gave him a sign, as if to say, “Now stay calm!”…or maybe she meant “Stay still,” or “Are you ready?”

The two stayed motionless for a few seconds, facing each other, and then they suddenly disappeared, along with the motorcycle, without leaving any trace…just like in a dream…as if nothing and nobody had ever been there. The one and only astonished witness sprung back and blinked her tired eyelids several times before attributing that new hallucination to her sleepiness and her arteriosclerosis.

Silence resumed its reign on the mountaintop, interrupted only by the chirping of some birds that were perched on the great white statue of Mary, or was it St. Rosalia?