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Even so, all the years she had spent sitting by her front door waiting for his arrival had not been in vain, because they had taught her the beauty of theshe had never really noticed before, simply because she had been born in that place and had always tended to take the landscape for granted

As expected, the stranger went into the hotel Berta wondered if she should go and warn the priest about this undesirable visitor, but she kneouldn't listen to her, dis old people like to worry about

So now she just had to wait and see what happened It doesn't take a devilabout destruction; they are like storms, hurricanes or avalanches, which, in a few short hours, can destroy trees planted two hundred years before Suddenly, Berta realized that the e anything: devils co by their presence They are constantly abroad in the world, so on, at others to put some soul or other to the test But they are fickle creatures, and there is no logic in their choice of target, being drawnBerta concluded that there was nothing sufficiently interesting or special about Viscos to attract the attention of anyone for more than a day, let alone soer from the dark

She tried to turn her e of the stranger out of her head The sky, which had been clear and bright up until then, suddenly clouded over

"That's norht It was sier's arrival

Then, in the distance, she heard a clap of thunder, followed by another three On the one hand, this simply meant that rain was on the way; on the other, if the old superstitions of the village were to be believed, the sound could be interpreted as the voice of an angry God, protesting that rown indifferent to His presence

"Perhaps I should do so for has finally happened"

She sat for a fewon around her; the clouds had continued to gather above the village, but she heard no other sounds As a good ex-Catholic, she put no store by traditions and superstitions, especially those of Viscos, which had their roots in the ancient Celtic civilization that once existed in the place

"A thunderclap is an entirely natural phenomenon If God wanted to talk to man, he wouldn't use such roundabout methods"

She had just thought this when she again heard a peal of thunder acco--a lot closer this tiot to her feet, picked up her chair and went into her house before the rain started; but this time she felt her heart contract with an indefinable fear

"What should I do?"

Again she wished that the stranger would simply leave at once; she was too old to help herself or her village, far less assist Alhty God, who, if He needed any help, would surely have chosen soer This was all just so better to do than to invent ways of helping her pass the time

But of one thing she was sure, she had seen the Devil

In the flesh and dressed as a pilgrim

The hotel was, at one and the sa food typical of the region, and a bar where the people of Viscos could gather to talk about what they always talked about: how the weather was doing, or how young people had no interest in the village "Nine months of winter, threeto the fact that each year they had only ninety days to carry out all the work in the fields, fertilizing, sowing, waiting, then harvesting the crops, storing the hay and shearing the sheep

Everyone who lived there knew they were clinging to a world whose days were numbered; even so, it was not easy for theeneration of the farmers and shepherds who had lived in those mountains for centuries Sooner or later the machines would arrive, the livestock would be reared far froht well be sold to a big multinational that would turn it into a ski resort

That is what had happened to other villages in the region, but Viscos had resisted--because it owed a debt to the past, to the strong traditions of those ancestors who had once chosen to live here, and who had taught the to the bitter end

The stranger carefully read the foroing to put From his accent, they would know he came froentina, because he really liked their football team In the space left for his address, he wrote Colo that South Ae to each other by na countries As his name, he chose that of a famous terrorist from the previous century

In less than two hours, all the 281 inhabitants of Viscos knew that a stranger nae, that he had been born in Argentina and now lived in a pleasant street in Buenos Aires That is the advantage of very shtest effort, you can learn all there is to know about a person's life