My name is Adriana and it is very rare that I walk at night in the streets of my city of residence Cagua and by fate, the day of Halloween some friends and I went dancing in a nightclub.
When we were heading home my friend Mariana stopped the car right at the old cemetery and said: "Will you come with me to check if our barista Ricardo is really in his grave? You know we have had doubts about whether it was really him or an impostor, remember that we could not see his face in the coffin."
Alejandro, the girl's brother refuses; Gabriel the cousin of both, likes the idea and I was not very convinced; however I was interested in clarifying the mystery surrounding the death of our friend, the best barista in town.
We all entered the cemetery; even the one who did not agree. We lit the path with our cell phone flashlights and were able to quickly find Ricardo's grave. It was shocking for all of us to relive the moment of his death, there were many questions and his family did not want to give more details.
The tombstone had the silhouette of a cup carved on it and read:
"Live to please and offer the best coffee,
is my motto as a barista.
The aroma of the beans, the mixture of flavors, makes many people surrender to this beverage with honors. I want my last breath of life to be with my rich coffee, which has given meaning to my existence and with you I would like to die"
Ricardo Antúnez.
Each one of us was moved by these words; however, Mariana commented that we should leave the tears for later... now we have to dig up the coffin and find out what happened to our friend, we spent 2 hours digging and it was midnight.
The church bells rang, in addition to the meowing of the cats and the sound of the bats, this generated fear and panic among us, Mariana who looked the strongest of the group had a dizzy spell and I had no choice but to take control of the situation.
To our surprise the hole had a hidden button that made the coffin rise... Mariana said to us weakly: "Guys, what happened? While Alejandro, Gabriel and I were deciding who would open the urn. I didn't want to waste any more time, I took the shovel and opened a crack in the drawer until the glass broke.
What we saw at the bottom of the coffin left us all stunned, it was indeed Ricardo's skeleton, we knew it by the traces of his hair. The most painful thing was to see a knife on the left side where his heart would be, this made Mariana start to cry and say: I knew it! Our friend was alive and they killed him in the cemetery, that's why the hidden button, the mystery of the family...
Alejandro looked very affected, he mused: "Ricky suspected his death, he told me a few days before. So true, he held on to the grains of his last harvest and here you can see his hand with the bag of seeds, I assume that the rips in it was because he used it as a shield, trying to stop the knife from killing him, he fought for his life until the last".
All dismayed and analyzing the facts of our barista friend, suddenly we started to feel like weak and lose strength, we fell down sitting around the grave, maybe it was the impact of the aromas of the coffin and I don't know if what my eyes were seeing was a hallucination.
A bright light surrounded my dear friend Ricardo and he said to me: "Adriana, tell the boys to be calm, I am at peace and my death was not in vain. I never allowed my coffee plantation to be taken away from me and I knew I could not run away from my destiny. Please, it is dangerous in the cemetery, get out of there, go to the cafeteria and look inside the book box for a sheet with some directions."
I woke up and the guys were looking at me, I shouted "let's run away from here because the living are more dangerous than the dead". They followed my directions and all of us in the car left towards the cafeteria, they looked at me with a face of disbelief about my contact with our deceased friend.
I told Gabriel, take out the secret key that Ricardo left you and open the place please; he did it with astonishment and we entered. Everything was intact and for that reason it was easy to get the picture of the book; in fact there was a sheet with some indications and the same one had written on it:
Boys if you read this it is because I am no longer here and you discovered a part of the truth about my death. The only justice I want you to take into your hands is to live to the fullest. I did not get the best family and that is why I was forced to leave early.
By the way, thank you Gabriel for guarding the key; Mariana, you are the most curious of the group, good job; Alejandro, thank you for being my confidant and to you Adriana, for believing in me even in the afterlife. One last thing, reopen the cafeteria, make the necessary changes and may my legacy as a barista be present in each one of you.
The boys and I tearfully embraced each other and fully complied with our friend's requests; the new place is now called "La Cafebrería", in honor of the name of the secret painting where Ricky left his last wish; the reinvention of a place to read, buy books and drink good coffee.
