After school I had no plans. I was going home to be bored, alone, when I suddenly noticed Erica. She seemed to be in a hurry, but next to her were walking a bunch of other students that clogged the exit, so she could not move very fast. Taking advantage of the situation, I approached her.

—Hey, Erica, do you want to go hang out?— I invited her.

She looked at me, surprised. She also looked at the rest of the people walking in her direction, all waiting to leave. I never minded crowds, but she looked like she was surrounded by rats or spiders, desperately looking for a way out of that mess.

Not wanting to keep her in that condition, I took her by the hand and started walking toward the exit. Unlike her, I had the confidence to push people aside, so we made our way quickly and arrived in no time at the sidewalk next to the entrance. There the crowd dispersed, freeing up space to stand and talk normally.

Erica looked relieved. I wondered if she was the same as Raquel.

—Now do you want to go out with me?— I asked her.

She looked at me confused.

—What do you want to do?

I shrugged my shoulders.

—You know, hang out: talk and all that, maybe we can go eat somewhere, or go to the plaza, whatever.

She looked in all directions, still half confused.

—You mean the two of us? Alone?

I already knew that none of my friends could go; Pekos was at the gym, Troveto with his little group of skaters, Galica had a little concert at the commune's cultural center, and Raquel... Raquel sometimes just didn't want to, even though she seemed to like Erica, but she must have been in dance class anyway. I looked at the entrance, but there were no other kids from our class at the time.

Actually, that'd be a lie; there were a few guys and girls, I even nodded goodbye to some of them, I just didn't feel like inviting them. I would say it was out of consideration for Erica so she wouldn't feel left out of the conversation, but that's not the whole truth. Partly I also wanted to be alone with her.

----------------------------------------------------

We ended up going to the plaza, got some ice cream and sat on a bench to talk. I pride myself on being a good conversationalist; telling something interesting, making sure everyone has a moment to talk, paying attention, things like that.

Erica told me a few things about her life, like that she lived alone with her dad, that she liked anime and video games, and that she didn't usually have many friends.

—Yes, I noticed that— I admitted.

She wasn't very surprised.

—Is it that obvious?

—Quite a lot, but it's not a bad thing. You are very introverted, like Raquel.

—She's introverted too?

—Yes, very much so. I think you two will be good friends.

Erica pursed her lips, not quite sure what I was saying. Okay, she was a little suspicious, but I was pretty confident. However, that was a topic between the two of us. I shrugged and threw my hands up in the air to get rid of the subject.

—And what do you like to do?— she asked me.

—The usual— I said— hanging out with friends, going out on the road, playing football.

—Huh? So you're a normie.

I admit I was surprised at first.

—A what? Is it a bad thing?

—No, no, not at all!— she hastened to explain— I'm sorry, it sounded worse than I thought. It's just...— she put a hand to her neck, struggling with herself to get out the words she wanted— I feel like my lack of friends has affected me, in a sense. It's not hard to make them, but I never manage to keep them for long. Instead you seem so integrated... I don't know, it's like talking to an alien.

I put a hand to my head, a little confused by what she was saying.

—But do you want to integrate?— I asked her— because it's not difficult, I can help you as much as you want.

She looked at me, hopeful, surprised, then thoughtful.

—I wish I had friends— she admitted— sometimes I feel a little lonely.

I folded my arms.

—Well, you're very nice, I don't see how someone like you can be friendless.

As I said this, I leaned towards her and looked at her with a beaming smile, foreseeing perfectly the effect this would have on her. Just as I expected, Erica gave a hint of a smile and looked away, blushing. It was nice to see her like that, nicer to know the cause of her blush.

I noticed that she didn't know how to respond, perhaps I had made her too nervous. I relaxed for a moment to let her calm down, but then I noticed the buildings across the street. There was the old church. I noticed something strange; there were some orange signs and white tape with a logo that I couldn't see. I stood up and went to check what it was; it turns out it had cracked from a recent earthquake; the whole building had become unstable. They had to demolish it and build it again. I remembered going to that church as a child, making my first communion there. There were a lot of memories that would disappear.

I remembered that it had been on the news a few weeks ago, after the earthquake. It didn't even wake me up, I never thought I would feel its effects like that.

—What's wrong?— Erica asked from behind.

I turned to her, I thought about explaining what was happening and how it made me feel, but I had another idea.

—Would you like to do a crime?

----------------------------------------------------

In a few minutes we arrived in front of the church. The old building had been there for over a hundred years. It had withstood earthquakes and fires thanks to renovations, but it was weak after so much time, yellow tape covering it. Close by there were big signs indicating that it would soon be demolished, that entry to any unauthorized person was strictly forbidden, and the whole shebang. Nobody cares!

—Let's go in!— I said to Erica.

She didn't seem very convinced, but I didn't care. I wanted to see the church one last time and I was going to do it before it was demolished. We walked around it, soon found a back door that we could open without a key and went inside.

It's always a bit of a shock to walk into a church and find yourself echoing and needing to remain silent, but this time it was different. There was no one there but us, the floor and pews were full of dust and construction tools, and they had removed everything of value that they could remove. There were no statues or metal religious symbols, only stained glass and broken boards.

We toured the empty spaces with Erica. I thought she would be more reluctant, but she didn't seem bothered by the possibility of us getting caught. Just as well.

At first I didn't think there was much to look at, just an empty church. Then I came upon the stairs leading up to the second floor. We looked at each other, surprised. I had never been up to the second floor of a church before.

We jumped the stairs with an umbrella, found ourselves in a long hallway that ran down one side of the main room. I noticed that on the other side was another hallway just like it. We went all the way across the floor, and on the other side of the hallway we found more stairs.

—How tall is this thing?— Erica wondered.

I tried to remember, I realized that, although I had been to that temple several times, I had never bothered to bend my neck and look up. But from my memory of seeing it from the square, I estimated about six stories, counting the tower.

We kept on climbing. The stairs narrowed as we ascended to the highest floor. The steps were uncomfortably short, made of deteriorated wood. At the end, we found a stepladder. I began to get short of breath.

—Are you all right?— I asked Erica.

But when I looked at her, she was perfectly fine, as if we had been walking at a leisurely pace the whole time.

Above the staircase there was a cover, a trap door. I opened it with some difficulty, because my arm did not reach the radius necessary to pass it to the other side, but I succeeded on my third attempt. Then I looked up and found the ceiling.

I climbed up and made sure Erica climbed up too, behind me. Then we closed the trap door so we wouldn't fall through, and looked around.

I was out of breath, but the view at that height was worth it a thousand times over. We were over almost the entire city of Katra, over the buildings and the square. The street looked narrow, the cars were like little beetles. We could see everything. We felt unstoppable.

Then I examined the place where we were standing: it was a platform protected by railings. There was barely room for a handful of people standing next to each other, the railings were reinforced by a few wooden pillars. Above us was the most striking thing: a heavy bronze bell. I was surprised they hadn't removed it, but I figured maybe they planned to do so later. I couldn't believe we were right below the famous church bell. There was even a rope hanging from it to ring it.

I stopped to examine it, wistfully. From the ground you couldn't even see it, but up close it was quite large, I couldn't even span its diameter with my arms outstretched.

Without thinking too much about it, I raised my hands to take the rope.

—Wait, what are you doing?— Erica pleaded.

—I'm going to touch it a little.

—People will know it's us.

—What does it matter? The worst thing they can do is to scold us— I played it down.

—No, Ocko!— said Erica.

—Don't worry. If they catch us, we'll tell them it was me— I assured her.

Without waiting for her answer, I pulled hard so that the pendulum swung and played the first tune. The sound was deafening, but the nostalgia and emotion were even greater. I kept playing with encouragement. I did it two, three, four times, and on the fifth, something broke. I felt it in my hands, a big, heavy mechanism gave way.

From that moment, everything happened very quickly.

Erica pounced on me, with her body she threw me to the ground. Almost instantly I felt a blow from the floor itself. I looked up, Erica was trying to grab one of the edges of the bell with her hands. I looked down, her feet had sunk into the wooden floor.

—What...— was all I managed to say, before the floor gave way and we ended up falling into the empty space.

We crossed the space between the spiraling stairs, soon entering the main room. My body turned towards the floor, I noticed the common room of the church below us. Nothing would break our fall, we would both be crushed to death on the second floor tile of the church where I was baptized.

I closed my eyes, terrified. At that moment, however, two hands held me tightly. A moment before I hit the cold floor, Erica's feet stepped in front of my body and stopped us with a thunderous thud. The rock shattered under her heels, several pieces tore into my arms, but I did not die.

—I'm alive!— I thought.

A second later, she let go of me and I fell face first to the ground. I turned around to ask her why, but just then I noticed the ceiling above us crumbling, then the heavy bell passing through directly towards us.

—We're going to die!— I tried to say, but the fear prevented me from speaking.

However, Erica seemed to read my mind, because she looked up as well.

I thanked God. I thought at that point she would grab me and take me somewhere safe, at least run off on her own, but she did nothing of the sort. No, Erica opened her arms and took a good look at the bell. It was falling down, after hitting the rest of the ceiling. I crossed my arms over my face, terrified again. I closed my eyes, heard another crash, all the debris fell around us, like a shower of nails and rocks. I screamed endlessly, unable to contain my panic.

Until suddenly, the debris stopped falling. I dared to open my eyes.

Above me, covered by a fine cloud of dust, was Erica. Above her was the one—ton bronze bell, on its side. The bell was in her hands. Erica was holding the one—ton bell in her hands. How?! When?! What?!

Erica tossed the bell aside as if it were an empty box, the bell produced a small tremor as it fell, broke tiles and debris with its weight, rang as loud as before. I stared at it. I couldn't believe it, and yet it was all in front of me. I felt like I was dreaming.

That bell was real.

Then I turned to Erica. That girl was real too.

—Are you all right?— she asked me.

I checked my body with my hands, then I stood up, I noticed her feet still sunk into the ground, as if in mud. I looked at her, she was wiping the dust from her shoulders, then she loosened her neck, as if nothing had happened. Finally she took her feet off the ground. I took a step toward her.

—How did you... do that?

She looked at me, showed me a guilty smile.

—I didn't want you to know— she admitted— People get weird when they know... I'm strong.

Strong. That was it. Erica had held that bell like it was nothing.

—So the truck thing...— I ventured.

—Yes, it was me— she also admitted— I didn't think I'd get hit by a truck on my first day of school.

I was stunned, still trying to swallow what I had seen, but I noticed that she stared at me, as if waiting for an answer. I decided to swallow my surprise for a moment to pay attention to her.

—Erica, that was phenomenal! You saved me! And you're super, super strong! You're like a super hero!

But she shook her head.

—No, I'm just strong, I don't go around saving people— she said.

—But how did you get so strong?— I wanted to know.

She shrugged her shoulders.

—And how did you become so weak?— she asked me back— I've always been like this, since I was born, although now I'm stronger than when I was five years old, like everyone else.

—But... but...— I pleaded, trying to come up with an answer.

Such a phenomenon was too spectacular to be a mystery.

—I don't know, Ocko, and please don't try to investigate. I only know that my dad is stronger, that I was born this way, and that apparently there is no one else in all of Mother who is like us.

I noticed that the subject was making her a little tense, so I cut her off.

—It's okay, thanks for saving me, anyway.

She smiled.

—You're welcome, but please don't tell anyone.

—You want to keep it a secret? You'd be the best Olympic athlete! You'd win all the competitions by yourself!

But she stopped me with one hand. She had suddenly become very assertive, as if she had had to deal with that same argument several times. I wondered if that was it.

—But I don't want to compete, I don't want people to know, I just want to... —she pursed her lips— be a normal girl and have friends OK?

I shut up. I took a deep breath. My adrenaline levels were starting to drop.

—Hey... it's okay. I won't tell anyone— I promised.

I didn't know why she wanted to keep it a secret, but I understood that it was important to her, that was enough.

We left the church, sneaking out as best we could. The early demolition had caused a rumble, and there was already a crowd posted around as firemen and policemen tried to figure out what had happened without having to resort to entering the very dangerous building.

I alone would not have been able to flee without someone seeing me come out of the church and accusing me, but Erica pulled me to the opposite wall, held me tight and jumped five meters in the air, over the wall, to a passageway on the other side of the block. From there we took off.

That's how I met Erica Sanz, a strong girl shrouded in mystery.