The Miracle After the Earthquake
Caracas, Venezuela
October 29th of 1900
Between 4:30 am and 5:00 am
The wake of the 20th century was one marked with hope in some countries, like the United States of America, who was going to elect their new president in just a few weeks, or Argentina, who were each day moving closer to be among the most powerful nations of the world, since many nations across the globe were making the economic transition to move forward from their agricultural roots to the new Industrial Revolution started by England and the other european powers, with nations like Mexico (under Porfirio Díaz) and Japan (under the Meiji Restoration) quickly following through, hoping to become part of the nations who were seen as the standard of the time.
Sadly, not all nations were going through this process of economic reforms and would rather prefer to stay under their current economic systems, using it more as a way to stay in power and keep control on the population, whether by using tradition as an excuse, like in China, or the economic reforms wouldn't be benefiting for the new groups in power (like the new Republican government in Brazil) since, even though they removed the previous government, they were more wanting to have control rather than wanting to improve their nations.
The nation we are going to see now was more in a strange position. It wasn't a great power on the world, though it has been close to be one in various occasions. It also wasn't a nation whose government came to be by legal means like in United States or the United Kingdom but it also removed a government that came to be through fraudulent elections. It wanted to keep power and control over the population but it also wanted to improve and fix the broken economy they currently had.
This nation was a country who once was known to have a great power whose military was capable of putting pressure to Great States like the Poland and the United Kingdom, now it was so diplomatically weak that the United Kingdom was capable of taking away 1/7 of its territory without firing a single bullet; it used to be a great agricultural exporter of goods like cocoa and leather during the early 19th century but decades of civil war and political instability destroyed the farming lands, leaving only coffee to be the only good they could still export to the world, although some states has been found to have a mysterious good that has been used more and more called oil, although it still wasn't certain how important it was going to become on the long term.
It's elected government was overthrown by a group of people that lived on the mountain region of Los Andes, particularly the three states of Táchira, Mérida and Trujillo, and by only allowing other andeans to be in the government, this quickly came to be a period known by historians as the Andean Hegemony and their rule over Venezuela would be the longest on its entire history.
It has been days since the passing of the first anniversary since the andean government took over by overthrowing the liberal president Ignacio Andrade and its current president, and leader of the movement, was relaxing on his bed on the presidential Yellow House, in the middle of Caracas, trying but failing to sleep as the multiple problems that he inherited when he took over Venezuela were now haunting him with no end in sight.
This man, now President of Venezuela, was a man born and raised on the Táchira state. He had a burnt dark skin, big sleepy black eyes, his hair (which he was starting to lack by now) was black, straight and rough, a mustache and an abundant beard with a sharp french cut. He was a man of quick temper (which was a great contrast with his sad appearance) that made him too prone to enter either into violent confrontations or into a quick shouting with whoever was angering him and was always eager to solve any problem he had as soon as possible (which is why he was always having a shootout against rival families during his early youth) evidenced when Ignacio Andrade decided to mockingly refuse to hear him, at which he responded by shouting "I am going to search for my boys and remove him from the Yellow House!" Which he did in less than a year.
When he started what was called "The Liberal Restaurative Revolution" he did so with just a small bunch of men that were more accustomed to farming and had little to no experience in battle, best exemplified with the youngest members of his revolution being a 17 years old boy who preferred to abandon his studies and join on the fight in the hopes of following the dreams of a man that was too easy to excite and, as intelligent as he could be, was prone to attack those who tried to disagree with his ideas.
But, right now, this man wasn't thinking on who to attack neither on how far has he moved from being a simple politician to now be the President of his nation. As of now, he was more wondering what kind of problem he would have to face soon as the time to analyze the problems his country had was ending and the time to take action was coming.
All this year was spent trying to see what debts he inherited, the political system being implemented across the Venezuelan State, asking and searching for advice to the economist and politicians regarding what direction Venezuela had to take and trying to not shoot all of the media that likes to mock him for his short height.
It was something he found quite unfair, actually. He worked for the Congress, representing his home state, he was a competent general, no matter what his critics tried to say otherwise, he was trying his best to save his home country from the ruin brought by those corrupt but it looked more like people preferred to focus more on any small mistake he said or make, if they weren't remembering everybody of how he was as tall as Napoleon, of course.
That was what he was trying to ignore as he relaxed on his bed, he would later talk to his personal assistant and order him to call up a cabinet meeting where they would discuss his plans to reform the current constitution so it could be much easier for him to rule the country, after all, he was well aware of how the liberals took what originally was a good constitution (made in 1864) and turned it into a mean to remain in power forever. No, this new constitution would be better to help his people but that would be for later. Right now, he had to relax and, hopefully, he would later go out with his wife if there wasn't much to do today.
And so, as he relaxed, he started to dive his mind deeper into sleep and tried to keep his eyes closed as he started to feel movement from the ground. He quickly opened them back and saw how everything on around him was now moving and, as he heard porcelain and other home utensils falling down to the ground, fear started to creep over his body when he started to hear the building roaring as the earth started to shake.
His mind quickly drove him back to his childhood in Táchira and how deathly those earthquakes were, especially the one from 1875. There was no time, he had to leave the building before it fell, so he raised up from the bed. There was no time to put on his shirt or pants, only his underwear would do, he picked up an umbrella, and jumped off from the Yellow House's second floor, using the umbrella as a mean to reduce the damage from the fall, hoping to survive what would be later recorded as the most dangerous earthquake in Venezuelan history as well as the first earthquake ever recorded by a world organization.
As he came back to his senses, he could feel the pain on his foot but there was no medic in the vicinity to assess how bad it was, for now, he needed to make sure that everything was fine in Caracas. As he looked around, everything was being destroyed, houses, churches, official buildings, the Central University, the Holy Chapel, and who knows what else was falling down right now. It would surprise him to see the Federal Palace and the Yellow House to be among the survivors but that didn't mean they were fine. He would later have to start an investigation to assess how far did the earthquake spread and how strong it was.
As he raised himself up and started to feel the ache on his feet and, as he decided to look around, he could now hear the multiple screams for help from the destroyed buildings, as well as the citizens, fleeing their houses now that the natural catastrophe has passed. He was quickly being surrounded by his own men as chaos was close to erupt but he quickly decided to stand up (as most as he could) and ordered his men to look around the zone and save as many as they could.
"Sir, are you alright?"
The short president looked around and saw his personal assistant, the youngest man that followed him a year ago on that revolution, now eager to help him on this.
"Yes boy, quick, I want for you to help me look around the city and see if everything is alright."
The boy simply nodded as he helped him to stay up without forcing his foot.
"Alright sir but what about your house?"
"Don't worry boy, security can look around the house and make sure its fine while we search around."
With that simple answer, the two of them started to see around the area and they couldn't but stop first at the chapel that was so close to them. They noticed how many of its walls were demolished and it wasn't a huge mystery to the two of them how the Venezuelan Catholic Church would probably pin the earthquake on him, after all, they probably were probably still angry because of that time when he tried to kill the priest that refused to let his sister to be honored with marriage, event that dubbed him the name "mata curas" or "priest killer", even though he went to jail for that.
But that was a problem he wouldn't have to worry about at least for the following hours, for now, all he had to worry about was about finding any possible casualty on the holy building.
As both he and his assistant were getting close to the chapel, they started to call out to see if there were someone close in the vicinity.
"Hello!" - The assistant shouted. - "Is anyone out there!?"
They gave a second look at the chapel and took notice of the main entrance being demolished as well as some of the walls (although the wall looking at the Yellow House was still intact) but there was still a chance of the priest still being alive in there.
"Sir, what do you think of this?"
The president decided to look at his young assistant with curiosity.
"What do you mean Eleazar?"
The young assistant decided to look around the city as some buildings were now lighting up, with everybody now woken up after that earthly alarm.
"I mean, I wonder if the electricity circuits were affected, it's already bad enough that so many buildings were destroyed but what if the circuits are gone? The medical staff is going to have many problems if that happens."
The short tempered president decided to take a moment to think about the problems that were about to face him. He was very sure that this would be a huge obstacle for his plans but he was sure that he would try to fix that later.
"Don't worry boy, we'll fix that problem when it comes, for now, let's make sure this earthquake doesn't take anymore casualties."
As his assistant nodded and prepared to move, breaking into the early morning quietness and disturbing the peace that only comes from those who are starting to rest from the worry and stress formed by a disaster, they heard the cries of a baby.
Their instincts told them to search for the source of the crying, and, to confirm their fears, it was coming on the ruined chapel.
For a brief moment they wondered if they should wait at first or if they should try to enter and rescue the baby but, as always, the presidents short temper decided to act before thought could be processed.
"Eleazar, let's go save that baby!"
The young man, worried for a potential replica coming up soon, tried to argue back but the president would have none of it and tried to enter into the chapel on his own if his young assistant wasn't going to help him. Thankfully, his assistant decided to follow suit and join him in the search, with the baby's cries being their only source of direction.
It was dark and, more often than not, the two men would stumble with either debris or with the chapel's furniture but it didn't stop them from trying to get to the crying baby. They were already wondering what was a baby doing in the chapel, perhaps it was an abandoned baby? It wouldn't make sense what was it doing so inside the building but it was the best they had for now.
As they stumbled upon the debris, each time getting closer and closer to the baby, they finally managed to get close enough to grab it, which was decided, after much debate, that it would be the president who would hold the baby with his assistant helping him to stay up.
It was the moment when they grabbed it, though, when they both noticed that there were some strange things happening with this baby. It wasn't that it suddenly stopped crying as if it noticed being grabbed, it was more on the fact that it had hair on its skin, a lot of hair. The two men moved their hands across the baby's body, trying to figure out where did the hair end and, to their surprise, they got to the limbs and noticed a lack of hands as well of feet but their concern increased when they discovered how the place that was supposed to have a human face actually felt much more different, especially the little protuberance on the forehead. They were about to leave the baby alone, fearing the what it could actually be, when it started to cry once more, reminding them that, no matter what it actually was, it was still nothing less than a baby.
"What do we do sir? Do we take it out?"
The president gave it a small bit of thought, he tried to think of how good of an idea it would be to take something that he was very sure it wasn't human but as he heard the cries, he remembered the earthquakes he often had to endure back on his home state and how terrified it would have been for him to endure them alone.
No, he would save this thing no matter what.
"We'll take it out of here Eleazar and there is no question about it."
The young man tried to say something about it but, instead, he preferred to follow his president's orders and helped him to leave the damaged chapel.
As they left the place and more light was finally coming from the few buildings that had some sort of electricity as well as the street lamps, they managed to get a better look at whatever they had in their hands and, after giving it a brief look, they were surprised that it was, of all things, an unicorn.
A baby, violet, big headed unicorn.
And it was looking at them directly with its eyes.
"What is that?"
The two men turned around and saw a small gathering of citizens looking at them with wonder of what they had.
"I saw it" -, said one, - "There was a baby crying inside the chapel and the president went in there to save it."
"But that's not a baby" -, said another one, - "That's more like an unicorn."
"Really? Then it probably is a monster of some kind?"
"A monster coming from a church? Don't say foolish things."
"Then what is it?"
In that moment the unicorn started to cry once more, remembering all the citizens that it was, at the end of it, just a baby.
"Well" -, one more voice commented, - "That sounds like a baby, so I think we should help it and later see what it is."
"That means the president saved a baby!"
As that one particular voice said that, more and more started to join and congratulate the president on what it did.
"Live the president of Venezuela!"
"Live the cabito!"
"Live the revolution's leader!"
"Live the president Cipriano Castro!"
As the andean president, Cipriano Castro, saw the people of Caracas cheering him, he decided to give the small foal another look, wondering what kind of signal she was, a blessing or a hidden curse?
Author's Note
For those curious about Cipriano's appearance:
And, before anyone ask, no, this won't be a comedy, it's just that Cipriano was that kind of man.
EDIT July 12th of 2019: If you like this and you want to support me, you can do it through my Ko-Fi. Feel free to check it out.
