TE19 Iberian Adventure

San, the Book of Miracles

She was a mouse that came and ate the cheese that was all the old woman and the old man had to eat.

Truly, you could almost see the shadows advancing. It was as if the day was quietly walking back home after a hard day’s work. And when night filled the valleys, the mountain tops continued receiving remnants of golden light like islands in the midst of gigantic black lakes. Then came the moment when the first street lamps in the village, with their yellowish light and separated by long distances, would begin to flicker before finally illuminating while the sky was still blue and one could feel more than ever the earth rubbing against the firmament. From Lino’s house, the lights in the village resembled a modest, nostalgic, tranquil constellation. From below, the lamppost in front of what was still his house, almost at the summit, was the last one to light up, at the same time as Venus. San Antolín is the capital of the San Antolín municipality, which is as large as London orMadrid, but with six hundred and twenty- four registered inhabitants. Registered, that is, as half of them, mainly the half that is under sixty years old, have left and only come back for holidays. Thoseof youwhoarealready familiarwith this municipality will be so because of the Neva nature reserve, named after the river that carved out most of the valleys, because of the well-preserved villages and, until not long ago, because of a sanatorium and spa where Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg, the ill-fated and hemophiliac Prince of Asturias, is rumored to have resided for extended periods before disavowing everything to 201 •