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Information: Three dots (...) indicate that a part of the text has been omitted.
Chapter 4
The Entrails of the Gerais
First Results of the Soil Analyses
At the regular meeting the following evening, Cristina showed the results of the analyses she had carried out thus far on different soils of the farm. She explained that, anywhere in the world, farming soils are a mix of minerals and organic matter.
“This means it needs limestone and fertilizer,” interrupted Jeremias, in a tone of voice that suggested that none of this was new to him.
“That is just the beginning,” she said. “The soil is just like some warehouse or pantry, in which food is kept, understand? Every day we go there and remove a little, but once in a while the soil has to be replenished.”
...
Later, Jeremias asked about the other results of the soil analyses.
“The major concern about the fertile lands here is loss of clay, understand?” Cristina resumed the explanation, seemingly recovered now.
“What would that be?” Gilton asked.
“Erosion takes clay away,” she continued. “This happens especially on slopes, which are very common here. If nothing is done, in time almost all land becomes sterile. Clay is the nucleus of life. It is a tiny piece of soil, dust really, which stores plant nutrients. It is too valuable to be lost for lack of proper soil care.”
“Jeepers creepers, we just figured clay was plain mud,” the young man explained.
“Well, there is a mud called clay, which has plenty of those tiny particles I am talking about, and these are the ones named clays, understand?”
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Agricultural Soil
For farming purposes, soil or earth is a mixture of sand, silt, clay, other minerals, organic matter, microorganisms, water, and air. The upper surface, known as topsoil, is tillable and the layer underneath is called the subsoil. All together, topsoil and subsoil are broken down into layers, labeled horizons. For farming, the more important horizons can reach down about seven feet into the earth.
There are of two kinds of mineral matter, namely, those which make up the soil structure and those used up or needed by vegetables (nutrients).
The thick and thin sands, silt and clays, all made of silicon (silicates), are the main components of the soil structure. Clay is so tiny that it can be less than one-thousandth of a millimeter in size. Other minerals, with or without silicon, are also part of the soil structure.
As ions, these nutrients are adsorbed into the clays’ walls. From there, they become part of the soil solution, from which they are extracted by the plant roots, and, under certain conditions, they pass from the soil solution for the clays. The clays, as well as other colloidal particles ( mineral and organic), are the storehouse for nutrients and some of the water.
Organic matter is made up of plant and animal residues, sometimes degraded by physical and chemical agents. It, too, can have a double role, as structure and nutrient. The best known organic matter is humus, which is more capable of adsorbing ions (nutrients or not) than any other type of clay, thus making it important for farming output. Because it comes from plants and animals, most organic matter is found in the upper horizons or layers.
In addition to minerals and organic matters, the soil also has water, air, and microorganisms. Its output capacity depends on this array of factors and their proportions.
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Next, Cristina lectured them on the flatlands and said that their current situation was critical. Everything was dangerously close to non-existence: mineral nutrients, clay, and organic matter. The maximum amount of clay she had found was five percent, while, in some crop lands, she had found as much as over forty percent of clay content.
“The thing is that those flatlands don’t matter,” Gilton remarked off the cuff.
“But they should be incorporated into the farming output,” Cristina pointed out.
She also said that the output capacity of farming lands was declining, due to the loss of clay and nutrients, washed away by rainwater.
“I’m upset to be talking about these things,” said a visibly uncomfortable Jeremias. “I can barely manage to fertilize the farming land and then you say things could get worse!”
“They could become a desert!” exclaimed Cristina.
“Right, that’s the farm land, but then you also want the flatlands to yield crops. Sorry, but you must be daydreaming. Another thing: it’d cost a whole pile of money.”
“Maybe there is some way we can get around this money problem, understand?”
“What way? How?” he asked in disbelief.
“I can only tell you for sure in about four days. I need to gather some samples before that, some ten or twelve feet deep, understand? As I told you before, I’ll need people for that. But I can almost guarantee you that there is a way to get the money. Oh, and I’ll also get to know the mines.”
“You can have Edu for the full four days and one of the guys will help with digging the hole.” Jeremias seemed more encouraged by the prospects she had mentioned, although she didn’t explain how she would go about getting the money.
“I’ll help with the digging,” Gilberto promptly offered.
Four days was how long she figured would be needed to be sure that the itching she had felt really meant the presence of crystals. If that were true, she imagined they could be removed and sold, and then the money could be used to make investments in the soil.
“Júlia and I went to the Old Farm Mine. I’d like to go down into that well that had crystal, all right?”
“You talk to Edu and he’ll take care of everything,” replied Jeremias.
Cristina saw the possibility of establishing some link between the signs she received concerning the presence of crystals and the soil recovery, especially in the sandy flatlands. She really had no idea what exactly this relationship would be; she simply had a hunch there was one. Now she had a chance to see for herself—in the bowels of the earth, in the well bottom—to see whether the itching on her feet would come back before she would move on to the other mines.
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Into the Bowels of the Earth
The following morning the three of them— Edu, Gilberto and Cristina—left very early in the pick-up truck, taking with them all that they needed. The young woman was all smiles, as they drove to the mine. She was happy because, at last, she was going to check out things down below, in the entrails of that raw land, where nature yielded the crystal that had caused her feet to itch.
The two men removed the wooden planks and logs which covered the well and got ready to go down. They buried in the earth, near the hole and right in its middle, two pieces of wood—each one finishing in a fork about five feet above the ground. They placed a third piece, crossing the hole, fitted into the forks. On this third piece they tied a great spool of steel. On the spool they place a thick, twenty-meter-long rope, to enable them to move up and down the hole. On one of the rope`s ends they tied a hook-like beam.
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“You can go down now,” he said to Cristina. “We’ll tie you and you go down just like the bucket did, do you understand?”
“But how?”
“The following is this, here’s how it works,” Edu said, holding up the rope and the hook, “you tie this end of the rope, with the hook, around the thighs, near the buttock.” He actually tied it around himself, so that she could see how it was done. “Then, you fasten the hook in the rope. You sit down on the rope like this, see? Now you also hold on to the rope at the front and we just lower you—it’s a piece of cake.” She followed the instructions and they started lowering her, slowly. Halfway down, she realized that her life was in their hands. If they let go off the rope, she would crash down into the well bottom. A wave of fear shook her whole body, but she recovered quickly, realizing that there was nothing she could do but trust them. Near the bottom of the hole, she actually felt a bit of pleasure. Interesting, she thought. I have never felt this before. It’s a pleasant sensation, having to trust your very life to someone. Once down in the bottom, she let go of the hook and the rope, and shouted that they could pull them up. Again she realized that she was trusting her life to other people. They could go away and leave me here! They could even bury me alive! A new wave of fear washed over her. Nonsense.
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They were in the center and bottom of a seemingly round rock, roughly six feet in diameter and apparently going in a north-south direction. The boulder was light gray, with shades of dark gray here and there. It shone brightly under the lantern’s light. Short crystals could be seen emerging from the rock. On the north side, which was a horizontal extension of the bottom of the well, they were forced to squat down low, and Edu started to explain, “The following is this, after the quartzdrum was dug and drilled, in the bottom here there was a little pan.”
“What’s a quartzdrum and what’s a little pan?” she asked, in puzzlement.
“Quartzdrum is what we call a rock-bearing crystal, the crystal vein or ore, so to speak, and little pan means a bit of crystals together.”
“How did they get here in this rock?” she asked.
Edu continued to explain. When the well was dug down as far as the quartzdrum, the rock was smooth on the outside. They dug with a lever and a steel rod, some two meters in length and three centimeters in diameter. One flat end was made to cut and the other end was sharp to drill. The sharp end drilling into the rock sounded like a dentist drilling into a tooth. Anyway, they broke through the surface and found crystals inside. One section was loose, resting against the bottom of the rock, and the other part was still clinging to the walls.
“What is this hollow thing here, inside the rock?” she asked, nodding to where they were squatting down, on the North side, which was surrounded by a glassy rock in deep shades of dark gray.
“After removing the crystal, they tried to dig a tunnel through the rock to see whether there was any cauldron up ahead,” Edu explained.
“What’s a cauldron?”
“A cauldron is lots of crystal together. Like if it’s a little crystal together, it’s a little pan. If it’s a lot, then it’s a big pan. Anyway, Mr. Jê told them to stop the job because it was gettin’ to be mighty expensive.”
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It’s time for the test, Cristina thought.
She went to the opposite side, sat on a small ledge jutting out from the rock, took her boots off, and placed her feet on the ground. It happened again! She felt the itching not only in her feet but practically all over her body. It was mild, yet rather sharp. The two men, at her request, went to the south end while she walked towards the north end. When she got there, squatting down, the itching increased considerably, over her entire body, as soon as she rested her back against the vitreous rock.
“We’ll find a lot of crystal around here,” she said in a prophetic tone, at the same time that she touched the rock with her hands in rapid movements.
This is a lot of evidence, too much! It’s such a lot! she thought very excitedly and said, speaking in a loud voice, “I feel the crystal’s electric potential all around here.”
“What’s this?” asked Gilberto.
“I feel some itching which comes from the crystal’s electricity.”
The two of them didn’t understand it, but whatever remaining doubts she still harbored were gone now. The certainty of the phenomenon made her mentally excited, and she had a lot of questions to ask. The three of them climbed back up, out of the hole, each in his or her own peculiar way: Gilberto first, then Edu pulling the rope himself and lifting his body at the same time in the opposite manner he had used on his way down, and, at last, Cristina, brought up by the other two.
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Satisfied and excited, she went back to the pick-up truck. The itching was the final test, the confirmation she needed. All that was left to do now was to find the crystals. They went to the Highgrass mango, to the north, and then to Mill, which was another mango very far to the south. Several soil samples were collected from many different places, including hillsides, and in depths down to a dozen feet. These samples would be analyzed for their farming possibilities. Stimulated by the discoveries and the new perspectives, Cristina did some strenuous manual labor during soil collecting. She realized that she was dealing with two types of phenomena: soil sterility and the itching mystery, which she was about to decipher. They were two distinct things, both of which fascinated her. That afternoon, Cristina did not have Júlia’s help because her friend had gone for a walk with Vilma, along the banks of Paul ’s Creek, to have that conversation they had agreed to have.
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Quartz Crystal
Quartz crystal, a.k.a. rocky crystal, or simply crystal, is a six-faced mineral whose half a dozen faces converge on a part known as the point. Over ninety percent of these ores are found in Brazil. Its commercial value hinges on many aspects, such as degree of transparency, perfection of the faces, and the edge, size, and color. Its weight can vary from a few grams to tons, although the most common crystals weigh up to three hundred grams.
Names such as pan, small pan and large-pan, cauldron, Dog’s tooth, and quartz drum are regional labels. Even in Northern and Northeastern Minas Gerais, where the largest ore reserves are located, the names vary from place to place.
The quartz drum, a.k.a. crystal vein, is a quartz rock not organized within the framework of faces and points. It may come in several different degrees of crystallization, hinging on original physical conditions, i.e., when the magma, ascending from the Earth’s core, reached its surface. Due to physical conditions, it is also rather common for spaces to occur in its interior, in which well-formed stones can be found, either loose or connected to the walls, in variable amounts (less than five hundred kilograms is a small pan, over five hundred a large one, known as cauldron). In such cases, we say that the rock is the matrix for these crystals.
The matrix, or mother rock, may have undergone rupture during soil evolution and, depending on how this evolution occurred, the crystals are either disseminated or concentrated in the adjacent soil. Thus, large and small pans can also be found outside the quartz drum.
Lasca is the official name for pieces of crystal weighing but a few grams that have undergone some cleaning. The rankings of first, second, and third are related to transparency. The first is totally transparent, the second displays at least fifty percent transparency, and the third has less than fifty percent transparency. The chip-like lascas had major commercial importance for over forty years, as they were cast and recrystallized. A crystal thus produced is called cultured quartz (or crystal) and, for the electronic and optical industries, has many advantages over its natural counterpart. One of its industrial applications is in the production of resonators, which are small blades, conveniently cut, prepared and packaged, which function to provide the timing in circuits, thanks to vibrations induced by electric impulses. A crystal blade of electronic quality (q) has a frequency of at least 1,800,000 vibrations per second when under the action of an electric field. Resonators nearly without impurities and used in artificial satellites, in certain military weapons and space ships, display a frequency above 3,000,000 vibrations per second.
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In late afternoon, back from the field, Jeremias called Juca to his house.
“I want to change your jobs.”
“I’m ready to follow your orders.”
“You stop driving the tractor and, from now on, work with the cattle.”
“Some problem, you don’t like my work with the tractor?”
“That’s not really the case. I just want to make a change.”
“Been a real long time since I worked with cattle.”
“Nobody forgets these things. There’s another thing: I’m taking some cattle to Palmland and, so, you’ll go.”
Juca looked scared, kept silent for a while, and then asked, “Do I go with the family and all?”
“Yes, the whole family goes with you.”
Juca attempted to resist, saying, “If you ain’t pleased with my work, just say so and I’ll leave.”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t pleased with your work. I said I wanted to make a change.”
“The thing is that Palmland is kind of out of the way, far from here.”
Jeremias was silent and his expression showed that this argument wouldn’t wash with him. Juca became clearly upset and threatened. “Maybe it’s best if I just leave.”
Jeremias continued in full silence, indifferent, to let Juca know it was his decision.
Neither one said a word for a long time. Jeremias was cold; his expression seemed to say “take it or leave it.” Juca looked restless. He stared at the floor and then looked up at Jeremias in a hopeless and silent plea for compassion. Jeremias decided to force a decision. “It’s time for me to go out to the maternity pasture,” he said, referring to his daily habit of riding every late afternoon to inspect the cows about to have calves or who had just delivered them.
Juca, even more restless now, barely got the words out of his mouth, as he stammered, “All right...then...I’ll go...but...the family could stay here.”
“No, your family goes with you,” Jeremias replied, realizing that Juca was making a last-ditch attempt to remain.
“Fine, fine then,” said a sorrowful Juca, in a desolate voice. “When do I go?”
“Tomorrow morning. You can take your things in the tractor trailer and Edu will bring it back here.”
Juca left very downcast, and, the next morning, he made the move, as instructed by his boss.
Map of the Entrails of the Soil
In the first break she had during the analyses procedures, Cristina went back to Old Farm with Edu. Her objective was to map out some expressive crystal concentration.
At the southern end, she said to him, “ Edu, I’m going to walk along the length of the ore. I’m going to do some zigzagging, so don’t think I’m behaving kind of crazy. The thing is, when I walk bare footed, I think I can detect the crystal because my feet itch, understand?”
“It’s hard enough to believe that you feel this itching down there in bottom of the well, let alone up here.” He paused for a while, puzzled, and then went on, suggesting, “Let me go first because there’s high grass and deep weeds in some places. I’ll clear a trail for you.”
“Fine, thanks, but first let’s stretch this measuring-tape as far as that tree over there. I have to know the exact starting point, understand?”
She started walking barefooted, writing down notes and marking the distribution of the itching, using trees and aggregates of milk crystals as reference points for the measurements. She would slightly zigzag on her way, as if on a winding trail, sometimes heading north, sometimes northwest, cutting a path about the width of a horse trail. From time to time, the trail would widen, forming circles and semicircles in variable sizes.
...
“About that. Do you reckon there’s crystal all over, down there, all the way from Old Farm?”
“I can pretty much guarantee there is quartzdrum with some crystal, and some other places seem to have pans—large and small alike.”
“The Lord be praised! Cristina, you do have some awesome powers! Still, I keep wondering if you can really pinpoint exactly where all that crystal is, ‘cause if you can, then I say you ain’t from this world, no way.”
“Everybody is sensitive to something,” she said, trying to minimize the importance he was ascribing to her. Then, she continued, “ Look how much Dog’s teeth there is here, and in huge sizes, too. However, the ore doesn’t go straight ahead, but branches off in different directions. In the lower part of that little hill it goes that way, understand?” she concluded, pointing straight to the northwest.
“That’s where the Fern Mine is,” he told her. “Can you see that barren stretch right on the hilltop? It’s right there.”
“The other part of the ore went that way.” She pointed to the northeast. “I can see that there are lots of low foothills and rocks over there.”
“Yes, plenty of them. Right in the middle of them is the Camilo Mine, named after a fellow who took lots of crystal from there. In the middle of the rock, close to the ground, there is a quartzdrum just like the one we saw at the Old Farm well-bottom.”
That day, Cristina worked feverishly on the analyses and on drawing up the mine maps. She only stopped for dinner, during which she remarked lightly, “I’m really impressed by all the crystal here.”
“The problem is finding it, right, Jê?” said Filó, looking to her husband, as if doubting what the young woman was saying.
“Right, there sure is a lot of crystal, but findin’ it is the problem,” Gilton practically repeated what his mother had just said.
Cristina was so sure that she was on the right path that she was now thinking about soils from the standpoints of plant and ore alike. In her imagination, she could see how things were ordained deep in the bowels of that raw earth. When she thought of flatlands, she just couldn’t bear the thought of their near sterility.
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To arrive at the Fern Mine, one has to climb a very steep hill. Even under normal road conditions, only a four-wheel-traction vehicle could get up there, as Edu pointed out. The road was so bad, with so much soil erosion, that no car could get through. The hill was part of a mountain range flanking mangos and farming lands. Virgin outcrops of Dog’s teeth dotted its base. While the animals would slowly zigzag up the hill, instinctively saving energy, Edu told Cristina part of the story of his life.
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Vereda and Oasis
As soon as they arrived at the Fern Mine, Cristina walked around the hill crest, in which a tractor had cut a path. Like the other mine, this one too was full of sand and pebbles. Milky quartz stones, in variable sizes, had been pushed to the road banks. The place itself was rather interesting. Other mountain ranges could be seen, towards the west and northwest. In the opposite direction, towards the north, north east, and east, widespread mangos could be seen, the road to Itacambira cutting through them. She took off her boots and walked in different directions, feeling a very light itching on her feet.
“Funny thing,” she said, “I feel as if there were mild signs of crystal everywhere on this hill crest, understand? I wonder whether there is still some crystal here or whether everything was taken out.”
Edu explained that there had been large, but faulty, crystal stones there, with color inclusions and varied shapes, resembling color clouds, phantoms, needles, hairs, whatever. Back in those days, only no-inclusion clear crystals had value.
“That must be it, I bet. Because it has structural flaws, the electricity is weak, understand?”
“Geez! I sure don’t understand none of this business ‘bout electricity. The following is this, you know a lot and you have a lot of power, surely, but I only believe what you’re sayin’ when I see them crystals. You say crystal produces electricity, my goodness!”
“What’s this that you keep saying about me having so much power?”
“I noticed it the first day I saw you, that you’re different. When we’re walking in the woods and come across a different stone we never seen ‘fore, we reckon it has power and value. Folks here on the farm talk all the time ‘bout your power, the things you do.”
“You don’t say? And what do they say about me?”
“Everybody thinks you’re different. Júlia figures it’s because of them crystals. She says that’s where you get the energy from and the crystals protect you. She says on the first day you had a crystal and just walked around them angry cows in the maternity pasture and no cow bothered you. She also said she had given the stone to you and later gave you a big one. She claims the stones protect you from all sorts of evil, even from mad cows. According to her, you carry the small stone in your purse, it that true?”
“It is. I carry it because I like it and think it’s pretty, understand?”
“I wonder. To me, your power has another source, but Júlia says that it comes from the Earth and the Sun stored in the crystal.”
“Okay, then where does this power of mine come from?”
“I ain’t sure, but the fact is you have it.”
She proposed that they change the subject.
“Fine with me. We still have to go to the Naked Hill and Dead Ox Mines.” ...
...
They were silent for a spell, and then Cristina brought up the issue of Juca. She said that she was worried and upset and that she wondered whether she could do something. “I keep thinking whether I should treat him differently, pay less attention to him, so that he might not hold any hopes, understand? Jeremias sent him to Palmland, but he’s always finding excuses to come near the main house. He wants to see me, talk to me, even if it’s just to say good morning or good afternoon.”
“I don’t know, ‘cause the following is this: it might be worse if you treat him any different. People in love see things differently. The other day I was talking to him and know what he said? That you like him. I talked some more and he said that he knew this because of your voice, that’s how he can tell. Just imagine that.”
“Is that right, Edu? Because of my voice?”
“Yes. So, if you change your behavior, he’ll figure that’s because you really like him and don’t want others to figure it out. Things are manageable, right?” Cristina nodded. “So, if it’s manageable, let it be. The following is this, if you change anything, things could get hairy.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s best to treat him the same way I treat everybody else. But this whole thing is so unpleasant.”
“Don’t you get upset about it. Everybody knows you have a fine, healthy attitude. Sure, there is this bad Juca thing, but there are also a lot of good things. Think about them good things.”
...
They stopped briefly at the Naked Hill Mine, a small hill with several large, man-made mining holes. It was difficult to walk there because the terrain was very steep and there were rocks and boulders. In one section of the soil, Cristina felt that itching sensation.
When they got to the Dead Ox Mine, she was enchanted and spellbound. There was intense crystal activity amidst breathtaking beauty. The place was a vast stretch of flatland, at the end of the mountain range. To the east there were Dog’s teeth aplenty, all of them so white as to resemble milk. They went around the hill, all the way to the southeast. The land ended abruptly to the south, the Dame Creek running some one hundred meters below, east to west. Far from the itching-sensation area some two hundred meters, almost dead center in the flatland, there was a major depression on the ground and some trees. At Cristina’s request, the two of them walked to it.
At the edge of the depression, which looked like a huge north-south cut in the hill, there were some woods along a steep incline—dense woods with large-size trees. The two of them climbed down the incline on foot, going around the trees.
“It’s a small forest,” she gasped, enthusiastically. “It must be some forty thousand square meters.”
They came to a swamp, down below, a lazy brook running leisurely away from it. Cristina contemplated the water for several minutes, in the middle of the vegetation, and, returning to the subject of the terrain depression, she remarked, “ Edu, see what nature is like—trees and water galore over here. It seems that nature is telling us that no matter how parched and arid the soul may be, suddenly green hope may appear. Water brings life, understand? Even if it’s in a tiny little corner of the world such as this.”
“I don’t understand these things. We here call this vereda. It’s a spring in the woods on the bottom of two hills.”
“Names really don’t matter that much, Edu. Look at how many mountains we can see from here.” She was pointing in many directions. “They’re all lower or no higher than this one. Look at that stretch of flatland so full of dry highgrass and, smack in its center, that wonderful reminder of life’s celebration, a lush oasis!”
A perfect place for camping, she thought.
“We can see parts of the farm over there,” said Edu, pointing east.
They walked towards where he had pointed, around the hill, and she could see another marvelous scene: the farm’s mangos and plantations, down below. Some five kilometers away, there loomed another mountain range. In between the two ranges, beyond the mangos and plantations, there were the ups and downs of hills and depressions. Edu pointed to some places she had heard about, giving their names, so that she could have a better grasp of the farm and its various mines.
“ Edu, this is far more than just quartz mines,” she said enthusi astically, “this is truly the crystal land. These mines are all interlinked, and God only knows what is inside them.”
On the way back, Cristina stopped to take a better look at the place. The stretch of flatland must have been some four hundred thousand square meters in size, with crystal at one end and a lush oasis in the middle. To the north of the oasis, there were large sandstone boulders. The road had ended some eight hundred meters before that. The only way to get there was on horseback or on foot. A magic place. Perfect also for spiritual retreats and meditation.
As she headed back to the farmhouse, Cristina kept thinking of the conversation she would have with Jeremias in the evening. The time had come for her to show him her studies and for major decisions to be made. She was ready to submit everything to definitive tests—unfold soils, get some clay, grow plants on sandy soil, and find crystals. Above all, she urgently needed proof for herself. She had plenty of evidence that she was not dealing with fantasy, but her scientific background cried out for facts and for proof. Often, she was not even aware that supernormal phenomena permeated her actions and guided her steps.
Cristina Takes Off
In the evening, the young woman started explaining succinctly to the whole family the results she had shown them previously. She reminded them that the farm lands were deficient in minerals and the clay content was low in some places, probably even more so in others, and that some areas were low in minerals and high in acidity. Finally, she also pointed out that the situation was awful in the flatlands, due to excessive hydrogen, aluminum, iron and sand, and the nearly total absence of clay and nutrients.
Next, she mentioned that the farming lands examined down to four meters in depth had shown encouraging results. In the Mill and Highgrass areas, steep inclines reached more than twenty meters in height, on rocky hillsides, with exceptional concentration of silicates (silicon compounds), which were precursors of clay and without any use whatsoever. Moreover, there was a consolidated part of clay bear ing high amounts of mineral nutrients. Everything was there, practically unchanged for millions of years.
Her plan was to remove clay and other minerals from these locations and haul them to unproductive areas, such as the flatlands. Furthermore, she would develop a technique to avoid continuous loss through rainwater. She emphasized the similarity between the average sizes of clay and cells and insisted that clays are the most important part of the soil.
“So, that’s why you mentioned unfoldin’ the soil, taking things from one area and haulin’ them to another?” asked Gilton.
“Right. We can increase the productive area considerably, removing the minerals from there, without sand, and, for instance, hauling them to some flatlands, understand? We can do it even if we only place them in the upper layers of the flatlands.”
“And how much would all this cost?” asked an unbelieving Jeremias. “Not allowing rainwater to wash them away and moving them from one place to another. What would the cost be, for instance, per hectare?”
“There is indeed a cost, and I don’t know how much it is. But how about if we try it out in a small area, understand? As an experiment.”
“If it works, we can sell the hill lands,” Gilton spoke with heavy irony. “Maybe we can even export it?”
A heavy silence fell on the room and then she thought brightly: “Synthesize the clays.” Practically without realizing it, she said, “And we will carry out the supreme experiment.”
“And what would that be?” asked Júlia, while everybody else looked around, not understanding anything.
“Supreme means maximum. We’ll synthesize a little clay.”
“ Oh, synthesize,” said Gilton, looking disappointed and not grasping the extent of the idea.
“But how much? How much would it cost?” insisted Jeremias, who, like his son, didn’t fully grasp the idea and wanted to get back to the economic cost.
“We’ll need your machines, plus a dump truck and some tubes to be adapted to the truck. We will also need a loader, bricks, cement, and other assorted things.”
“Where will the money come from?” insisted Jeremias, showing his pants’ pockets, as if to say that he had no money.
“We’ll remove some crystals, sell them, and buy all this, understand?”
Everyone laughed in disbelief, except Júlia, who responded, “Our family is looking like a bunch of darn fool people. Don’t you see how much she has studied and worked on this?” Her voice showed irritation. “I been around her and seen things. She does some different things with the soil, things we don’t understand, but who knows that they won’t work out?”
“Cristina, look here,” Gilton started, paying no attention to what his sister had just said, “you say things we don’t understand. Okay, so you’ve studied a lot, no one is goin’ to argue with that, and we sure can’t argue with you about things we don’t understand. But we do understand prospecting and mining. Now, to say that you’ll remove crystal to do all these things, so easily? You make it sound as if you’re just goin’ to the street corner and back.”
“After I lost money in mining, I swore I’d never again mess around with any of this,” Jeremias said forcefully, making sure his point got across to everybody.
“If there is so much crystal, it would be better to use the money to buy other good land to plant on, and then there would be no great big problem, right?” asked Gilberto.
“True,” she answered. “That’s how most people think and act. All they care about is an easy life and immediate profit. But we can carry out some experiments, and if they don’t work, fine, we’ll just stop them, understand?”
“Why don’t we just see how it goes? Let her explain,” Júlia retorted.
“Girl, we’ve already tried the crystal here and you know we only lost money,” Jeremias pointed out.
“Let’s make a deal,” Cristina said to Jeremias. “I have some savings. You get three men to dig and I’ll pay them. We’ll use your drilling equipment, which is just sitting idle anyway, and I’ll pay for the fuel and whatever else is necessary. They’ll dig where I tell them to. If there is crystal, you sell it and then pay me back what I have spent and a little more, so that I can buy some stuff to go on working. You use the balance of the money to purchase machinery and equipment to haul the clay. Whatever is left over, you can do what you want with it. Then we’ll remove more crystal so that you can improve the farm, for instance, by installing electric lights, irrigating more, fixing the road, using more limestone, working in the soil, and other things. You won’t run any risk of losing money, understand?”
“It’s a deal!” replied Jeremias, without much conviction. “I have to buy some things in Itacambira tomorrow, and, then, if you want, I can get you the men.”
“I’ll go with you. I have to phone home and talk to some other people, anyway.”
“I’ll go, too,” said Júlia, who never missed a chance to go some place.
“Cristina,” said Gilberto, “please think about it: you figure we’re goin’ to find a whole pile of crystal, right?”
“Right, a strike!”
The time had come for the first test. Deep in her soul, Cristina was convinced of the results. She even imagined, in all the details, what would happen next.
Very early the next morning, the workers were extremely excited. The news had circulated that the young woman had guaranteed a strike of crystal.
... Jeremias arranged to secure the services of three men experienced in crystal mining, but they could only come to the farm one week later.
Buy The Book
Chapter 1 – The Number Forty in the Bible
The Mysterious Blue Light
Conflict in the Family
Number Forty in the Bible
The Number Forty in Astronomy
Chapter 2 - The Unknown Mission
Preparations for the Unknown Mission
Fear and Courage
A Vision of the Gerais
Genes and Chromosomes
Adoption
The Choice
On the Way to her Destiny
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 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
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