A permanent season

At last, a more pleasant breakfast on this farm. At least, people are talking more friendly around this table. The atmosphere is still tense on the farm Taurinos, but I guess the tendency, now that the city is going back to its normal, is that things will eventually and inevitably settle down. The sequels of everything we've lived through and found out in less than a month are still looming fresh before every one of us. March 2009 is a month not to be forgotten in the history of this town, its people and my history too. That seems now to be inalienably linked to Taurinos'.

"Mr. Teixeira is coming to see you", said Aparecida. "He called us last night to see if he could talk to you about Renan."

"Yup, things are goin' crazy at Renan's. Literally!", laughed Adriano.

"Is this any matter for jokes?", Duílio was impatient.

"Come on Dad, everyone knows Renan is stone cold crazy", justified Adriano, already startled.

"Really? It should make him no laughing stock though."

Adriano was saved by the car engine sound outside the porch. Duílio forgot about the jokes and went to the porch to welcome the visitors, "well come on inside, Aparecida just made some coffee…", said the walloping family man.

Renan and Guilherme came along with their father. The table didn't get any smaller than before even for that sudden party of eight. The town's reconstruction was in the order of the day. The price of masonry building. Of bulk cement and lime. The kids didn't understand a lot about construction materials but enjoyed the talk. Aparecida asked me if I had sampled the cheese bread and I replied it was just perfect. She went on to explain the recipe to me and it gets me a bit more entertained than the construction material talk. I like to cook, especially when I don't need to.

Porch. The kids went to Horns Falls. I si down along with Mr. Octávio Teixeira (he makes a point of telling me there is a "c" before the "t") to talk about the youngest and wildest member of the Teixeiras that was and is with us in Taurinos' Ancient Society.

"You know, every boy in the country has, in some moment of their lives, already done something wicked to animals that live in his region", Mr. Teixeira explained, "I myself used to tie a thread to a dragonfly and pull it like a dog on a leash as it tried to fly, you know?"

"Interesting. Fascinating."

"But Renan, I don't know… He has been so aggressive, he even fought at school some time ago, you know?"

If I made ten bucks every time I hear this (especially here in Taurinos) I would never need to work for a living. It seems a bit like the famous binomial missing dog + sick child used even by childless couples to retrieve their missing pets.

"I see."

"…this thing of watching violence on TV, you know, he's so young, only ten years old and shouldn't be watching these things. But I can't monitor him all the time and neither can my wife."

Parents can never monitor anything. But if it's not their fault, whose fault is it after all?

I am feeling a slight earache. Strange, the two ears are aching. Mr. Teixeira's voice came from a distance, as I was used to, but some of his inflections came in less dull than others. I asked him if he knew about the ritual at the Mithraeum, about how violent it really was. He said he knew in detail, but was quick to state all was done in the name of the city with no other kind of intention involved.

"I understand what you mean, Mr. Teixeira. I myself didn't take part in it with intentions other than helping the city."

"The whole Taurinos heard your story, Ms. Grisam, we'll never be able to thank you enough for that…"

"What I mean is that it left me with some sequels. I got deaf and lost part of my memory of what happened there."

"It happens to adults, if not something worse. What only adds to your courage at doing it, Ms. Grisam. I know you knew how much you were risking down there."

"Mr. Teixeira, listen in to me for a minute will you. I'm not saying this to you because I want to show you how badly I wanted to help save the city, but to tell you something like this could have happened to your son as well, but to his personality, not to his hearing or memory."

"Oh, but it's impossible, Ms. Grisam, nothing bad has ever happened to the handlers in any of the ceremonies so far. It wouldn't start with my son, would it?"

"I don't know. I think what was done down at the Mithraeum would change anyone's mind to worse. I find their tolerance to violence strange to the utmost. All of them safe, mentally intact as if they had just gone to the park on a Sunday morning. Remembering all details however gory they had been."

"Do you really think this is the case?"

"There's nothing definitive, but an impression I've got. I can't tell you what it really is. I need to watch him carefully as close as I can be to him."

Mr. Teixeira was thoughtful. Asked me whether I wanted to stay some days in his house, to see what I could find out. I told him what I found out was not always easy for parents to take. Sometimes it is not easy even for me to take.

Renan loved to learn I was going to spend some time at his house. Guilherme liked the break of routine my presence in his house would mean. The farm Teixeira was a bit smaller than Taurinos, yet huge for someone like me, used to a small two-story house in a city like Santos, always somewhat compressed sideways.

A nice porch, with a different view, another angle of the mountain, but as beautiful as on Taurinos. If this porch is as calm as the Conselheiros' I have my new office ready to work. Here we lack Portuguese tiles but there is plenty of plants to spare. I fall in love with the place at first sight.

"This is Donana," introduced Mr. Teixeira, "my wife, this is Ms. Grisam whom I have talked about."

"Oh, and the boys too, chiefly Renan. At the time of ceremony, one day after he almost left me deaf." she gave me a kind smile.

"I know how it feels. They made me completely deaf too."

Mr. Teixeira looked at the two of us with the expression of those in doubt whether to laugh or stay serious. He seemingly chose the second alternative.

Renan and I sat down at the porch and gazed at the mountains of Taurinos in the distance. The day is cloudy, yet beautiful; songbirds are everywhere, though I still can't hear them singing at the best of my hearing. The earache I had yesterday and this morning returns slightly and starts bothering me. Renan looks at me and asks me why I'm here. Waits and sees I'm taking ages to answer so he takes a shortcut.

"Is it for watching me?"

"Yes." Lying to my client is not part of my game. Omitting maybe, but never lying (hey great tagline for my blog).

"My family thinks I'm nuts", said Renan, resigned.

"Your family and the rest of the town, Renan. You have to be realistic. Sometimes you just overdo it."

"I know."

His face was cute at saying this. I overdid his standings in the community, but it was nice to see he understood such standings, at least as to how he was viewed by the others.

Orchestral manouevres in the dark | These precious things

Radio Universal: Permanent Season