The park was very quiet that morning when Luis, Andrea, Josefina and Clemente gathered to play volleyball. The grass was very green and damp with dew under the leafy trees with large leaves and long branches. A blazing sun warmed everything its rays touched. But the capricious weather changed in just a few minutes.
It began with a breeze that lifted the dry leaves. Andrea, a young woman, small stature, thin with brown-haired collecting in a tail, kept her arms in high to fly the ball; she received powder in the eyes and the ball hit her head and bounced on the ground.
"Oops, something got in my eye." She bent down.
"Let me see", Luis had very solicitously come over to help her. Dark and tall, in two strides he was at her side.
But the breeze was already turning into a gale, and several whirlpools were blowing dirt, leaves, and the occasional piece of paper in rapid circles of air.
"But what a change in the weather!. What's missing is rain". Josefina grimacing with on her freckled face holds on to her hat before the breeze blows it off, and when she looks up to see the sky, she sees a colorful object that the breeze is swaying strongly.
"Look at a parachute!" and she points with her arm.
Everyone raises their heads, and black clouds begin to darken the sky.
"It is falling very fast." Clemente, a tall young man with wind-blown blond hair, points to his left. "Look, it's heading towards that forest. Quick, let's run!".
They all ran into the forest, as the clouds had already darkened the park.
The parachute has landed on the long branches of a ceiba tree, and its ropes are hanging down.
The young men were expecting to find a person, but no, it is a silver metal box.
"How strange!, and who would think of dropping a box on a parachute?. Andrea looks at the box with its big black eyes wide open.
"It won't be dangerous to get close, and what if it's a bomb?" Josefina took a step back.
"It could be a toxic gas". Luis had approached the box, which was swinging from one side to the other.
"Don't touch it, Luis". Andrea had followed him and was standing next to him.
The box had no lock and no hole. The metal was smooth and opaque.
The breeze had stopped, and not a leaf moved in the park. It could be said that the silence was total.
Thick raindrops began to fall, and along with these fell pieces of hail.
"What are we doing?" shouts Josefina, "We are going to get wet".
Luis steps forward, unravels the box, and takes it in his hands.
"Let's go" he says to the rest of the group. They run and get lost in the pouring rain.
Somewhere in the Andes Mountains, an airplane lands on a runway between high altitudes.
A man dressed in white gets out and walks towards a rock-walled house. The windows are fogged by the mist and the cold. As he enters, a group of five counselors are waiting for him.
"All the boxes have been delivered. One in each chosen location. All are now in the hands of the people who found them".
"How nice! We can say that the delivery was a success. The younger woman smiles with satisfaction.
"Now we just have to wait for the boxes to be opened".
In his father's workshop. Luis and his friends are trying to open the box. It is very light but very hard.
"It won't be a Pandora's box?".
"And who is Pandora, Andrea?" Asks Clemente, who has never heard that name in his life.
"It is a very old myth. It was a woman to whom the gods gave a box and told her not to open it, but she could not contain her curiosity, and when she opened it, she spread the evils throughout humanity".
"And what were those evils?" Clemente wanted to know more.
"All those that exist right now, starting with war, violence, and selfishness". Josefina was already impatient and wanted the box to be opened.
"Ah, then I think, Luis that you are not the right one. You won't be able to open it".
Luis was busy with screwdrivers, a hammer, a drill, and even a blowtorch.
He turned around with his face and flannel wet with sweat.
"Why do you think that?, Explain to me"
"Because according to the story Andrea just told us, it must be a woman who opens it".
"And what story did you tell them Andrea?"
"The one about Pandora's box, do you remember it?"
"Yes, of course".
"And I don't think there are any bad things in there because they are all out there; this time they are good things".
A silence reigned then in the place. The box remained on the wooden table, silent, without any change.
Then Andrea and Josefina took each other's hands and walked towards the table. When they were in front of it, they placed their hands intertwined on top of the box. A few seconds passed, then the box glowed and opened.
Its interior was empty, what was there had expanded, and this time it was the virtues that humanity had lost.
In five places on the planet, the boxes opened by female hands represented a beginning for humanity. The spiritual guides celebrated in the sacred mountains of the ancient peoples.
The younger woman speaks to the group.
"From now on we will start monitoring the results".
A condor with its wings outstretched flew at a great height.
