Shake my tree

It was ten in the morning when the last car left Bruno at the porch and turned 180 degrees, hitting the road on its way back. Duílio and Aparecida left early, soon after breakfast and there are no signs of them coming back anytime soon. Today it's been a month since I left Santos for Taurinos. Funny it was a Friday the 13th just like today. Is it a presage, as Andrés likes to say?

From the road there comes master Danilo. Easy to recognize in his short and timid steps. It's funny and unusual to see at this time of the day, since I have already associated him to the evening. Yet I knew he wouldn't fail to appear. As a matter of fact, I counted on his coming up.

"I've come to help an old friend of mine. And he's going to need the two of us", and master Danilo smiled his warm smile that cheered me up and gave me more confidence before the young lions sitting at the porch, "I bet they must be real bloodthirsty, all of the five, now that they realized the ceremony has failed."

And they were. Not literally now, but on their own way they wanted a head to roll. And it was Andrés'. We walked up to the others at the porch. The kids found the presence of master Danilo strange to say the least. Bruno complained about his presence and heard from master Danilo that he was as much a Taurino as Bruno was.

"You were a handler. You're not anymore", insisted Bruno, without much thought.

"You were a handler too. You're not anymore either", retorted master Danilo, without needing much thought.

Bruno sat down upset beside Renan and Anderson. Andrés and master Danilo sat with me. Then there were Adriano and Gulherme, sitting by the entrance. Adriano started speaking.

"I couldn't find the passage about the memory meeting in the book", he said a little bit embarrassed, "but it doesn't mean there has to be no punishment."

"True", I said, "but let there be punishment for what it is really worth."

The kid exchanged looks, Andrés focused his eyes on me for long. He was waiting for the hammer to fall.

"What do you mean by that?" Bruno asked, encouraged by Renan.

"That master Danilo and I accuse Andrés Silva Conselheiro of violating the laws of the ancient handlers by returning to Taurinos more than once, in the years of 1905, returning in 1957 and returning for a second time in the current year of 2009."

General panic. Adriano was colorless in the face, no blood left to lend him life. A muffled voice motion all around, deformed by my still precarious hearing. I looked at the defendant and he looked steady. I came close to him and said to his ear, "make a stand, keep your head up, I know we'll make it out of this mess in the end", and he smiled a very brief smile.

Guilherme punched his left hand's palm, "I knew, only calculated, he was there at our side all the time. Holy shit, the guy is a living legend!" He was staring at Andrés still in disbelief. Andrés couldn't hide how embarrassed he really was.

"Now I don't want to be your slave. You're trying to drive me to an early grave. All I ever hear, is that you live and breathe for me. But all you ever do is shake my tree."

Shake My Tree, written and performed by David Coverdale and Jimmy Page.

The reaction that worried me the most was Adriano's. And it came in full effect soon after the accusation. He approached Andrés with a stunned expression, touched him and said, "so it means you are my grandfather?"

"And your great grandfather", Andrés said calmly as he took off his glasses for some cleansing. Adriano would spend the rest of the meeting looking inside himself, maybe assessing the impact on his family tree after Andrés' revelation.

Anderson, Bruno, Renan and Guilherme just looked around, in total disbelief. They were living through a singular passage of Taurinos' history. Renan seemed intrigued in finally coming face to face with one of Those Who Have Returned, mythical beings he had just heard about in ancient ones' talks or read in the pages of the book during our time at the Mithraeum.

"How does it feel to be one of Those Who Have Returned?" Renan asked, at the peak of his curiosity.

"You don't want to know", Andrés said with a tired and sad look, "it's a fucking heavy load to bear."

"Not to mention twice, eh, Andrés?", joked master Danilo, without expecting any laughter. It was nice to relax, but the moment was tense anyway.

"That's a maneuver! They are trying to change the penalty to something lighter!" Bruno was outraged.

"Whether or not you want to, you'll have to comply with the book. This is the penalty that the Society will apply to Andrés. This includes you, Bruno; an accomplished member of the Taurinos' Ancient Society's Inner Chamber. I haven't swallowed this nonsense of memory meetings or whatever you call that thing. This one really a maneuver to disqualify me for being a woman, when all of that shit was correctly done and much more than that, judging by what you and the book told me. See? It was no John or Jane Doe who told me, but you and the book. How many more witnesses and testimonies would I need? Were it so necessary, why six witnesses of all the enormity that happened in the Mithraeum and a mystery book that writes itself?" I said it all calmly.

"I wanted to apologize", said Anderson, with an embarrassed expression.

"Do you still want to?", joked master Danilo, making Anderson, Renan, Guilherme and Andrés laugh.

"Serious, I'm angry with what has happened so far, the city has had no change. I supported this stupid plan in the hope something was going to change. I apologize for that. I don't wish anybody's death. But the problem is there and if it's required to drown Andrés in Horns Falls to solve the problem, I will, if I have to do on my own. And I swear, I'm a nice guy, but won't think twice before walking all over anyone who tries to stop me this time. My family is there, running out of water, the animals are attacking more and more, and I won't wait for everything to go worse."

Bruno rose from his chair and apologized too. Other than that he said more or less the same thing as Anderson, with more or less the same words. Renan and Guilherme were not very different from their forerunners and Adriano didn't voice anything besides the wish to comply with whatever the Society decided to do. I looked at master Danilo and Andrés and if they were not the portrait of happiness they were at least calmer at seeing things were taking the direction they should.

Into the vaults of madness | After the Ordeal

Radio Universal: A Love Like Blood