The morning of May 2nd, half an hour before people started arriving for the Mass, the three women, referred to as "zarzas," got off the bus at their usual stop. They discovered that their bench was occupied by a homeless man who was waiting for the Mass to begin so he could ask for alms. Next to him, there was a small bundle of clothes and some belongings, along with a plastic container for collecting the coins people gave him.
It was a sunny day, and the zarzas' bench provided the best shade.
"That man is occupying our bench!" exclaimed one of the zarzas. They looked at each other and decided to ignore him, hastening their steps to enter the church and sit inside.
As people arrived, they attended the Mass, and upon leaving, the zarzas were dismayed to find the man still sitting on their bench. They approached him and attempted to sit down, but the man, who seemed not to have bathed for a while, smelled, and he placed his container in front of them, asking for alms.
One of the zarzas opened her purse, took out her wallet, and gave him some coins.
Afterward, they linked arms and continued towards the bus stop as a single entity.
"And on top of that, we have to pay him," said Adelina, the quietest of the three women.
That evening, Adelina developed a severe headache. She asked for a glass of water and an aspirin, but just when it seemed the pain was subsiding, she felt a warmth inside her head and fainted.
When she woke up, she was in the hospital, surrounded by her two companions.
"How are you feeling?" Josefa asked.
"What am I doing here?" was Adelina's response, looking surprised.
"You fainted. We called an ambulance, and they took you to the hospital. They said you had a blackout, and you would have to spend the night in the emergency room for observation, but they eventually admitted you to the hospital."
When the nurse came to administer the medication, Adelina started talking again...
"You're very talkative," said the nurse, after Adelina had asked about her entire family.
"On the contrary," replied Josefa, "she's the quietest of the three, but she remembers everything she hears."
"Well, she doesn't seem quiet at all!"
When the doctor came to see her, Adelina started talking again, asking the doctor about her family and an aunt nobody remembered, who had married in Valladolid...
"You're very talkative!" the doctor told her.
"We're surprised too," said Josefa and Luisa, the other two zarzas. "She didn't let us say a word the whole time we've been with her in the room."
The next day, when her friends came to pick her up, they found that her roommate had the television on very loud.
"Isn't the television too loud?" Josefa asked.
"It's to drown out her friend, who talks non-stop!"
When Adelina left the hospital, she said goodbye to all the patients on the hospital floor and promised the nurses that she would send them some muffins she baked in her kitchen.
Two days after returning home, when Josefa and Luisa went to visit her to see how she was, their neighbors told them that in the hospital, Adelina must have had her head changed because she couldn't stop talking or let anyone else speak in the conversation. They must have put someone else's head on her, maybe a radio announcer or something.
The following week, when the zarzas descended to the church bus stop, the poor man was sitting on the bench again.
"How do we know he's poor and not just homeless?" Adelina asked.
"What a thing you have!" her companions replied.
"You know that saints live in extreme poverty and talk to God."
"Adelina, you're not thinking they're testing us, and a poor person appears to see if we're charitable?"
"Look, let's do something. How much money do we have together?"
They opened their purses, and among the three, they had a hundred and twenty-three euros with seventy-five cents.
"What if we give him a hundred euros and see what happens?"
After a small controversy among the three, they decided to give him sixty-three euros with seventy-five cents.
The poor man opened his eyes, filled with astonishment at the amount placed in his plastic cup, and he didn't stop expressing his gratitude to his benefactors until he saw them disappear into the returning bus. In the afternoon, he paid for a room in at the town borading house, where he showered, shaved, and spent the rest of the money at the bar. The next day, he hitched a ride on a truck with a truck driver he met the night before and headed towards Bilbao.
On Sunday, when the three zarzas returned to the spot, they found their bench free from the presence of the poor man.
"That man was a saint. He left, and he has left us with a miracle," said Josefa. "Isn't that right, Adelina?"
Adelina nodded without saying a word, and the zarzas, considering the small fortune given to the poor well spent, sat down again on their bench to watch and criticize people passing by on their way to Mass.
mvf
