gypsy Esmeralda. In our tale the heroine is an attractive woman from the North of Spain who decided to jump into the river Sella from a bridge with the idea of committing suicide. The current is swift and whe was at the center of the rive when she repented from her crazy action, but there was no way back: it was useless to fight the stream, for it was so irreocable as the Law of Gravity itself, which did not permit her to go back to the bridge once in the air, when she suddenly realised that was not right, and she was being taken to the meanders which, a few kilometers yonder, had those rocks which will make her skull collapse or her to lose consciousness so that she would drown to death.
Only five hundred meters down the river from the bridge there was a man fishing and watching the strong stream which was running so fast, the nature wonder of which absorbed all his attention, when he noticed his hook had trapped somehing. And very big that fish had to be, because it nearly took his rod from his hands. He leveraged his feet on the ground behind a big rock, decided not to give up his prey to the Sella ,when he reaised that it was not a common fish, but it was more like a siren. Getting strenght from his sould, as he was rather lean, short and little, he fought as best as he could not to get it out of the water, but to get it closer to the river bank, what he succedded to accomplish little by little, till in the end she could grab one of the tree branches which overlooked down into the river.
When he realised that she was already anchored to the branches, he left his fishing rod on the floor and went to see the prodigy.
"You fell, didn't you?", the tired man said.
"I did", she said between breathings as she unhooked her belt
"It's a dangerous spot. Waters run down very fast here, and you can't miss those rocks", he pointed further down the river" and faint and drown, or get killed by the crash itself. You were only too lucky I was fishing here, young lady".
"Yes, you're right, Sir", she said. And then kept silent.
The man stared at her in curiosity. Did she fall, was she pushed, or did she jump herself? She was a beautiful woman, in her thirties, blond, tall, much taller tan him, and in spite of the heavy stress she had just gone through, she looked very healthy...
Suddenly she started crying like crazy, touching her belly. The man touched it, too, and knew at once what the matter was: that woman was about to have a miscarriage. He put her skirt up and took her underclothes off, and very carefully he took onto his hand what that woman was delivering: a two month old faetus, considering its size, only three centimetres. Poor thing, it would never be a person. It could not be saved. So the only practical thing to do was to throw everything into the river, including the placent.
Against her will, because she believed he wanted to drown her, the man managed to put her back into the river, completely naked, where he sank her up to her neck. It cost him a lot, not because she was strong, as in that moment she was exhausted, but because the poor man was skinny, small, weak, and besides, he was already of a certain age. But the river took away that girl's blood, it cleaned her, and the cold of the waters stopped her bleeding. Then, with great effort, he pulled her out of the water and dragged her into his vehicle. And before leaving he went back to pick up the recently aborted woman's clothes. And he took her to his own house.
"Where am I?", she said when she woke up, three days later.
"You're with me, girl," said the man. "What madness did you want to commit?"
"I'm very unfortunate..."
"Nothing justifies killing yourself. Nor kill another person..."
The man was very serious.
She observed the room: it was dark, it had a window through which sunlight came in. There was a table and a chair, where that peculiar man was sitting. She should be dead now, but she saw herself all of a sudden in an unknown place with a stranger, quite ugly, who had saved her life. And she didn't know whether to spit at him or hug him. The man was very short, completely bald, with no hair on his eyebrows or eyelashes on his eyes, of an indefinite color. But they were very clear, although it was clear that he was not albino.
"Who are you?"
"My name doesn't matter. Do you want to talk, unfortunate girl?"
"It's just... I'm very ashamed".
The man remembered the girl was naked under that sheet. He nodded and left the room. He returned shortly after with a loose robe that he placed on the bed.
"Here, get dressed, and come to the dining room. You have to eat something. You haven't eaten or drunk for three days, or more".
He left the room, and five minutes later she came out and found a bowl of milk, some buns, some bread and two fried eggs.
"I'm sorry that the menu is not very varied, but this will give you strength".
After the brief meal, she told him that a soldier had deceived her for weeks, and when he found out that she was pregnant, the soldier evaporated. That's why he had jumped into the river to kill himself and thus end all her problems.
"Such a beautiful girl as you..."
"Yes, I know it was crazy. As soon as I found myself in the river I regretted it, but the current was so strong that I couldn't reach the shore".
"Did you jump off the bridge?"
"Yes, that's why I fell in the center of the river".
"Nothing is worth losing your life, woman. Nothing nor nobody. And even less at your age".
"In 19th century Spain, having a child without a husband..."
"It happened to many before you. Are they braver than you?"
"Indeed.. I don't see myself alone with my child against the world".
"Look, little girl: I have lived a lot, and the older I get, the more I want to live. I never had a girlfriend, no one loved me, and I haven't had the option of having children. I would have loved it. I wish yours had survived. If you didn't want him, I would have taken care of him and educated him".
"Thank you, sir" she said, taking his hand. "You are very good!"
"Well, since I can't take care of your child, I'm going to take care of you until you can return to the world and can take care of yourself".
She smiled, she didn't see any danger in that little guy who was such a nice person. You could see the kindness on his face, although it was so strange. Besides, where was she going to go? To her parents' house, after what had happened? She wouldn't have the courage to look at their faces. Furthermore, she was already missing for several days from home. The offer of that little being that didn't seem real would solve things for her for the moment.
"Do you know?, he said after a long silent pause. "I don't know what your life has been like until now, but don't tell me about it, because it doesn't seem very pleasant. From now on your life will be beautiful. And I'm going to make up a name for you that's special. You are beautiful and cute. I'll call you Belle".
"Yes, it is a good idea. I will leave the past behind. Euphrasia no longer exists. Now I'm Bella".
And Belle, the beautiful girl, stayed in the house of that strange man, halfway between the beast from the story and the grumpy dwarf from Snow White.
But she had a problem when she wanted to go outside. Yes, she went through the front door without problems, but when she wanted to walk around the house, she noticed that something blocked her. A desert plain of brownish sand could be seen in all directions. The sky was black even if the Sun was shining brightly. And that scared her a lot.
So much so that he screamed for her savior:
"Hello! Sir! Where are you? Where are we?"
"O, yes, sorry," she heard from behind. "We should have gone to my country house. Here I had the remedies for you to recover, but now we'll go to my other house, which is in the countryside and is much nicer. Come on, let's go".
They got into a very strange car. So strange that it didn't have wheels. It was really a box made of a very rare kind of wood. They locked themselves in it, and a few minutes later she felt as if they were pulling her down. He opened a door, and they came out in front of a two-story rural house, near the Sella River, where she almost died.
"This is my other house. And yours from now on".
They lived for many years. He taught her to read, write, and on history, biology, mathematics... Much more than what men learned at that time, not to mention women. He also taught her to play the piano and to develop a sensitivity for art like she had not seen in anyone else. It seemed unbelievable that such an unattractive guy knew so much. He had rightly saved her from the waters, and made her recover from them. She had never felt half as healthy as she had since she was there, with that man. He taught her to speak English and Italian perfectly. The only thing she didn't know was how long she had been there, in that country house.
Until he decided she was ready for life in society, and consequently gave her a house he had in the center of Madrid, and a checking account in which there was money to live on for several years, until she could earn her living.
But when she bought the newspaper, she saw that she had spent twenty years with the ugly man, as she called him. And yet, when she looked at herself in the mirror, she saw she looked the same as the day she had wanted to kill herself. What was happening? She was now fifty years old but she looked thirty.
She thought intensely about her savior, whom she knew by that name, Salvador, when there was a soft knock on the door.
"Hello," Salvador greeted her. "I came to see how you are doing".
"I'm in a mess. Look: I tried to commit suicide 20 years ago, when I was already 30 years old".
"That's right."
"But now I look the same as I did then, 30 years old, not 50".
The man looked at the ground, like children do when they are caught in a prank.
"Well..., you see..., I…"
"Yes? Can you explain it to me?"
"Look, Bella, when I found you you were in a very bad shape. I didn't want you to die. I liked you and I thought you hadn't come into my life by chance. And I wanted to keep you. I had to give you special treatment, and I'm afraid I cured you too much".
"What do you mean, too much? Either you heal, or you don't heal".
"You see, I overdid your dose: you're never going to get old".
"Won't I? Am I going to die this young?"
"No. You're not going to die either".
"What? Am I never going to die?"
"No, unless you kill yourself.
"In the Sella River I learned that life is beautiful and worth living. And I promised to myself, after you saved me, that I would live as many years as I could".
"Well, you're going to live them all. In the Sella River I also learned things. I learned to appreciate the beauty of Nature. Something was calling me to that shore. Now I know: I was waiting for you to show up. My beautiful mermaid..."
"What do you mean I'm going to live them all?"
"Well, that you are never going to die".
"I can't believe that".
"You look 30, you're 50. What other proof do you need?"
"It's just a long time... What am I going to do?"
"Go back home, that is, to your parents'. Go back to Arriondas, and if your parents, or your siblings, are still alive, tell them that your mother left there because she became pregnant, and that you, her daughter, want to return to your roots. And when your parents or your brothers are no longer alive, we will meet again here.
"But I thought you wanted me to stay with you, that you saved my life for me to stay with you and looked after you..."
"I prefer you to live your life, girl".
"But..., how will I find you?"
"You can't. If I do not find you before, in a hundred years will meet again in this same place".
"But I thought", she insisted, "you wanted me to stay with you, because you had saved my life for you, to have me with you..."
"It is true that I love being with you, and that these twenty years have been some of the best I have lived because of you, but I am already very old. I could be your grandfather, if not more. So when I saved your life, I saved it for you, so that you may live a long and happy life. I will be happy if I see you happy".
She gave him a hug, and stayed for a long time sobbing on the shoulder of that little dwarf who was so good and so capable of anything. If he had been tall and handsome he would have been the prince charming that every woman has ever dreamed of. But she was right: she wanted to take advantage of life, to live a happy life from the point where she left it, now that she was so well prepared, twenty years later.
The year was 1890. She went to Arriondas, and even got her parents in their old age. They took her for her daughter, of course. But their other children told the old people that it was not possible. She herself explained to them that she was the daughter of the one who left. She explained to them why she had left, and told them a curious story, that she had tried to kill herself, but then a short and ugly man had rescued her and had married her, later having a daughter, who had decided not to die without seeing her roots. The poor old people cried with emotion, regretting that her daughter had not confided her problem to them. Maybe everyone would have been much happier, despite the town's gossip.
One of the town's young men, Henry, fell in love with Euphrasia as soon as he saw her. He asked her for a relationship, he went to ask the old men for her hand, and since they couldn't give her daughter's hand, they gave him her granddaughter's hand. But after thirty years, in 1920, he asked her why she didn't age. And she told him the truth. He rejected the idea, told her that she was a witch, and that he did not want to deal with the devil, and left the house. She had to get ahead with her son, and when he expressed his desire to study a career as a doctor, she took him to Madrid, and the two of them studied together. He became a specialist in heart diseases, and she became a psychiatrist. Over the years she went to visit her husband, who had fallen ill and was confined in a state facility. When he saw her he started screaming and she had to leave there. The next day they told her that he had died. She learned that day that not everyone was ready for the truth. In fact, almost no one is.
A few months later she said goodbye to his son and went to work with Doctors Without Borders for more than twenty years, in various places around the world. She ended up in India, where she met a very handsome man, James Carter, whom she married. She did not know that one of her brothers-in-law was a CIA agent whose cover was precisely his family and his activities as a businessman. Poor James died three years later, and then she went to work with Doctors United for the World, successor to DWB, changing locations from time to time, always asking to work in very small towns where there was no other doctor but her.
