Bible Quotes in Crystal Land
Chapter 2 - The Unknown Mission

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Chapter 2

The Unknown Mission

Preparations for the Unknown Mission

“Learn about the region and get ready.”

This thought had seemed just as imperative as the first one she had received, and she likewise took it to be a command. She had done all that she could, spending hours on end in libraries. She studied the region's geographic features and delved into agronomy, especially soil origin and structure. She immersed herself in mineralogy, especially quartz (so abundant out there), learning about everything from its natural formation to its application in electronics, including its mining and industrial processes. She spent a few days on the farm of some of her friends, near Belo Horizonte, to acquaint herself with rural life and to get to know people in the region. She sold her car and used the money to buy things for the trip, including a pair of boots and technical books. She also restored and overhauled her camping gear.

She selected Itacambira as her base camp because the township was an entrance to the Gerais and was close to Bocaiúva, the city where she had lived her early years. There was scant information about the munici pality. It was a vast territory with some five thousand inhabitants, amounting to only three persons per square kilometer. It contained lots of foothills and dirt back roads, like those found in the Jequitinhonha River valley.

...

There was little geographic information on the gerais in the out back. In fact, the name gerais itself was not even officially acknowledged. Unofficially, it referred to some high lands in Northeastern and Northern Minas Gerais, mostly comprising parched flatlands and foothills. Soil in the flatlands was largely of the sandy kind, acidic and covered with shallow vegetation, including some shrubs and trees here and there; but mostly it was just empty flatland. The foothills were basically barren and rocky, although in a few townships there was commercial mining, for both precious and semi-precious gems. In smaller proportions, there was a soil less than sandy, covered by denser and higher grass, although still acidic—the so-called ' cerrado ', a kind of savannah-type, unforgiving land, very little of which was fertile. Tropical, semi-humid weather predominated. The rainy season was short. Its beginning and end were quite unpredictable.

...

A Vision of the Gerais

The 370-km trip to Bocaiúva was scheduled to last some five hours. Cristina spent almost the whole time deep in thought, examining her memories. She talked little with the passenger beside her. When the bus arrived at last, it was close to noontime. Some friends welcomed her, friends of her parents rather than her own. They were there because her parents had called them the night before and asked them to meet her at the bus station.

Despite their insistent invitation that she spends the day in the city, she immediately bought a bus ticket to Itacambira. This bus would leave at 4 p.m., so there was time to at least accept an invitation to lunch.

An old Itacambira-bound bus left the town and headed east on a dusty road. This was not the sole discomfort. The bus was overcrowded; people were standing in the tightly-packed aisle. The bus would frequently stop to allow passengers either to get off or on. The early September heat was almost unbearable. The ninety kilometers were to be covered in three and a half, perhaps four, hours. After the third and last city before Itacambira, the bus suddenly was nearly empty and a woman took the seat beside her.

The two of them chatted about trivial matters, and Cristina remarked, looking at the scenery, “The region is beginning to get hilly.”

“Wait until you see some real foothills. It won't take long. Do you see that hill over yonder? We’ll go up it.”

“I can't believe that. It looks like a sheer stone hillside!”

As the foothills got closer, Cristina noticed that it was actually a mountain range, all rock and barely any vegetation, just a few shrubs here and there. There is another world on the other side, she thought.

At the hilltop, the gerais could be seen. Cristina's first impression was that she was traveling at the top of the world. Semi-barren mountain ranges shot out in several directions, on either side of the road. For a brief moment she had this quick impression of a turgid gray sea, in the throes of spasms. The deep-blue sky had no clouds. Closer to the bus she spotted nearly-dead stretches of flatland, filled with sand, stones and twisted shrubs. This view made Cristina's heart race. Mixed emotions filled her with expectation, fear, and joy. What she saw was familiar to her.

“ Are we in the gerais?” she asked the woman, just for confirmation.

“We have just arrived.”

She experienced a sense of déjà vu, the same feeling of familiarity she had possessed long ago, when, already living in Belo Horizonte as a young girl, she had traveled north with her parents into the gerais. At that time she hadn’t even known the word gerais, but somehow she had felt that some day she would come back to this region. She even thought that she might have been born there, a thought she had kept to herself, as one of her secrets.

For years she had mulled over this secret, and her thoughts varied in time, as her knowledge evolved. ...

...

From this conclusion, she easily drew another: Einstein might have experienced the reactivation of remotely formed circuits that, associated with new knowledge acquired, then made the Relativity Theory possible. Perhaps this is how science makes advances. Humanity plods forward with ordinary efforts but only makes forward leaps through the creativity of people who are exceptions.

...

...

Eternity, infinity, the Universe, quasars, pulsars, galaxies, stars, and solar systems were all themes which almost hypnotized her, freeing the wings of her imagination. In her fantasies, she would visit stars, planets, black holes, galaxies, going to the far limits of the Universe to " look " for what was on the other side. She would think of and postulate hypotheses regarding what she had "seen" or read about.

Young Cristina recognized that the semidesert landscape she could see from the bus was ingrained in her body and soul. At that time she became convinced that she had been born in that region, despite her lack of objective data in this regard.

Adoption

Jonatas and Marta had no children, even though they wanted them so much. One day they received a message from the doctor, the director of the Bocaiúva hospital, that they should see him.

“We have a girl here and we need a couple to adopt her. I thought about the two of you,” the hospital director said.

The two were overtaken with joyful emotion. This was something they had already discussed and made up their minds about. They were only waiting for the opportunity, which now seemed to have arrived.

“The baby was found this morning at the hospital door,” the director went on. “She was in a basket, clad in simple clothing and sleeping peacefully. There was this note beside her.” He showed them the note.

Jonatas and Marta read it together. The baby's mother said she did not know how she had become pregnant, since she was a virgin. She said that her parents would not accept her at home any longer because they thought she had shamed herself and them, so she had left home, wandered around the world doing whatever work she could find. The child had been born a week before and she had breast-fed her, but now she had nothing to eat and no place to live, so she was asking some charitable soul to raise her little daughter. The many language mistakes in the note and its awful handwriting revealed that the mother was semiliterate, at best.

“How is she?” Jonatas asked.

“She’s just fine,” the director said. “The pediatrician examined her and said she’s a healthy baby.”

The couple was taken to a small room in the simple hospital, which was used as a nursery. The three of them approached the crib, and, after looking at the girl, Jonatas and Marta could not help but beam with bursting happiness.

“She is so beautiful!” Jonatas exclaimed, folding the note he had in his hand and placing it in his pocket.

“She is so lovely,” Marta added.

The two of them could not seem to stop expressing their joy and pleasant surprise at the sight of the girl, now awake, with a face so serene, following every single movement Jonatas and Marta made around her crib.

“The pediatrician said she’s very precocious, and we can see that she is, indeed,” commented the director.

The adoption was taken care of in the next few days. Cristina filled the only vacuum in the life of the couple, who made many plans for her, one of which was to tell her the true story, if some day she asked about it.

It actually happened very early, when Cristina started going to school. Someone mentioned how different her appearance was from her parents', and, at home, they told her what had happened. She felt very sorry for her biological mother and asked a couple of questions.

Remembering her story now as she traveled through that God-forsaken countryside, Cristina missed her parents and realized how grateful she was for their love. She felt sorry that she had not loved them back as much as she should have, which made her feel a bit selfish.

...

... The bus stopped right in front of the church, smack in the center of town, where the street became a square. At her family's request, Edvar, his wife Ângela, and their two boys had come to welcome her.

They went to their home, just a few yards away, and had some coffee. Then Cristina went to the local phone office to call her parents and Aunt Luci. She could tell, by their voices, that they were deeply concerned. Speaking in a soothing tone of voice, she attempted to calm them down. Back at the house, she was introduced to some people who had come to see her.

The Choice

...

She discovered that the region was being hit with a long dry season. There had been no rain for months; cattle were starving to death; some rivers and creeks had wholly dried up. She found out other things, too. There wasn’t a single industry in the place, no hospital, not even a drugstore, let alone a bank branch office. She had to listen to a long list of woes plaguing the local people.

...

Cristina said that she would like to spend some time on a local farm, and immediately suggestions were offered. She lo cated the places mentioned on a municipal map she had brought with her and listened to comments about each one of them. Suddenly, during the conversation, an imperative thought struck her: “That is it, this one. Go to this one.”

She pointed to the map and said, “This is the one I would like to go to. Would it be possible?”

The people thought that her choice had been rather odd.

“Geez! Lots of hills there; it's hard even to get there. A car would take more than an hour to travel a stretch no longer than a dozen kilometers,” somebody pointed out.

“That's quite all right, it really doesn't matter. I would like to go, if the owner doesn't mind, of course.”

The farm stretched in a North - South direction, lengthwise, and its width was East - West. It was twenty-four kilometers from Itacambira. “The owner is a very fine person, receives everybody well, and works hard to make a go of his crops and cattle,” remarked one of those present in the room.

“Besides plenty of space, it’s one of the few places around here that still has mineral ores and water, a lot of water,” added Edvar. “The drought there is less severe because the farm is located within a foothill.”

Eldorado was the ranch's name. It was indeed quite large, "spacious" as someone had described it. The "ore" mentioned actually comprised several crystal mines. They agreed that she would spend the following day in town because Edvar had to repair his old pickup before traveling on the bad dirt road.

...

Paying closer attention, she also realized that people asked frequent questions, as if they were begging for something, as if they were all collectively saying at the same time, “Don't deny me, please.” Her sorrowful conclusion was that life's unkind harshness infused even the local speech.

On the Way to Her Destiny

...

At night, Cristina had difficulty falling asleep, as she felt apprehensive. Less than a day separated her from the place enveloped by so many mysteries.

On the third day of her trip, soon after daybreak, Edvar, his family, and some friends piled into the pick-up to take Cristina to the Eldorado Farm. Edvar was driving, and his wife Ângela sat beside him. So many people wanted to go that a limit had to be set. De spite the discomfort of the trip, many stood on the back of the truck. They followed the same road the bus had come, climbed the hill, and headed into the flatlands. After seven kilometers, they turned left.

The road was now narrow but flat, actually the start of the side road. Curious, Cristina kept asking questions of the couple the whole time. On the back of the pick-up, everyone seemed engaged in a lively conversation. Some stretches of the flatlands featured some high grass; others contained shorter grass that, from a distance, vaguely resembled a lawn.

“This kind of flatland is the worst stretch of the flatlands,” Ângela told her. “There is nothing in there but sand and pale high grass. It looks pretty, but it's good for nothing.”

A few kilometers later, there was a fork in the road.

“This back road to the right goes to Macaúba, the place I told you about. The Macaúba River is there, with lots of diamonds,” Ângela kept a running account of the scenery.

Minutes later Edvar announced, “Now the real bad stretch of the road starts.”

"Bad" was putting it mildly. They took almost an hour to cover a dozen kilometers of winding road, which had been opened in the spaces between hills. There were also lots of ups and downs, as well as plenty of holes, pebbles, and stones, which forced Edvar to drive slowly and cautiously.

...

“We are coming to the edge of the farm,” Edvar announced a while later. “That's the perimeter fence out there.”

Some yards ahead, the pick-up stopped at a gate, which was opened by one of Edvar's sons.

Lord Almighty! What will happen to me here? Cristina asked herself, somewhat puzzled.

At that moment she realized that, because she had been exposed to so many obstacles and new things, she had allowed herself to become completely distracted. Edvar's announcement awoke her to the surrounding reality.

“Would you let me out of the truck, so that I can walk in?” she asked, on a sudden impulse.

Surprised at her request, they let her out and did not move, just watching her walk. This was something really strange to them. When she entered the actual farm land, Cristina's heart began to race, and her mind and body became engulfed by overwhelming emotions. Her legs shook so much that, after walking a few yards, she had to sit down on a roadside bank.

I wonder whether I am afraid.

Edvar drove ahead and stopped by her side. Ângela asked whether she was feeling ill; Cristina said she was not, tried to hide what she was feeling, and asked them to wait a little. A few seconds later she felt fine and entered the vehicle.

About a hundred yards ahead, the scenery changed. Some trees began to appear, a sure sign that the soil was better. The topography was less hilly and the mountains were less distant. A little ahead, man-made pastures dotted both sides of the road, on sandy soil. Cristina, sitting straight, observed everything.

Farther ahead, after some low hills, there was splendid scenery: a sprawling pasture, with trees at the end, following a natural curve in the mountain range, which stretched in a North-Northeast direction to the right of them and then curved westward to finally head south. Between the trees and the mountain range there was another area of pasture.

Consenting to her request, Edvar explained, “Down in the bottom over there, amidst all those trees, there is a creek called Paul, whose water springs are to the right here, near those mountains over yonder. Do you see that cut up there, towards the sunset?” He was pointing to a hill crest in the middle of the mountain range. “That's known as the Fern Mine, a crystal mine. As you will see, brooks, springs, and crystals are everywhere around here.”

“This is all so beautiful! A raw, wild, untamed beauty of nature side by side with instances of man-made work,” she remarked. The couple thought her description funny because they didn’t see things the way she did.

There were no cattle around. This was a corral area, known as Palmland, to which cattle were taken on specific occasions, such as the height of the dry season.

After the Palmland, they came to a creek coming from their left and running towards the trees in the area of the other brook, Paul 's Creek. Edvar stopped the pick-up before fording the stream, so that one of his sons, jumping over small stones, could open another gate.

...

Before reaching the main house, they drove by a large fenced area, to the left, featuring miscellaneous plantations and stretches of barren land. Some people were working there, some with machines and others with tools. They, too, stopped working and stared at those arriving. However, they were too far away to be talked to. The people on the back of the truck waved to them and raised their arms in greeting. The farm workers answered back in the same way.

“We'd better stop here. Jê could be there,” Ângela warned them. She then turned to Cristina. “ Jê is Jeremias, the man we were talking about.”

Edvar stopped the car and explained to the young woman, “ Jê is somewhat of a weird bird. He works just as hard with his sons as with the workers. You have to see it to believe it.”

While they waited, Cristina looked around. Some fifty yards away, there was Paul 's Creek and, to the right, a very parched flatland. Two hundred meters beyond, there was a mountain range, covered with low vegetation. A road wound through it, resembling a huge snake.

A man with a large straw hat—Jeremias himself—came towards the car. He greeted everyone with great alacrity, and the young woman was introduced to him.

“Let's go to the house, and, please, feel at home,” he said, as he climbed into the back of the pick-up himself.

They crossed another brook and were soon in a slightly sloped yard, some ten thousand square meters in size. Several houses dotted the bottom side of the yard, Jeremias's being the largest, although it was as simple as the others. At the upper right corner of the yard there was a cattle pen, stretching Eastward. A fully-leafed tree stood on the yard's left upper corner, nearby two sheds, the larger of the two serving as storage for farm supplies and the smaller one walled in. Wire fences interlinked the constructions. Behind the houses there was a common backyard featuring a fruit orchard and vegetable garden. Around it all, cows and their calves enjoyed some pastures, divided from each other. Edvar stopped in front of the largest house and folks soon converged upon it.

“This is Cristina. Her father is a friend of mine in Belo Horizonte,” Edvar said to everyone around.

She shook hands with everybody, one by one, following the local custom. Among those present were Filomena, whom everyone called simply Filó, Jeremias's wife, and a daughter named Júlia.

In the house, they chatted for a while and Edvar told the farm owners why they were all there and asked whether the young woman could spend a few days there.

“But of course, no problem at all, at all! This will make us very happy,” Jeremias promptly replied, turning to the young woman.

“As long as you don't mind how simple things are around here, please stay,” Filó added.

...

Buy The Book

The Mysterious Blue Light
Conflict in the Family
Number Forty in the Bible
The Number Forty in Astronomy

Chapter 3 – Quartz Crystal

A Young Woman of the Gerais
First Expression of Power
Rupture
Adaptation
The Work Starts
Electricity from Crystals
Quartz
Piezoelectric Effect
Hidden Calf
An Angry Cow

Chapter 4 – The Entrails of the Gerais

First Results of Soil Analyses
Agricultural Soil
Into the Bowels of the Gerais
Quartz Crystal
The Pain for the Lost Love
Map of the Entrails of the Soil
Soil Multiplication
Clays
Edu’s Story
Vereda and Oasis
Cristina Takes Off

Chapter 5 – Dreams and Apprehension

Testing the Signs
Untrue Faith
Problems With the Itching Sensation
The Feeling of Defeat
The Evil Seed
Treasure of Major Importance
Diamonds
Outraged