He saves three hundred migrants off the island of Levanzo
Palermo (Sicily) - December 23, 2029 - During the night, three hundred African migrants, caught in a storm west of the island of Levanzo, are saved by a single man.
It is just one of the shipwrecks of migrants, as we have become accustomed to seeing them in recent years. Three hundred migrants, including forty-nine children under the age of twelve, fleeing the climatic conditions and violence of Africa in twenty or so boats, found themselves trapped in a storm of exceptional force off the island of Levanzo. All the boats were destroyed and every man, woman and child were condemned to perish at sea.
But by some miracle, all were found in Punta Genovese, not far from the cave famous for its cave paintings. A team of journalists was able to go there. According to their first reports, a single man saved all the migrants from drowning. The account of the witnesses is confusing to say the least, but here is the most coherent extract, although difficult to believe:
"The storm hit our group of boats. Most of them capsized. Passengers on the larger boats were thrown overboard by the smugglers who departed in haste, leaving us to drown. The storm was extremely violent. I thought we were all going to die, when I saw a man appear in front of me who seemed to be walking on the water. I heard his words in my head, distinctly, as if he was beside me. He said something like this: “hope is born out of despair… It is when you have lost all hope that you become the hero of your life… be your own revolution”. It was strange and confusing, but suddenly I found myself like him, walking on the water, and I saw all my companions doing the same. We set off to reach the coast. There was a real pleasure in climbing the waves, feeling the foam, the rain and the wind whipping our faces. Our enemies were the men, the smugglers, the persecutors, the rapists. The sea became our only friend. Around us circled the killer seagulls, the kind of mutant seagull that appeared a few years ago and devours the bodies of migrants. They circled around us without attacking us. The man said that we had to love what the earth had become, to love it for what it was still capable of offering us. He said that we should listen to it, accept it, and lean on it to adapt to it, as we were doing right now, walking on the water. When we arrived on the beach, next to the cave, many of us were crying, but the children were laughing. Perhaps they had the innocence to understand what was going on, and rejoice."
The journalists did not see the man who allegedly guided the migrants to the beach, and the police continued to carry out the necessary procedures to sort the migrants, direct them to transition camps or expel them from the territory.
The next day, the information circulated throughout Europe in the media and social networks. Demonstrations were organized and disrupted Christmas celebrations to ask for the protection of the miraculous. In the afternoon, the Pope visited the beach of Punta Genova where the migrants were held under police surveillance. The Vatican is not yet talking about a miracle, but is initiating an investigation that will take several years before an official declaration.
Three days after the miraculous rescue, the man reappeared in the middle of the camp improvised by the authorities. The guards insist that they did not see anyone enter, but it is true that their job was to monitor the exits of the camp and not the entrances. The man tells the migrants that they are promised land somewhere in Eastern Siberia. The Russian authorities accept their arrival on the territory and promise their regularization. They also guarantee help with settlement and integration, while it is up to the community to create the conditions for their development. During the day, a report from the TASS agency confirms his words.
The man was quickly arrested by the Italian police and jailed for disturbing the peace. But a week later, under pressure from people around the world, he was released and sent to the community that had been established in Siberia. When he was released from prison, he declared: "This is only the beginning. You have nothing to fear from the thunder of benevolence".