“Baba Carlos, I’ll eat and drink as you say. Can I eat meat?”

“Not yet. You haven’t eaten proper food for many days, so now you need to eat light things. The best are fruits and legumes. Maybe tonight you can eat some fish.”

“Is it really true, Baba, all that I saw?”

“Yes, it is, Ksenia.”

“Then I want proof.”

“Where are you going?”

“I want to see the image of Yemanjá under the sea. And I want to see if I also deserve a present.”

“You need to be careful. The sea is dangerous.”

“Baba Carlos, if Yemanjá exists, she will show herself to me, and she’ll protect me.”

I walked down through Sacred Grounds and reached the sacred beach. The sea was calm. I looked around, trying to remember the exact place where Maria had entered the water. I walked along the sand, looking for a big hole I’d seen in my visions.

I found it. It looks smaller, but maybe that’s because of all those years of being hit by the waves. Maria used to sit here. She looked at the sea before going in. Maybe she was asking for permission to enter. Then she touched the water, wet her forehead, bowed to the water and entered.

I’ll do the same!

The water is warm, but now I need to understand exactly where to dive. I turn around to look at the hill, home to Sacred Grounds. My idea is to understand whether it’s the same distance I saw in the vision. But I think I’m supposed to feel something. I’ll swim deeper into the sea.

“Dive now.”

“What?”

I look around to see if I can see somebody. Nothing.

“Dive now. I’m waiting.”

A beautiful, soft, kind, yet strong feminine voice. It must be Yemanjá.

I dive, but immediately come back up. I forgot to take a deep breath. I dive again and swim down, afraid that I won’t have enough breath. The deeper I go, the calmer I feel.

“I’m here.”

That beautiful voice again. But where? Where is she? I can’t see anything!

“Turn around.”

I turn around, and there she is! The image of Yemanjá, as beautiful as I saw her in the vision. A beautiful woman wearing a blue dress that moves the sand, her long black hair adorned with seashells and pearls.

My eyes are burning. Are those tears? Can a person cry underwater?

“Yes, those are tears. Don’t you want to hug me?”

“May I?”

Wait, can she hear me? I can’t speak underwater.

“I hear you.”

Of course she does! Gosh, she can hear me!

“Come hug me.”

I want to hug her, but I should go up to breathe and come back down.

“You don’t need to breathe. Trust me. Come hug me.”

I look at her and swim closer. I look at the statue. She moves! She’s alive! She blinks. She smiles.

“Touch me.”

I touch her. This is not a statue. I feel… I don’t know what I’m feeling, but I hug her, and she pulls me close. I know I’m crying because the energy I’m feeling is one of pure maternal love. I feel loved, understood. All my fears are gone.

I want to die right here, right now, because I’ll never feel better than this. Let me stay here with you forever.

“You cannot stay here. You have a mission to complete.”

“A mission?”

“Yes, you want to see, but Maria has a greater plan for you.”

“What does she want?”

“She wants you to see everything.”

“I’m afraid. Was it all real?”

“Yes, it was!”

“That is scary.”

“You wanted to see. Why are you scared now?”

“Because if what I studied is real, then I must be scared.”

“What you studied in your books is real, but I’ll protect you.”

“I trust you.”

What? I trust her? How? Why?

“You trust me because you feel you should trust me, so believe and trust in your intuition. Turn around and look.”

I turn around. Three dolphins swim towards me. One of them signals towards my hand. I put it up. A necklace of pink pearls! I grab it and kiss it.

“Put it around your neck.”

The necklace is beautiful. It’s light pink, the pearls smaller than Maria’s.

“Why pink?”

“Because you have that energy.”

“Why is Maria’s black?”

“Because that’s her energy. She has a unique energy, one that only she has, so she gets black pearls, impossible and rare.”

“Black energy.”

“Now hug me and take your dinner. You need to eat.”

“You’ll give me a fish?”

“Yes, and you’ll eat with Baba Carlos.”

I swim back up. I haven’t needed air or struggled to breathe while I was with her. Somehow, being underwater with her felt as natural as standing on land.

I swim back to the shore. When I can finally touch the sand, a fish swims towards me. I take it. He doesn’t fight.

“Ksenia, I can see you spoke to Yemanjá and got us dinner.”

“And I got a necklace.”

“I see it. It’s beautiful.”

“Baba Carlos?”

“Yes, filha?”

“Today and tomorrow I’ll see all the Orixás, and then I’ll go back to Maria’s world.”

“What world is Maria’s?”

“The one we all, people of normal grounds, fear.”