The Devil and Miss Prym

“Ah! Sweet revenge!”

That was my very first utterance after flicking through the last page in Coelho’s novel The Devil and Miss Prym.

As the lines go:

She had only returned to say goodbye to Berta. She was wearing the same clothes she usually wore, so that nobody there would know that, in her short visit to the city, she had become a wealthy woman. The stranger had arranged everything, signing all the papers necessary for the transfer in ownership of the gold bars, so that they could be sold and the money deposited in Miss Prym’s newly opened account…

…”They’re going to build a fountain in my honor,” Berta announced. “It’s the price for my silence.”…

…Chantal asked what the fountain would look like. Berta had decided that it should be a sun spouting water into the mouth of a frog. She was the sun and the priest was the frog...

…”And now you are finally going to do as I suggested, my girl. One thing I can tell you with absolute certainty; life can seem either very long or very short, according to how you live it.”

Chantal smiled, gave her a kiss, and turned her back on Viscos for the last time. The old woman was right: there was no time to lose, though she hoped that her life would be very long indeed.

Sweet revenge indeed.

How Miss Prym was able to get such sum amount of money through eleven gold bars courtesy of the stranger is up for you to discover. So is for the reason of my reaction.

This book by Coelho is another worth the read that you cannot even afford to stop and pee because each page reveals the truth about life – with this, the fight of good and evil within a person.

Let me quote from page 39:

“Good and Evil have the same face; it all depends on when they cross the path of each individual human being.”

The Devil and Miss Prym concludes the trilogy And on the Seventh Day. The first two books were: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (which was the first book of Coelho I was able to read) and Veronika Decides to Die (which I am currently reading). Each of the three books is concerned with a week in the life of ordinary people, all of who find themselves suddenly confronted by love – By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, death – Veronika Decides to Die and power – The Devil and Miss Prym.

Seven days. That is too long enough to change the course of life of any ordinary individual. We just wake up the following minute or even with a blink of an eye, everything in our life has changed. Even with the words we seem to be ordinarily saying can alter the life we so carefully worked on for years. Changes often come when we least expect it. And oftentimes, change is accompanied by challenges to test our courage and willingness to change according to Coelho; at such moment, there is no point pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready.

And in Coelho’s final note:

“The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.”

So true. There are moments where my Good and my Evil came hand in hand, both look so much alike. And I have to decide fast. Maybe, with just a flick of my pen.

Tomorrow, I shall tell you how.

How about you, do you have your own story of a week of grandiose change?