Keep on shining: an Erasmus + Project on lighthouses
CREATIVE WRITING STORIES
This compilation of stories was made as a part of the activities of the “historical- literary” field, to be presented at Naples, 19 th- 25 th February IES JAROSO (CUEVAS DEL ALMANZORA, SPAIN)
Instrucciones: 1. Debes escribir un relato de ficción de aproximadamente mil palabras. 2. El relato debe estar construido usando los elementos de las tarjetas que habéis elegido al azar: personajes (azul y amarillo), ambientes (verde), objetos (naranja) y cita (rojo). 3. Debes ser creativo en la historia: tienes que ser original y se valorarán muy positivamente los giros inesperados en la historia. 4. Debes ser cuidadoso con la expresión (ortografía, conectores,…) y la presentación. 5. Lo más importante: ¡Crea el relato que a ti te gustaría leer!
JULIA by Francisco Ginés Rodríguez Pelegrín
I had spent all my life living in that place, but it was weird being there on my own for the first time. Normally, one only person should not be alone in a lighthouse like this, but old Carlos had had to leave that night to visit his family.
The night came, and I decided to climb to the lighthouse’s top to look at the stars. While I was there, I saw a light just under the Cliff where the lighthouse was. Although I was scared, I wanted to know what was that. I walked down the stairs leading to the beach and found a girl who seemed to be lost. - Excuse me, are you ok? - I am lost – she said – I woke up and I can’t remember why I am here. I have tried to come back home but I can’t remember where I come from. - Come with me to the lighthouse and let’s see what we are going to do.
After picking up her suitcase, we walked to the lighthouse and I prepared dinner for her while I tried to make her remember. I tried to call the doctor, but due to the bad weather the telephone line didn’t work and my mobile pone was out of range. After she ate her dinner, we sat in the sofá and started talking. - We have been together for a while but we don’t know our names yet. I am Jorge, the lighthouse keeper. - I am Julia and I can’t remember anything else. I don’t know what I’m doing here.
- Don’t panic, you must rest now. Tomorrow I’ll take you to the doctor and may be you’ll remember a little more. - Can’t we go tonight? I would feel safer if the doctor could see me now. - No, it’s too late and the nearest hospital is about 30 minutes from here. It would be better for you to rest and tomorrow you will feel better. After helping her to get comfortable in the guest’s room, I went to bed. I was also very tired, but I couldn’t sleep at all. My head kept thinking about this mysterious Julia that had appeared in my life out of the blue. She could be a thief or she could be running away from prison, pretending to be a desperate girl looking for help. In a while I rejected all those ideas and I remembered that suitcase I hadn’t open yet. I creep into the dining room but Julia’s luggage was blocked by a 4 digits password which seemed impossible to find out. I tried the most typical combinations but it didn’t work, so I went to bed again. Tomorrow – I thought- I’ll ask Julia to open the suitcase.
The sea was brave, and the sound of the waves crashing into the cliffs woke me up. I came into Julia’s room and saw she was still asleep. I waited until she woke up to make breakfast and then I asked her to open the suitcase, but she couldn’t remember the password. I felt a Little bit frustrated because I wasn’t able to know her identity, so we went to the doctor. He said Julia was perfectly well and her amnesia would not be forever. She should recover her memory in a couple of days.
We drive back home, a little bit happier knowing that Julia will be soon be again like she used to be –although I didn’t know how she earlier was! I was fond of her, despite the fact I had only spent a night with her. Carlos would come back today and I will have to explain how I met Julia and why she was spending a few days with us.
I don’t know whether he was going to understand it. Perhaps he will get angry and leave forever, for he was a pensioner. Or perhaps he just accepted it. Surprisingly, none of these things happened. Carlos came back at lunchtime and after meeting her, he told me we had to talk privately. He told me he had seen Julia these days, but not physically. Her picture appeared in every network and also on TV.
Her name was Julia Díaz and she had disappeared 3 days ago. She had run away from her home after fighting with her husband. She left with a suitcase and no one had seen her again. Julia Díaz! How did he not recognize her before? Julia was my girlfriend at the university, but after we broke up, I have never heard from her again. How did she know I was here? How did she manage to reach this place? I had lots of questions and I didn’t know how to tell her everything I now knew.
I dared to tell her everything. - Julia, I have to tell you something. I have found out who you are. Your name is Julia Díaz, you ran away from home after arguing with your husband and you probably have come here because you knew me, we were going out together at university. After several minutes of silence, Julia started to cry and told me she finally remembered everything. She had run away because her husband had been mistreating her for years and she had come here because she had found me while reading an interview I was made and I was the only person she could get help from. Although ten years had passed since we last saw each other, she asked me to stay in my house for some time. I didn’t hesitate as I was still in love with her and although I hadn’t recognized her at first, I remembered her everyday. As time went past our lives changed. I taught Julia the lighthouse different labors and in a few days she could start to work as any other lighthouse keeper. Carlos realized he was longer useful there and went back with his family. The lighthouse would be our home and there we would settle a family far from our old solitary and painful lives. Far from suffering, far from violence.
Mario’s dream
by Inma López de Haro
A few days later, one morning with the fog covering the sea… Mario remembers his great adventure. For the first time, he decided to make a trip, inspire don an illusion he had many, many years ago. He lived in a city and he used to go to the library near his house every afternoon. There he made all the schoolwork, but, one day, he let his imagination fly and asked for a book about lighthouses, those huge lights that were guiding sailors day and night. After reading a book called “ The lighthouse of my life”, he made up his mind: he will become a lighthouse keeper. He studied every existing lighthouse at the Mediterranean Sea and there was one really attractive for him: Mesa Roldán, in Carboneras. As summer came by, since he had passed all the subjects with good scores, his parents told him to choose a place where he wanted to go, they would let him go anywhere.
He wanted to go to Carboneras, a small village in Almeria’s coast. And his parents agreed. On 1st July Mario packed his suitcase, a very special suitcase his grandmother gave him as a present and had –she used to tell him- “special powers”
He couldn’t sleep much that night, he was nervous because this was his first adventure alone. The family woke up early and drove to the airport. After checking in the suitcase, he said goodbye to his parents. He was excited and nervous. His parents were a bit worried because that was the first time they went apart from their son.
While he was waiting for entering the plane, he sat down near to an old man with grey hair. This man shocked Mario: he reminded him of his grandfather. As they entered the plane, they realized they were sitting together. Mario enjoyed the motors groaning and also the strange feeling he had in the stomach. However, his seatmate did not like the flight, his face showed he was scared and he was praying in a low voice. Mario tried to calm him down by talking to him, but there was no way. After some time, the man finally spoke and asked Mario why he was travelling alone. He did not like to travel and he only did it alone when there was no other option. Mario told him he was going to see Carboneras’ lighthouse, because perhaps, some day, he would be its keeper. The man was so shocked that he even forgot he was in a plane. He started talking and asking questions about Mario’s life, until he said: “Mario, I will show you the lighthouse you want to see, I am its keeper”. Mario could not believe it, how lucky he was! He had just known an actual lighthouse keeper and he was going to show him a lighthouse!!! When the plane landed, they gave each other their telephone numbers and said farewell to each other. Mario took his suitcase and went to the hostel where he was staying in this nice trip.
But the surprise came when, in his way to the shower, he realized he could not open his suitcase. He tried in every possible way and finally he was able to open it after three hours. What a surprise!! None of his things were in the suitcase. Those were not his clothes, but they suit him, so he put them on. After all, he had no other option… Dressed in so an unusual way he went for a walk. The village was a nice one, full of fishermen. He looked around and saw many old people, some kids and lots of tourists. Later, he walked back to the hostel, he ate fish for dinner –although he did not like it- and went to bed.
Next morning, he decided to call the lighthouse keeper and meet him in the village. Cayetano –so was the keeper called- collected him with an old looking car that –he said- was the best car in town. After a short trip through very narrow roads over the sea, they reached the lighthouse. It was huge. It looked like a giant. That was the reason why it was called “the major lighthouse” of Carboneras. It must have about 98 feet tall and it was built above an enormous cliff. Cayetano and Mario entered the lighthouse through a small door leading to a big spiral stair. They went up but they have to stop two or three times to rest a little. In the upper part there was a room with a small kitchen, an old bed and a huge window. Mario looked through it and was astonished: he never had imagined the sea to be so infinite. The boats looked like little ants surrounded by so much water. There was another smaller stair leading to a rounded room where a big bulb spinning, Cayetano and Mario had to wear glasses in order to avoid the huge bright. That machinery worked non-stop, day and night.
Cayetano told Mario how everything worked. They did not realize time was passing by and suddenly the night arrived with a big thunderstorm. They could not drive back, so they had to spend the night at the lighthouse. While they were asleep, a huge noise woke them up: a thunder fell so near them, that the lighthouse’s mechanism stopped working. This was a huge problem, because ships could get lost and crash against the cliffs, so they decided to fix the damaged light. They needed a new cable but they could not find it until the next day. But that night, ships were in danger. Then, Mario looked into his coat and noticed and noticed a small box. He opened it and found a cable just like the one they needed! Now he understood the magic of his grandmother’s suitcase. They fixed the light within a few minutes. Ships were safe now. Next day, Mario thanked Cayetano for everything he had taught him, and Cayetano did the same for Mario’s help. Mario went back home and told his parents and his grandmother everything that had happened to him. He also told them he would become a lighthouse-keeper one day.
MY LIFE BETWEEN TWO LIGHTHOUSES
by Maravillas Díaz Rodríguez
6-1-2015
Dear diary:
My name is Marta, I am 16 years old. I love travelling and love stories. I live in a small house beside my lighthouse. I love lighthouses because since I was a baby I have grown next to one of them, the lighthouse of Cabo de Gata in Almería, a little and charming small village of fisherman, where I have lived a really happy childhood with my family. The lighthouses are places that thanks to their isolation they are transformed in a place where thoughts and imagination flow spontaneously. To me, a lighthouse is like a person; the spiral stairs are its vertebral column that helps it to stand firm. The lantern/lamp is the head where are found the five senses, the light is its eyes. And the lighthouse's external style is the clothes, that is why every lighthouse is different. For a long time, my family is in charge of the lighthouse's operation maintenance. Before my grandfather, my great-grandfather was in charge of it. He is always telling me that the lighthouse-keeper's job has changed a lot, because in the beginning the lamp was iluminated doing a fire with firewood, until it started working with electricity. Every morning, my grandmother Juani is in charge of cleaning the lamp; my grandfather Paco has to clean the huge spiral stairs; my father, Fernando, helps my grandpa in the maintenance and works in the vegetable garden we own beside the little house of the lighthouse, where we cultivate all kind of things; my mother, María, works in a hotel close to the beach in Cabo de Gata, where lighthouse's view is stunning. I am going to the school, but at the weekend I love going for a walk in the beach looking for different objects brought by the tide.
Yersterday, we were dining in the lighthouse due to the Christmas eve. We had decorated the whole lighthouse: the stairs, the lamp inside, the façade, the cupola, the glass window... even the control room! My mother and my grandma had cooked a delicious dinner, while my grandpa and my father were telling bad jokes that no one undertood, but even like that it was a splendid supper. At the end, my father spoke and said to us that I was old enough to know a very important fact about our lives, and he started like that:
"It was a cold winter day; it was very, very cold, with a rough sea and the waves crashing against the lighthouse. The seagull, noisy, were shouting constantly when somebody knocked at the lighthouse's door. Grandfather Paco went to open it because he was on his own. On the other side, there was a woman with a child, just one month old, in her arms. She looked afraid and she was very cold. The woman was begging for a place to stay, when my mother came and offered her a hot chocolate, dry clothes and a blanket. She took the baby because it did not stops crying; it was really hungry and cold. They started asking her about if they were on their own or if there eas somebody else with them, how she had managed to get there. But she remembered nothing. She did not known her own name, either how she had arrived to our lighthouse. She just remembered that the seagull woke her up in the middle of the beach with the child in her arms and her bag and, without thinking, she saw the lighthouse and she felt that she will be safe there. Your grandparents were cery surprised and they thought that her bag could give a clue about her and, in effect, her name apeared in a purse, together with a bus ticket from San Cibrao, a village of Lugo, Galicia, and her identity card. Her name was María, María Mechoso. She was 24 years old and she came from a small village called San Cibrao. In the bag, there was also a key, but it did not seem to be of a house or a car. The key had a strange symbol, it looked like a mermaid plunged in the sea and, in the background, a little lighthouse. María, from these moment, put that key around her neck, a necklace that she never took off, since it was the only thing she kept from her past. She adpated very well to her new family. We grew up together and our love grew as well until we fell in love. The little one grew up to, her name was Marta and, yes, that little girl so loved by us is you."
I was really surprised. Everything was very weird and, in that moment, I felt tricked for so long that I was ungry with them. I felt tricked and disappointed with everybody and with that person I always thought it was my father. My father was not my real father, my grandparents were not my real grandparents, the only person who had my blood was my mother. I spent all that night thinking about how my life had changed. I stayed alone, sitting, beside the lamp od my dear lighthouse, wishing it will be able to give me the consolation I needed. I felt so sad about my parents... After hours thinking about that, I found the solution. It was Christmas holidays, so we could go to my mother's village to find out everything about her past. I will persuade them. My mother refused the idea because she was very happy there, and she did not want to investigate about what happened before, since she has deleted it from her memory. She had found a new life full of happiness, but she understood that I needed to know about my real father and the place I came from.
We finally decided to by the plain tickets to go to San Cibrao, in the opposite end of Spain. I was looking forward to arrive, that is why the fly seemed to be interminable. There, I met a young boy whose name was Pedro and he was 18 years old who came back to San Cibrao to stay with his family on holidays, since he was studying in the University of AlmerĂa. We were talking and I told him that we went to San Cibrao on holidays to find out if my mother had got any family there, because I was born there but I had lived in AlmerĂa since I was a child and I did not remember so much about my village. I told him about my village in Cabo de Gata and about my father who was a lighthouse-keeper. He looked surprised and told me that his father had this job as well, in the lighthouse of San Cibrao and he invited us to visit it. When we arrived, we left our baggage in the hotel and we went to visit the lighthouse, where we met Pedro. My mother started trembling when she got into the lighthouse, but she could not understand why. Pedro introduced us to his father, Miguel. And when he saw my mother's necklace he got surprised. He took from his pocket a key with the same symbol. Everyone got paralised, we
understood nothing. Then, Miguel said: Is that you, MarĂa? And he embraced my mother. I felt I was living a dream. Then, my mother took her necklace off and put the key in the lighthouse's lock, checking that it was the correct key; and she could remember everything.
"I married Alberto, your biological father. He was a fisherman and he stayed weeks away fishing. He has the other lighthouse's key, since Miguel was his brother and both of them had its own key. Alberto gave it to me in order to remember him and do not feel alone every time he will be away, fishing. One day, he went to work but he never came back, and he never knew I was pregnant with you, Marta. When I found out about his death, I fell down and when I woke up I found myself in the hospital. I could not remember anything. I stayed in Lugo, working for an old woman until you were born. When I left the hospital, I took a bus without knowing its direction. Then I arrived to AlmerĂa. I asked where the nearest lighthouse was. Some friendly guys took me to the beach where the lighthouse was and this is the way we arrived there, Marta."
Everything seemed strange to me, but special at the same time. I was feeling sad because I could not meet my biological father. But I had found my other family, my oncle and my cousin who embraced me and I felt all my father's love. I am really happy, I have a wonderful family. I will give my life for them. There are my only and real family. I shared my life with two lighthouses. This one where I normally live, and the other one where I go on my holidays, visiting my oncle and my cousin. Each one in the opposite end.
The story of the lighthouse keeper and the sailor by Rhianna Eve
In winter, the old village’s lighthouse was almost abandoned, except for the old lighthouse keeper living there. Since he was a little boy, he used to visit the lighthouse every day and, after losing his job and his home, he made his home there. Sometimes, a young sailor used to come and visit him when he was not at sea and he helped him when the keeper couldn’t attend things properly. Both had a very special relationship. One day trips were made in summer to see the lighthouse, so winter was the time when they have more time to clean and fix everything, in order to keep having visits. These visits were the way the old keeper had to live. One day, as the sailor ran down the spiral stair of the lighthouse’s tower, he felt someone else was there. He looked up and saw the keeper staring to the bottom. -
Come down, man, you are going to fall! – said the sailor trying to make a joke, although he was really worried about what he was doing.
When he noticed that the keeper didn’t pay any attention to him, he went up the stairs. Suddenly, the keeper’s body fell to the ground. Their eyes met and the sailor remembered every moment they had spent together. Without noticing, he was beside the keeper’s body, with tears in his eyes. He saw a piece of paper in the keeper’s pocket. It was a handwritten letter: “My dear friend: I am sorry I must tell you good bye. I can’t go on living like this in this world. The lighthouse is getting worse and I can’t get enough money to repair it. I have almost no money to keep being alive. Thank you very much for being my friend even in bad times and for helping me and making me happy. I am sorry I cannot make this work forever. I will never forget you, Good bye.”
The sailor, crying, stood up to turn on the torch because it was getting dark. He tried to understand what had happened. Climbing up the stairs, he remembered all the good moments with the keeper: the day they first met, the nights telling old stories and every moment of joy when things did not go well. Once he reached up he noticed there was something inside the torch. He turned it off to see what was inside and he found a map of subterranean tunnels. The sailor was very confused: how did he not know this before? So he went home to get ready for exploring the next day. Next morning, the sailor woke up early to reach the lighthouse as soon as possible. Catching the map, he began to look everywhere in order to find some door or some passage which take him to the tunnels. However, the higher he went up, the less hope he had. He was climbing up the stairs, being alert, but there was nothing. When he was about to quit, he remembered that there was a kind of stairs to the ceiling. He had never paid them attention. Then he went out to the balcony to climb these stairs. It seemed to be nothing unusual there, until he found a weird door. He thought that it was connected with the lens room, but he realised his mistake when he opened it. This door took him to a stairs surrounding the lighthouse. Without thinking, he began to descend them and, when he arrived to the bottom, he found the most spectacular thing ever imagined. The map seemed to show tunnels, but it really had information about a huge library made of crystal which occupied the entire ocean. Its walls were covered by bookcases containing every kind of books: fiction, history‌ From this very moment, the sailor took charge of the lighthouse. Each noon he went down to his new favourite place to explore each tunnel and to read one of these excellent books. He also hung some pictures of the lighthouse keeper there, in order to take him to this secret place. When the sailor died, he bequeathed the lighthouse to his children, and they bequeathed it to theirs and so on until now. Do you want to know how I first learned of this secret place? Just because right now this lighthouse is mine.