The Town That Drowned

NOTE: EXTRA GIFT POINTS FOR ANYONE WHO CAN HELP ME WITH THE SPANISH. THANKS!

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The Town That Drowned
A short fiction for children ... based on the very true story of Santa María Jalapa del Marqués*

Dedicated to the townspeople of Santa María Jalapa del Marqués and their hospitality.



Alfonso Lago drowned when they flooded his town.

That was more than fifty years ago. At the time, he was an eight-year old boy.

Here is how it happened: The Mexican government wanted to build a reservoir to help with irrigation and assure a water supply during the dry season. The perfect place was right at the point the two rivers met (the Tehuantepec and Tequisistlán for those of you who are sticklers for facts). Perfect, except for a small problem. There was a town there. The town was called Santa María Jalapa del Marqués. This is where Alfonso, the eight-year old hero of our story, lived.

So the government ordered all the people in the town to leave. Most moved up the mountain about eight kilometers (five miles) to a new town, which the townspeople also called Santa María Jalapa del Marqués. It was too small for everyone, so many people had to move to more distant towns, which was sad.

The townspeople would walk back and forth form their new town to their old town to watch the new dam being built (The Benito Juarez Dam, named after one of Mexico's greatest leaders.) This was exciting, especially for the children, even though everyone knew that once the dam was finished the old town would be flooded and disappear under the reservoir.

One day, the dam was complete. The turbines started up and the gates closed. The valley, where the old Santa Maria Jalapa Del Marques was, started filling up with water. It filled up so fast! And the water, for some reason, was very, very dark. Perhaps it was the glare from the sun or the constant ripples on the surface, but it was like someone added black dye to the water. As soon as it covered up an object, that object disappeared from view. As if it never existed.

So the townspeople sat on the hill and watched their old town slowly sink under the water. Actually, to be accurate, the water rose to cover up the town, but to the people on the hill, it looked very much like the town, the old town, the place where they grew up, had children and their children grew up, sank into the new reservoir. Disappearing under the dark, dark water.

Soon, the entire town was gone except for the church. The church was the tallest building in town.

The water kept rising up the sides of the church steeple and then, like someone shutting off the faucet in a tub, the dark water stopped rising. The church steeple remained above water!

But his story isn't about the church steeple; it's about an eight-year old boy named Alfonso Lago.

While everyone else sat on the edge of town that day, Alfonso had gone back to visit his old home for one last time. He wanted to lie down in his old bed, look out his old window at the sun for one last time, and fix into his memory the feeling of being a child.

He believed that once his town was flooded, and he moved to the new town, his childhood would be over.

One problem: his bed was so comfortable that he fell asleep.

He slept as the water rose up the edge of his house. He slept as the water covered his house. And he slept as the water almost covered the old town's church.

He never heard the water coming. He never even knew he drowned.

Alfonso woke up from his nap and something felt very wrong! The sun was wiggly, as if you were looking at it from underneath a lake. He was somewhat cold, which was odd in the middle of a Mexican Summer. It's always so hot! And the air was really dark, as if he were in a thick, black fog. He waved his hand around and it felt heavy.

Then he realized he was under water. Of course, he thought it was a dream. He pinched himself – ouch! – and then pinched himself harder – ouch again! – but he did not wake up.

It wasn't a dream. As you learned in the first sentence of this story, Alfonso drowned when they flooded his town

He swam to the top of the rising water. There were so many other things on the top of the water. Tires, baskets, cacti, wooden boards, the list goes on. As soon as he stuck his head out of the water, Alfonso realized he couldn't breath air. He was like a fish out of water.

So he swam back down to his old house.

The good news is that he wasn't alone. There were two dogs down there ... and one chicken. Alfonso had no idea why he, or the dogs (an orange one named Papaya and a brown one named Café) and the chicken (which had no name), didn't die. Normally that's what happens when you drown. You die. (So be very careful around water, children!) However, Alfonso and his three animals all seemed to still be alive.

The next day, a search team came looking for Alfonso. They looked for him on the top of the water and the edges of the new shore. He saw them coming and hid, which was easy since the water was so dark.

Why did he hide? Because he did not think they would let him stay here if they found him and he knew that he could never leave the water. How could he? He was unable to breath air anymore. The reservoir (or more accurately the drowned town inside the reservoir) was now his home. It was also the home of the two dogs and the chicken. It was their new old home.

The townspeople searched for Alfonso for many months but finally gave up. We know where he was, and that he was perfectly fine (except for being drowned), but they never thought to look for a boy living under the water.

--

Eventually, life in the new town became normal. The townspeople did everything they did in their old town and now had a large reservoir (with a steeple top poking out) in the valley for swimming, boating, fishing. They caught the fish and opened restaurants along the road where they sold the fish to travelers and tourists.

Though they missed their old town (and a few of Alfonso's missed him) the townspeople enjoyed life in their new town.

--

It was twenty years later.

Unlike everyone else, Alfonso had not aged a day. While his friends were now twenty-eight years old, he was still only eight. And he still lived under the water with Papaya, Café and the unnamed chicken.

It was a Sunday and a beautiful day at the reservoir. People were fishing, swimming, boating. Two men were building a new wooden dock for their boat. The church steeple was visible across the reservoir, sticking up from the dark blue water.

Three young children in a small boat decided they wanted to stand on top of the steeple. Many people, all adults, had done this over the years.

So the three children paddled their boat across the reservoir towards the steeple top. Before anyone noticed, they were halfway across.

A woman, the youngest child's mother, yelled out to them, "Come back! Come back, Laura!" Why did she yell? Because children should not be that far from shore without an adult.

Laura stood up in the boat to wave to her mother ... and the boat flipped over! All three children fell into the water, and like the buildings twenty years ago, quickly disappeared underneath the dark water. The townspeople on the shore watched in horror. The children would drown before anyone could get to them.

Alfonso looked up from under the water. He saw an upside down boat and three children struggling to swim, but sinking quickly to the bottom. So he did what you or anyone else would do. He swam to the surface, flipped the boat right side up, and helped the three children back into the boat.

He had saved the children!

Everyone on the beach started cheering and then, all at once, stopped when they realized that something very unusual, someone very unusual, had saved the children.

This was the first time anyone in the town had seen Alfonso, the drowned boy in the reservoir.

He was far from shore, but one of his old friends, Ulises, his best friend from childhood, recognized him.

"Alfonso?" the now twenty-eight year old friend said aloud. It was easy for Ulises to recognize Alfonso, since Alfonso hadn't aged a day. He looked exactly the same as he had twenty years ago.

--

For the next twenty years, until 1998, Alfonso and the dogs became the townspeople's protectors from the dark reservoir water.

Alfonso not only rescued children who had boated or swam out too far from shore, but he also helped the townspeople find items, such as boat motors and precious necklaces, that had fallen into the reservoir.

Papaya and Café (the dogs) also helped, often swimming to shore with a lost and now found necklace around their necks or, perhaps, a child's favorite action figure in their mouths.

The chicken mainly minded its own business, but every now and then it would swim (or fly, it was hard to tell) to the top of the water to snatch a cookie or piece of bread that someone had accidentally dropped into the water.

No one ever mentioned Alfonso (or the dogs or the chicken) to outsiders and Alfonso was very careful not to be seen when tourists (which were becoming more and more common) were around. It was the town's secret.

And now here is a secret for you. A secret that it would take the townspeople twenty more years to learn: Alfonso was collecting the coins that fell into the reservoir. Ten centavos here. A peso there. Five pesos here. Fifty centavos there. But since he never knew who dropped them, he didn't give the coins to the townspeople. He brought them back to his bedroom, in his house under the water, and slid them under his bed.

After so many years of picking up coins and sliding them under his bed, he had amassed quite a fortune! Alfonso, however, had no use of money. There was nothing to buy in the drowned town and he was unable to go into the stores in the new town.

--

So, for twenty more years, Alfonso, the drowned boy, saved the people and the objects that fell into the reservoir, played with his two dogs Papaya and Café, and collected coins.

--

And then one day, one very hot day in 1998, two things happened: First, a collection of government men, with khaki-colored clothing and thick mustaches, came into town and visited the dam. Second, the water level in the reservoir started sinking fast.

The government men had opened the dam. The dark reservoir water was rushing out through the dam and quickly leaving the town and the valley.

This was a terrifying sight for the townspeople. Where would they get water for their crops and cattle? What would they drink? What would they eat if they couldn't catch fish? What would the restaurants sell to the tourists?

There was nothing they could do.

The townspeople soon learned that the Mexican government decided to send the reservoir water downstream to another town, a town that did not really need more water, but had many high-level officials living there. That is why they opened the dam and let all the water run out.

So the townspeople sat on the hillside, like they did forty years earlier, watching the water level in the reservoir. This time, however, they watched the water go down and their old town slowly reappearing in front of their eyes.

They watched their old grey church re-emerge, water pouring out the windows as it rose. They watched their old red and brown brick houses rise up from the water. And they watched their old orange and yellow painted shops, surprisingly well-preserved, reappear.

Soon, far faster than when the water rose forty years earlier, the reservoir was empty, and the old town sat in what looked like a huge mud puddle.

In only a matter of minutes, the Mexican dry season sun beat down on the mud until it became caked, dry ground.

All the townspeople were wondering the same two things: What will we do for water? And what happened to the drowned boy, his two dogs and his chicken? Like the water, they were gone.

The people got up and walked down the hill and, for the first time in forty years, back into their old town.

Alfonso's best friend, Ulises, now forty-eight years old, went to Alfonso's old home. He walked in the front door and up the stairs to Alfonso's old room.

Alfonso wasn't there, but what Ulises found was just as amazing: a pile of gold and silver coins that almost filled the entire room.

"There must be half a million pesos here!" declared Ulises. (It was just over a million pesos, worth more than $80,000.) There was also a note, in handwriting that looked like that of an eight-year old boy. (Alfonso did not get much chance to practice his writing underwater.)

Utilice las monedas para comprar agua durante la estación seca.

(Use the coins to buy water during the dry season.)

In larger writing and all in capitals, was written:

¡ESTO NUNCA SUCEDERÁ OTRA VEZ!

(THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN!)

The word "NUNCA" (NEVER) was underlined three times!

--

Even with money to buy water back from the other town, it was a tough few months for the townspeople of Santa María Jalapa del Marqués. The crops withered and many of the cattle died, but all the people and the town survived.

When rainy season arrived, the town held a celebration like they had never had before.

The reservoir started filling up again and, in a few short months, the old town was completely under water, except, as before, they very top of the old church steeple.

Soon the lake was full of swimmers and boaters again, though everyone was far more careful since they knew that Alfonso was no longer there to rescue the children or items if they fell into the water.

--

The next dry season, the government men, with their khaki-colored clothing and thick mustaches, came back to open the dam again. The townspeople wondered how they would make it through another season of no water, no fish and no crops.

But when the government people went to open the dam, they learned that it was broken. It would not open no matter what they tried.

They replaced the turbine. It still did not open.

They replaced the rotor. They even replaced the transformer. The dam stayed closed. And the reservoir remained full of water and fish.

There was nothing they could do. The dam was broken for good. So the government people left town and never came back.

--

That was more than ten years ago.

The dam remains broken.

No one has since seen Alfonso, the dogs or the chicken.

And while many small children have fallen into the reservoir during the last ten years, not one has ever drowned.

THE END.



*Santa María Jalapa del Marqués really exists. It's about 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Oaxaca city, which is about 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) south of the US border. You can take a boat ride across the reservoir and, if the boatman allows, stand on top of the steeple. My son has done this. Also, the Benito Juárez Dam is really broken and cannot be opened. The rest of this story is a work of fiction and I have no idea if anyone has drowned in the reservoir during the last decade. But I do know that the townspeople in Santa María Jalapa del Marqués are about as nice as any you will find in this world. That's why this story is dedicated to them and the hospitality they showed to my teenage son and me.