The Lost Diamond
ZEUS, THE FATHER OF OLYMPUS

Although my point of contact in that case was Jorik, his refusal to return to the house left me with no choice but to communicate directly with Rossy. I called her four times, but she never answered or replied to the messages I left her. Billing a client for an unfinished job didn’t make me very happy, but I didn’t have many other options but to wait.

Only a week later, she contacted me. She said she needed to talk as soon as possible and without waiting for my acceptance or refusal, she scheduled a lunch together at a famous Spanish restaurant known for its tapas. I was surprised that she didn’t wait for my response; she summoned me imperatively, as if calling a lower-ranking employee to her office, said goodbye, and hung up.

Despite the coldness with which she treated me, I felt strangely happy to hear her voice again and know that we would be face to face once more. A shaman’s life is very strict and must be a straight line, with no room for half-truths or gray areas. Just as my master had taught me, the voice of my conscience should be the compass guiding my steps, and suddenly, this abnormal joy, this teenage infatuation I felt for talking to Rossy, was something my conscience didn’t understand or accept. She was my client, and my relationship should be strictly professional. Once the case was over, everything must end.

I had to spend a good number of hours in meditation, reflection, and fasting to force myself to eliminate this forbidden but understandable feeling I had developed for that woman. The immense temptation of her beauty, her charisma, the sweetness with which she treated me, the remarkable fact of playing a concert on her piano just for me, the mystical night we spent together, all of it was a great distraction from what should be my only goal: to help the whole create a better world, always hungry for spiritual pleasures, much more than for a pretty face and all that Rossy represented.

For a normal person, this reasoning might seem ridiculous, but I am not a normal person, and I must accept my destiny.

I arrived at the Spanish restaurant five minutes before the scheduled time.

As was customary whenever someone met with the “tribal shaman,” they led me to a reserved section of the restaurant, away from the view of other diners. Rossy arrived a few minutes later; she was very punctual as well. She was dressed very casually, blue jeans, a black sports shirt, white sneakers, and the inevitable addition of a cap and sunglasses. She carried a large sports bag, as if she had just finished playing tennis. Despite her simple attire, her elegance, her demeanor, and her way of walking drew the attention of those who passed by her side.

She greeted me coldly, as if we had just met, and seemed to be upset about something, but nothing had changed in me since the warm farewell we had after staying up all night together. She sat down, removed her sunglasses, and with a gentle hand gesture, she stopped the waiter who was approaching our table.

“I would like to talk about something before lunch,” she said.

I was surprised by the cold distance she showed, yet eager at the same time to see how this new encounter would unfold. She placed the bag on her lap, opened it, and took out a cardboard box from inside. Then she placed it on the table and slid it over to my side.

The waiter was left halfway, unsure if the pause she had requested would end soon or if it was better to leave us alone and come back later. After moving awkwardly back and forth a couple of times, he eventually retraced his steps and disappeared.

“This is for you. It’s a hundred thousand dollars.”

I didn’t know how to respond; a hundred thousand dollars was a lot of money for it to be just a tip for my services. Besides, I had already been paid quite well. I opened the box, and indeed, there were many bundles of one-hundred-dollar bills.

“A hundred thousand dollars?” I asked in surprise. Despite her appearing angry, cold, and distant, she was beautiful. Her eyes and the way her blonde hair fell across her face were distracting.

“I need to know what’s behind your visit to my house, and I want you to tell me. I also need to know where you got the information about my grandmother’s pillow color. I know there’s something more to it, and I have no problem paying you more than whoever sent you to make me believe you’re a sorcerer,” she said calmly, a calm that sometimes precedes a great storm.

“I am a sorcerer... well... not... I mean, I’m not a sorcerer, but...” I became very nervous and started stuttering like a young boy about to declare his love to his first girlfriend.

Meanwhile, she reached into her bag again and pulled out a second box.

“Two hundred thousand dollars,” she said even more coldly this time. This time, she didn’t slide it; she threw the second box on top of the first. All I could manage to stammer was, “N-no... I-I... I...”

“I want to know the truth about what’s going on between you and Jorik, why you want to take my cabin. I need to know who gave you the information about my grandmother, and I’m sure it wasn’t Jorik. What’s behind all of this?”

She was no longer speaking calmly and controlled; since she threw the second box, she began raising her voice more and more, and her face was red with anger. When she yelled, the waiter rushed over, thinking we were calling him, but when he saw that there was a heated argument at the table, I could say he bounced back and left. It was a comical note despite everything.

“I’ve done nothing but cry for a week. Everything bad that can happen to a person is happening to me right now. I don’t have the strength to eat, bathe, or talk to anyone. I can’t even sleep; I wake up crying in the middle of the night. I can get you to double this money in a few days, but I need you to tell me the whole truth. Why are they doing this to me?”

I took a deep breath and invoked the inspiration of universal wisdom, as I had done on many other occasions when I was in trouble.

“Rossy, I think the best thing we can do is calm down. Let’s start over, as if we had just met. Please, remove all this money from the table. You, like anyone else, would need hundreds of boxes like these to buy someone like me.”

I pushed the money boxes firmly toward her side and called the waiter, who once again came in a hurry.

“What’s the best salad you serve here?” The waiter replied that it was the pink tomato salad with cherries, anchovies, and anise herbs. I then asked him to bring two portions, along with mineral water. I was determined to take control of this situation that had gone completely crazy.

As the waiter was leaving, I saw that Rossy could barely hold back her tears. She had emptied all her anger, and now she looked defeated, a shadow of the radiant woman I had met a month ago.

I called the waiter again and said, “I’ll have to apologize, but I’m going to change the order. Forget about the salads; I want acorn-fed ham tapas for two, and then two servings of beef tenderloin with foie gras mousse, soufflé potatoes, and cherry sauce. And for drinks, I’ll have good red wine... No, actually, I’ll stick with mineral water. Thank you, and excuse me for the mix-up.”

I didn’t say anything else; I tried to calm myself inside, focus on helping this girl who seemed to be suffering, and let myself be guided by the inspiration the universe had granted me so many times before.

While Rossy remained with her head down, lost in her thoughts, our food arrived. Those were long minutes during which both of us were silent, and she could have left if she wanted to. If she was still sitting there, it was because she maintained her interest in the matter for which she had hired me.

“Europa, let’s eat first. Believe me, I understand what you’re going through. I can’t ask you to have blind faith in me because we hardly know each other. I promise to tell you the whole truth once we’ve finished eating. According to Jorik, it’s better not to do business on an empty stomach. Do you think we can do that? Let’s take a break to eat together.”

“I don’t eat meat,” she said with a sad face but a hint of sympathy, accepting my truce until after the meal.

“That’s okay; let’s consider it a sacrifice. Giving up four hundred thousand dollars should be much more painful than eating some meat. Besides, the food at this place is extraordinary. One of my clients once told me that it was worth making a trip just to eat at this restaurant and then return home. It wouldn’t be so strange if it weren’t for the fact that the man lives in Malaysia. He’s a good person who hired me to guide him through certain family problems. Once we’ve eaten, I swear I’ll answer all your questions.”

It took Rossy more than ten minutes and four attempts to muster the courage to take her first bite of ham. She brought it close to her mouth several times and told me she couldn’t, that she only ate vegetables. However, once she had the exquisite taste of that ham on her palate, she ordered more tapas and then finished the main course in a matter of minutes. With her stomach full for the first time in weeks, she regained her composure and her charming smile. Those eyes radiated light every time she looked at me. Neither of us ordered dessert; we had relieved a great deal of stress through our meal and had no room even for another sip of water.

“I want to ask you a special favor,” she said. “Please don’t call me Europa. Only those who read my passport call me Europa; everyone else thinks my name is Roxanne Dainik or Rossy Dainik, but Europa... not even my parents.”

“I think Europa is a very beautiful name. By the way, Europa was a woman with such extraordinary beauty that she even captivated Zeus, the father of all gods. Maybe... just maybe, that Europa might have been as beautiful as the Europa I have in front of me right now, although I sincerely doubt it.”

“Brandon... please.”

“I can only imagine what kind of madness the father of all mythological gods would be willing to commit if he ever heard the music of your voice, breathed the same air you’re breathing, and had his days illuminated by the light in your eyes. How enslaved to your heart would the god Zeus become if you were to play ‘Dreams of Love’ just for him.”

I tried as best I could to mend her heart first, improve her mood, and make her realize what I felt for her. A closer relationship between us was so impossible that I didn’t mind showing her how in love I was.

“So, Europa, what can I, someone far from being the governor of Olympus, do to avoid suffering when you treat me like a stranger? How can I ignore my own desire to be as powerful as Zeus to heal the wounds of your soul until you stop crying? My name will never appear in the records of universal mythology, but from the smallness that I am, I want to be by your side at all times to protect you, to make you happy, to make you smile, so that nothing in your life is a reason to be sad.”

Instinctively, she reached out and took my hand. Maybe to stop me, maybe to thank me, maybe to tell me without saying it that she needed someone to say those exact words, someone willing to transform into a white bull as Zeus did to abduct her and take her far from the easy yet complex life of a millionaire girl.

When I felt the touch of her fingers, I sensed her pure energy, a girl with no time for herself, who lived apart from her friends and childhood to chase the perfection imposed on her as a Dainik, the best student in her class, the best pianist, the best Aikido fighter, the best at everything she did. And in that tough life, there was only one island, one place to escape the suffocating pressure of being a Dainik. That island was traveling on weekends to a small cabin in the mountains to visit her grandmother, her refuge, the only time when Europa Roxanne was simply Rossy, an immensely happy girl.

I took her hand firmly and said, “There’s something you need to know. What happened to Ernst was not your fault. You shouldn’t carry the burden of believing that what happened to him has anything to do with you.”

Once again, I had said something that left her stunned; I even felt her hand grow cold.

“Ernst...? Ernst...? What Ernst are you talking about?”

“I don’t know, there’s an Ernst who had a car accident. He had had too much to drink and was driving at a very high speed; he couldn’t control the car on a curve and had an accident. For some reason, you’re blaming yourself for that accident to this day, but you had nothing to do with it. You must let go of that guilt from the past because it’s a burden you’re carrying for no reason.”

“Ernst was my brother; I don’t understand why you’re talking about him. What does he have to do with you?”

“The guilt you carry for your brother’s death is poison for your spirit. You must let it go; it wasn’t your fault. I can perceive that kind of pain in people’s energy; that’s why I’m different, for better or for worse.”

“Anyone can know that my brother died, but I never spoke to anyone about my feelings that he died because of me. I didn’t even go to his funeral. My family can’t even talk about him when I’m around. I never had the courage to share with anyone what happened between us that night. How is it that you know?”

“You argued, didn’t you...? You had a fight and that same night he died. Because you were just a child, you thought he died because of the fight with you, and that memory stayed with you until today. But the reality is very different. Siblings argue, sometimes even physically, but they’re still siblings; after a few hours or days, everything goes back to normal.”

Rossy was pale, once again I had touched a very deep and secret part of her life.

" Emotionally, he was in very bad shape,” I continued. “He had been drinking heavily for a while, and no one believed that everything could end so badly, even though he had had other minor accidents before. The pressure of being Ernst Dainik was too much for him. No one allowed him to be himself; no one allowed him to be a normal person. He couldn’t bear it anymore, and he started drinking more and more until the inevitable happened.”

We kept talking while I continued holding her hand and looking into her eyes.

“But I want you to know that he adored his younger sister; he loved you with all his heart. Maybe if you let go of that feeling of guilt, you’ll also be freeing him from his guilt over your tears. Ernst didn’t want to die; he had a dream of traveling the world with just a backpack like some of his friends did, but your family never even considered that as a possibility. He couldn’t bear the lack of freedom anymore. The same pressure that you have been carrying since you were a child, ended up breaking your brother inside until it led to his death. ”

Rossy’s gaze was lost in her memories. Her memory had tried its best to forget the last hours she spent with her brother.

“I don’t even remember clearly what happened; I was only seven, and he was seventeen. But I always thought he died because of me. I hadn’t thought about my brother in a long time. Every anniversary of his death and every anniversary of his birth, my family takes flowers to his grave, but they never allowed me to go with them because until today, I couldn’t stop crying when they talked about Ernst. My father always said that was the only weakness he knew of me. He never saw me cry about so many other things; I never allowed him to see my other weaknesses, but I couldn’t help but cry when they talked about my brother.”

“Crying isn’t necessarily a bad thing; sometimes it helps us cleanse our hearts,” I said, supporting her words.

“And look at me now; I’m talking about my brother with a stranger who knows more about me than I do, and not a single tear falls. I feel like I’ve opened a door to see a reality that has been hidden until this moment. In April, he would have turned 38. Maybe I’ll gather the strength to visit his grave and cry all I need to say goodbye forever. Thank you; maybe I need to start trusting that you really are a good sorcerer.”

“I’m not a sorcerer. A sorcerer can do good or evil indiscriminately, depending on the circumstances. Sorcerers can use their powers to bless or curse someone. I don’t do that. I try to follow my conscience so that we all live in a better world, helping whoever I can always. I couldn’t curse anyone, not even those who curse me.”

“You’re a good man.”

“Changing the subject, what do you want to do about what’s happening in your cabin? Your boyfriend isn’t interested in spending another night there.”

“I sleep very well in the cabin, I don’t think there’s anything or anyone that could bother me. Maybe Jorik watches too many horror movies, but I don’t believe in any of that, nothing affects me. Let’s just forget about it; it’s something we need to work out between him and me.”

“As you wish, but something isn’t right. Believe it or not, if that woman I saw is indeed your grandmother, she shouldn’t be there. If she showed you the pillow, it’s because she wants you to know that it’s her, that she needs to tell you or do something with you. Like I said, I’ve never had such a clear vision of a spiritual body in our physical world, so I was quite surprised. Every previous time I had to deal with someone trapped in this world, it was because they needed help ascending to the spiritual world. My recommendation is that you try to replace out what’s happening with your grandmother and how we can help her. I’ll be by your side.”

“No... I can’t... I don’t have the strength. There are so many things happening in my life that I can barely handle; I really can’t. This is the first proper meal I’ve had in weeks; my refrigerator is empty, and I have no more cans to open. I showered for the last time many days ago, I don’t even remember when. I don’t have clean clothes to wear either. I’m not going through a good time, and if there’s something I don’t need, it’s to add all this that apparently is related to my grandmother. Now my brother Ernst’s death has also come back into my life. I can’t deal with all this right now. Maybe later.”

We had already had lunch, and we had cleared up the doubts she had about me. I had already rejected four hundred thousand dollars as if they were a bag of soft candies, and Rossy had shown herself to me just as she was, without the need to fulfill the family mandate of being a woman of steel, the best at everything.

But the worst part was that there was nothing left to bind us. The issue between her and her boyfriend was not something I should interfere with, nor was it my responsibility whether she sells the cabin or not. It was not my responsibility to keep track of what she does in her private life, whether she eats or not, whether she takes a bath or not, whether she cries or not—none of that was a reason for me to keep seeing the youngest daughter of the Dainik family.

So, we said our goodbyes mechanically, as if we were going to see each other again in a few hours, but with the inner certainty that this farewell would be forever. It was a brief goodbye, with the cruel simplicity of resolving something that is impossible.