Lily
Lily lived in a small country town by the ocean. Ever since she grew up, she had made a habit of coming to the little old wooden pier, which no one had used for many years now except an old fisherman. It often happened that she sat as he passed, raising his hat and saluting her. She responded by raising her hand in greeting and smiling almost always. This little fellowship of theirs lasted a long time.
One day, which you can see painted, a great storm was approaching. Nevertheless, she decided to go to the pier. The storm had its appeal. The old sailor's ship swayed nervously by the pier, but it was not tied up—the ropes were inside. When she called out, no one answered her. She got worried but decided to tie up the boat first and think later. As she was tying it, she thought she heard a wind-borne cry for help from the storm. She looked at the storm, wondering if she would be able to manage. Having convinced herself that this was possible, but also humane, even though she had already tied one of the ropes, she untied it and got on the ship. She stood for a while, hoping to hear the cry for help again. When she did not hear it, she said to herself, "May the god help me!" and sailed away.
Lily never returned to her home. Her loved ones searched for her for a long time in vain. The National Guard and rescue services spent a whole week but to no avail.
After entering the storm, Lily was barely able to cope with the increasing waves, which tried their best to fill the ship and capsize it. They wanted to destroy her. She spent eight long hours traversing the storm to find her longtime acquaintance and managed not. She considered that she wouldn't be able to come back and whether this wasn't the end of her life. She prayed to the god, to Jesus, she wondered if she should also pray to Mary, but she refrained—she was not sure. Then exhaustion got the better of her and she fell asleep lying on the floor of the captain's cabin.
As the boat was tossed by the waves, she had a dream. In her dream she was with an Indian tribe in the jungles of the Amazon, talking to them in their native language about the god and salvation, of which she knew so little. Then she heard a voice, “Lily, will you go to them, turning your back to everything?” Lily thought, but somewhat cheerfully and joyfully, that her life could take on a new meaning, said, “Yes, I will go.”
The ship had been tossed about by the storm for almost a week, and Lily was so exhausted that she could not lift herself from the floor. On the seventh day, she opened her eyes, and it was a sunny morning with no excitement. It was warm, pleasant and you could hear birds, the noise of people... She got up slowly, straightened her hair and looked. There were her Indians whom she had agreed to save. In one of the lockers of the ship, she found an old, tattered Bible, took it in her hand and went out on deck.
After many years, workers from the gold mining industry came very close to where the tribe was, whom she had taught the truth. She was still there, she still loved them, she still cared for them in everything that was in her powers, and what wasn’t —in prayer. After these thirty years, she had made a dictionary of their language, even translated Matthew and Acts, so that she could read to them in their native tongue. One of the workers remembered the missing girl and asked her in Portuguese, although she did not understand the language: "Lily?".
Her eyes watered as she remembered who she was, where she came from, the peaceful life with her parents, and she said in her own language, "No, I am Noau," which was her tribal name.
However, the man, looking at her European features, did not trust her and told the police. Her parents came after they found out about her miraculous deliverance. She was told that the old sailor had taken his boat out to sea and had never returned, nor had the boat been found. She did not go back to them. After they left the land, she received a small inheritance and slightly improved her life and that of her tribe. You can still find her there today trying to help those she didn't know but who gave her life meaning.