Maria was desperate, it had been months since she had lost her job and although she had tried several things to have an economic income all her attempts had ended badly. Now she was trying to set up a cake and dessert shop, but although her products were very good, sales were not enough to cover all the bills.
One night as she lay awake thinking about what to do, she remembered that her grandfather had once told her about her grandmother's secret recipe book. Maria's grandmother, Doña Carmen, had lived her whole life dedicated to baking, but no one ever knew how she made her great recipes, most of which had coffee in them. Some assumed that it was the caffeine that generated that addiction in her clientele, but in reality what attracted people was the quality of the flavor and the softness of the dough, but how did she do it? Well, grandfather assured that Doña Carmen had a secret recipe book where she liked all her formulas, but even he had never seen it, Doña Carmen locked herself in the library to consult the recipe book and hid it before leaving the place. Grandfather had looked for it a couple of times, but he had failed and after Doña Carmen's death he decided to respect her secret and stop looking for it.
Now Maria had insisted that getting that recipe book was the only way to solve her problems. The next day very early she arrived at her grandfather's house and told him about her plan, the old man was not very convinced, he told her that he would not try to stop her, but he reminded her that she was wasting her time, the recipe book was impossible to get. So Maria started her search and about 8 hours later she was tired, hungry and the recipe book was not there, but she did not want to stop her search, she was convinced and kept going through all the books.
By midnight Maria was about to give up, her stomach hurt from not having eaten anything and a pain in her chest reminded her that she was being defeated. She looked around and the library was upside down, she wondered if she had checked every nook and cranny How about one last look? Exhaustion made her stumble several times, she bent down to look on one of the shelves parallel to the floor, but her forehead hit one of the shelves above and the blow was thunderous. Maria cursed as much as she could, but a noise interrupted her, apparently her head hitting the shelf had released a secret compartment.
Inside was an old book, it seemed to be handmade, the smell of coffee permeated the library when Maria took it out of its hiding place. On one of its first pages, by way of introduction, a brief text read:
In the beginning of the world, men were made of coffee, their brown skin and attractive smell made the other species surrender to them, obey them and even worship them. From the earthy and perfumed skin of the men some sprouts peeked out, from them enormous coffee trees were born and grew, towering over all the other plants. This kept men in total connection with the earth and nature, a perfect balance.
But the envious gods could not bear that one of their creations was more beautiful and powerful than they were, and decided to reduce man and the trees that grew from him. They turned man's coffee into mud and the immense trees became sad bushes, and with time the connection between man and coffee was completely lost. But as the earth has memory, billions of years later some tribes found in the coffee beans the memories of their ancestors and dedicated their lives to create formulas and recipes that would help to reconstruct that connection between our species and coffee. All that remained in their writings and has passed through different times and generations, it has changed its form and spelling in order to survive in time.
Whoever manages to master these formulas and recipes will be contributing to the reconstruction of our historical, original genetic fabric. Use it wisely.
Maria was impressed, her heart was beating strongly, she felt on top of history, she thought that maybe that was why people liked coffee so much, because it was our natural essence. Suddenly a rush invaded her, she took her cell phone out of her pocket and began to take pictures of the pages to back up the content, when she had already registered about fifty pages, she realized that the book was huge and that she was just starting. She realized how hungry she was and decided to go down to the kitchen to make a sandwich, she ate quietly but when she returned to the library she could not find the book. Maria started to push like a wounded animal, she was rummaging through everything looking for the book, her grandfather heard the noise and came to the library.
"What's the matter Maria? You're going to smash everything."
"The book? Where is the book? It was here a moment ago."
"It's the book that decides who to keep Maria, it's something you have no control over."
At that moment Maria checked her phone, fearful that the photos were gone too, but found to her surprise that they were there. Grandpa saw her smile and immediately smiled himself as well.
"He has given you what he wants you to have, with that you will fulfill your purpose and that of your ancestors."
Maria looked at the grandfather satisfied, she knew that now she had a great responsibility in her hands and at that moment she began to feel something sprouting from her skin, they were not plants, but without a doubt they were her roots extending running through her interior and sprouting from her pores.
