Taurinos' Ancient Society

The other three young bloods asked Andrés and Adriano whether I was going to take part in the meeting. Guilherme and Renan intervened to help me instead and said I had been going farm to farm with Andrés in search of The Big One, therefore taking part of it all just like anyone else. Far from feeling defended I somehow saw it as a clear sign of how involved I have gotten in this story.

My laptop is on a small table at the porch and I'm ready to start as a Taurinos' Ancient Society's secretary. It was Andrés' special request that everything related to the Society had to be recorded somehow. I began with the Society's members' full names: Adriano Silva Conselheiro, Anderson Nascimento Caldeira, Andrés Silva Conselheiro, Arthur Trindade Feletti, Bruno Linhalis Pinho, Guilherme Giacomin Teixeira and Renan Augusto Giacomin Teixeira. I typed the names and was in suspense, waiting for what was going to come next.

"Record your name too, at the end", Andrés told me.

Typed my own name under Renan's. Andrés got four more chairs and had everyone sit down. He knew pretty well what to begin with. He strangely seemed to feel so comfortable in such unknown territory he was stepping in for the first time. He opened the meeting by passing information on to the others as to what had come to pass to that day.

"So far we haven't found anything odd on the two farms we visited. I have paid special attention to the calves here at our Taurinos too, of course. Everything is so quiet, but we know something big is in the air for us. All hell's about to break loose one of these days. We can't let it linger any more. Taurinos' Ancient Society has to be one step ahead of him."

"I'm not sure of what I have to do", said Bruno staring at Andrés.

"Bruno, wait until I have finished speaking and maybe one or two of your doubts will have been cleared by the end. If you still have questions, there will be a lot of time to ask them all, right?"

Bruno shut up with an acquiescent expression, waiting for the moment of speaking. Andrés then spoke about the Sacred Ones for the first time in the meeting. Said he was expecting each one of the Taurinos to bring in a brave Sacred One for the works. The Sacred Ones would then be stored at the very place chosen for the ceremony, the arena. He said that the arena didn't hold much more than eight people and the Sacred Ones. Because there would be no need for more than this.

"In fact, the arena is nothing else than a silo that my brother, father and I altered to be more like a ceremonial place. The Sacred Ones will be painted with a colored spot on the back. The colors are those we see in DVDs under a light bulb, to be easier for us to remember. Their colors decide the order of entrance for the handlers."

"Aren't they the colors in the solar spectrum?" I was a bit willing to tease him today.

"Look at this, I said people attending should not interrupt, but I guess it's happening because I spoke in Japanese, or because not everyone was paying attention."

"Sorry", I was really feeling like laughing.

Andrés drew an envelope from his pocket and shook it randomly for a while. From the envelope he drew a chip, put it away in his pocket, passed the envelope on to the others, telling them to do the same. The envelope returned empty to his hands and he set it on the table near my laptop. I recorded his every move in text, what would be useful, both for the Taurinos' Ancient Society and for me later on.

"Now the colors you've drawn will follow the same order I spoke about in the beginning. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, exactly in this order. Now please show your chips", he commanded.

I write down the order of the colors and the owners of the colors as they opened their hands and let the chips show. This was the final draft order:

Red: Renan
Orange: Bruno
Yellow: Guilherme
Green: Anderson
Blue: Adriano
Indigo: Andrés
Violet: Arthur

It was plain to see that Renan could not wait. His eyes glinted in anticipation as he learned he'd be the first one. I think of what makes a child his age wait for such carnage as one waiting for his own birthday party or for the Boxing Day. He rose to his feet and started a dance around the chair, celebrating the outcome of the draft. Andrés was glaring at him.

"Renan, we will need a bit more of order than that if we really want to finish this meeting. I wonder if you could possibly cooperate with us all by sitting down. This is serious, this is not a friggin' disco. I don't want anyone standing, let alone dancing during the meeting, please stop it."

Renan apologized and went back to his chair (the admonition, however, erased none of his happiness beam as nothing else would).

Andrés now spoke about the procedures inside the arena. Everyone sitting all the time, with the logical exception of those handling the Sacred One. The latter should then be dismembered and cut into pieces until such pieces were considered too small for the handler to go on.

At this point I could not hold laughter back and had a seizure before the seven handlers. They looked at me dumbfounded, completely baffled as to why I'd laugh at something like that. As I could imagine, it made a terrible impression on them. Andrés had a fit of rage.

"But what the fuck? Did I say something funny? Do I look like a comedian? Fucking shit, I got one dancing, another laughing her ass out, is this any kind of goddamned sitcom?"

"Sorry, Andrés; it's just that a phrase like "…the Sacred One should then be dismembered and cut into pieces until such pieces were considered too small for the handlers to go on" reads terribly funny in society foundation records…"

"What do I care? I don't fucking care how you word it, as long as the idea is there I couldn't care less!"

He was still very nervous. Then he went on to general talk, opening the meeting for other Taurino handlers' questions.

"Bruno, could you clear your doubts about what to do? Any doubt left?" Andrés asked, for a kick-off.

Bruno declared most of the doubts had been cleared. Asked things like what kind of paint to use. Andrés said it could be any as long as it lasted on the animal's back at least until the beginning of the handling. He said it was not necessary to paint the animal, only throw the paint over its back in a quantity that could be easy to spot on the Sacred One. The seven had to be in white, as those coming to celebrate New Year. I felt like laughing again, but this time could hold it back lest I disrupted the meeting once again (the way he worded the instructions was at once odd and funny). Each speck of information from him was valuable there, I wouldn't let myself miss any detail, however small.

"The shirt will have the same color spot found on the Sacred One so that the colors for those watching from the outside of the ring will be the same."

"Isn't the paint going to ruin the clothes?" asked Guilherme naively.

"When you finish your handling there will be very little left of your clothes to worry about, dude. Besides, they will have to be burned after the ceremony."

"My father has a hardware store, as you know. I can get all the paints there, only need to write down the colors", offered Anderson.

"Great!" Andrés grinned his satisfaction at Anderson's prompt offer.

"Can we speak during the handling?" asked Andrés, curious.

"You can speak, swear, encourage, chiefly encourage, but anything goes. What can't be done is to fail to pay attention to what is going on in the arena. All attention and more is required when brethren are in the arena handling the Sacred One. Then again the handler in the arena won't speak. Not even a word, however short."

"What are we using as an instrument in the handling?" inquired Anderson.

"Bullfighting swords. They are seven, inherited from my grandpa when he belonged to Taurinos' Ancient Society, along with master Danilo and the other ancient ones. You're taking the swords home today. They'll go in their sheaths and will come back in their sheaths. Have I made myself clear?"

I wake up to the memory of master Danilo. He and grandpa Andrés really seem to have made history here. Adriano sinks into the house and emerges back with five swords he leaves with each of the handlers. To think I found there to be only two, the ones I saw in Andrés' room one week ago.

"When is the ceremony to take place?" asked Adriano, the only soul to not utter a word during the whole of the meeting.

"This year on the seventh of March", Andrés replied promptly.

"I understand the day, but why March? Anything special about it?" Renan asked.

"It's the only month of the year dedicated to god Mars, the god of war. The entire date, as you have realized has to have a seven somewhere in it, either on the day (that can be 7, 17 or 27) or in the year. My grandpa and the other ancient ones performed the ceremony in March too, because there is no other month dedicated to the god of war. It has to be in March. In their case, they did it in 1957, so there was no need to do it on a particular day because seven was already in the number of the year." Andrés explained that didactically.

A certain murmur of admiration was heard. The structure of the ceremony's date seemed to strike them all as big novelty. I wrote everything down, questions and answers admired (not to mention in total awe) with the absolute security, skill and authority with which Andrés directed the meeting. He looked at everyone, waiting to see where more questions would arise from. Silence was deep now. Andrés still waited a bit more for more questions, but there was no more. The kid decided to call it a day.

"You'll all stay for lunch", he invited. The other handlers approved of the eats after so much talking. I think I should go right now to master Danilo's, talk to him about the meeting and see what matched his descriptions. In private, while the other Taurinos talked to each other, I told Andrés I would love to stay for lunch, but I needed to step out for a while. He raised his eyebrows at me until there was no more difference between his hair and eyebrows.

"Leave it for later. Now you'll stay and have lunch with me and the other Taurinos", he said in a mellow yet resolute tone.

"It's just that I really need to leave for a while, I got no choice."

Andrés smiled (it looked more like a smirk but it was a smile anyhow).

"Sorry Ms. Grisam, but if you leave now I'll take it as an insult. And a big one, if you ask me. You'll have lunch with us willing or unwilling to. I'd rather have you here willing to take part, but I'll be content with anything I got as long as you stay." His tone of voice rose to some shades of impatience though it still struggled to be mild.

I felt he was about to burst out with anger with me if I denied my presence again. I told him I was going to stay and have lunch with them, since he put things that way. He smiled spontaneously this time as a smile should always be and stroke my right arm slightly.

"That's much better", he uttered, "come on, dad, mom and the other Taurinos are waiting for us, let's not make them wait any longer."

And it was unwilling that I sat at the table for lunch with the Society. Not that it made a world of difference around me. The boys told jokes, laughed, talked over cattle, football, bicycles, mountain bikes, whatever stirred their imagination. Duílio and Aparecida sought, within their means and knowledge of the ongoing subjects, to correspond to such cheerfulness. I honestly tried to get carried away by the atmosphere of relaxation around me, but failed miserably. My thoughts were on the meeting and on crossing the data I had obtained with the knowledge of master Danilo. At my side, Aparecida commented about one or two dishes she had prepared and, apart from commenting how good the food really was (what it was in fact) I didn't manage to make any other comment that would satisfy the normal course of a conversation. She gave up trying to make me talk and gradually turned back to the overall colloquy.

At times, Andrés would tell a joke and, amid the overall laughter, take furtive glances at me (probably to see if I reacted to it). I noticed his interest out of the corner of my eyes and never corresponded, not because I didn't want to, but because I was in no mood. He eventually realized he'd have me at the table unwilling and, as he himself had said, would have to be content with whatever he had in hands for the moment. I would sincerely like him to understand one can't have everything they want at the right time they want it.

It was five o'clock when the boys' parents started coming for their children. I waited until all of them had taken off and headed for the road in front of the farm. I had hardly taken ten steps when I heard Andrés call me. I turned back, he walked close to me.

"Why didn't you talk to me about a ride? I could get one for you with one of the dudes' parents…"

"I want to walk a bit."

"It's hot on the road as you walk, people think on the mountains it won't feel that hot but it does. Hotter than at the beach."

"Oh that's true. So very, very true… Well, I must be on my way. See you later."

"If you want, I can get one of the guys on the farm to take you and bring you back", Andrés tried once again, "you just have to set up a time for him to pick you up."

"No, but thank you very much indeed."

"Are you sure you really don't want a ride?"

"I'm sure I really don't want a ride."

I had started a zombie dialogue with him just to see that his interest dwindled. The more mechanical, the better. Thanks God I didn't need to go past the first verbatim repetition of his words. Either I am becoming more like a zombie or my clients are improving in their attention deficit disorder issues during their everyday activities.

"You'll have lunch with us willing or unwilling to. I'd rather have you here willing to take part, but I'll be content with anything I got as long as you stay."

Andrés

It was not six o'clock yet when I got to master Danilo's. He was making coffee. Excused himself for not preparing dinner because he was not expecting anyone to come. So it was me who had to apologize.

"Oh don't make a fuss of it, "sá" Stella", he said smiling, "I really wanted to learn what was going on there anyhow. I told you, come whatever day you want to, it only must be after six, I am seldom home before that time."

He heard me without interrupting. Seemed eager for details of the young bloods' meeting. He said the issue of the colors was not mandatory, but it was a valid — as valid as any other in his words — interpretation of the ancient ceremony made by the kids. He confirmed being in white during his time as a handler, as well as the date for the ceremony itself, the year of 1957. Said it was really March, because it had to be March. He also nodded when I asked him about using those swords. In a nutshell, he confirmed all that was said there. He was impressed with the fact that Andrés had stored it all in such detail in his memory. He commented that, during my account of the meeting, he had felt like he was in the meeting himself fifty-two years ago on the same farm, at the same porch.

"How come the plump one can have such memory of these things just listening to the story? The boy is clever, believe me, "sá" Stella. But…"

He stopped, somehow undecided about what to say next. Or how to word it.

"But…?" I tried to wind him up.

"I don't know if you actually understood what I meant, "sá" Stella. But as you spoke, I felt like I was in the meeting."

"Oh, I got it. It must bring you lots of memories…"

"You didn't understand. As you spoke, I felt… Hell, how can I word it? It was the same meeting as fifty-two years ago. The same words, the same friend dancing around the chair for the same reason, the same questions, everything. The only thing that differed was the colors they set up for the ceremony."

I started to laugh. Asked him if there was a woman writing everything down. Much to my astonishment he said there was. I replied he was kidding me.

"Come on, "sá" Stella, I wouldn't joke about something so serious! I still dream about that meeting to this day!"

He seemed not to be lying. It sent shivers up and down my spine. Light, then growing stronger and stronger, until I only felt the shivers, not my spine any longer. No, he was definitely not lying. Somehow he had a hunch of what would come to pass today or today's meeting was a sort of metaphysical revival of that in 1957. His description matched more the second hypothesis. He said he couldn't remember the name of the woman. That it was the only thing he couldn't recall.

"I know the young lads", he referred to Renan and his brother as I commented about them, "the two are bloodthirsty as I've never seen; only the sea could quench that thirst for blood. As the Conselheiros, the youngest is the fiercest. Funny how bright and nice they are all the time, one would never say how much ferocity actually lurks inside them lil' pesky brats."

"Wasn't there any within you and Andrés?" I teased him.

The man smiled, fully understanding my intention.

"I speak for myself when I say I did it for the city, for our folks. The ends justified the means in the long run, time has made it clear for us. I think Andrés felt the same, but he is no longer the one to testify about it, right? Now some of the boys there, it is easy to see that they enjoy the taste of blood. The ceremony is one more reason for shedding a bit more of it. It's beautiful for them to see the blood squirt from the wounds. If you were to attend the ceremony you'd see how deranged they get at the very sight of blood spurting."

I told him I intended to attend the ceremony. He laughed and said that it could happen but it was unlikely that the Society let me get any close to the arena, let alone enter the circle.

"You, besides being a grown-up, are just a woman. Don't get me wrong, this is how women are typically viewed within the Society. They are just women, nothing else. There are no records at any time of the ceremony when women were even remotely close to the place where the ceremony took place."

Seven | The ruminant hour

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