Eerie science

Guilherme sat in the sun after breakfast. The two brothers seem to be fond of sitting in the sun when the sun is still not so mild as it is in the winter, in the middle of the year. Late April nights tend to draw colder and longer here. Wind sweeps this region of Taurinos too, not only the top of the city. It's a constant gale some days, blowing with violence and immoderation over the farms and houses in town.

"Those dreams again?" he inquired as though he knew what was going on.

"Have you had the dreams too?", I hoped he had, don't know why. He told he dreamed about nonsense, rooftops, clouds, forests, trees, loneliness.

"But it is weird that only you, Anderson and Andrés have had the same dream, no?"

I was going to answer, but Renan's sudden arrival made me think twice. He looked friendly (well to be in a bad mood, staying our room is good enough anyhow). He sat down with his brother and the two were staring at me.

"I'm not against you as you said at the square." I said it in an impulse, out of the blue.

"What do you mean, said to you at the square? I didn't say anything to you there, just asked you to get in the car." He thought I referred to that Tuesday afternoon.

Guilherme looked at us not grasping the sense of the talk at all. Renan himself seemed to be not in tune either. I told him of the dream in which Andrés, Anderson and I went to square at night and saw him with the man at the gazebo. He said he didn't remember anything at all.

"I haven't even dreamed about anything these days. Been long since I last remembered somethin' I dreamed about at night", he said looking further at the mountains behind me, "see, don't even remember when the last time was."

Funny he didn't seem to be lying to me. It could be true, it could be not. Anyway, he got interested in learning that we three had had a lucid dream together. It seemed like the idea of a lucid dream had never crossed his mind until that moment. Guilherme himself looked like he took the same amount of time to reason about the concept as his younger brother's. The two siblings went on to pester me asking tons and tons of questions, some interesting, some completely stupid and weird. An eerie science for weird kids.

Six-thirty and I am at the gate of master Danilo's. The sweet smell of coffee, a trademark for the old Mineiro's humble dwelling. He is the one that knows mysteries of the land I couldn't even suspect of in my life. He opened a wide smile as I walked in. Complained he hasn't seen me much for a couple of days.

"Teixeiras' farm is farther from here. If I get more rides and if I'm in the mood of walking the mile, I can come more times", I said.

"How's Renan?"

"Normal, what you already know."

I told him what happened on the Monday prior to the killing at the square on my way to the farm Teixeira and he goggled at me, eyes as big as saucers, "God, how dangerous" and told me he had really seen two outsiders hanging out together downtown.

"But Renan did cross his limits, didn't he, "sá" Stella? In broad daylight. Well, this is no reason for astonishment. The boy has a built-in killing machine inside his brand new clothing and behind that angel face."

I looked through the window at the night that had just been born. Every day it seems like I know less what to do. I ask master Danilo if the issue for him was the fact Renan killed the man in daylight, not his act altogether. He said it is important to be discreet in country towns. Everything goes to the people radio — that is to say anything could become the talk of the town — anything could be in the order of the day.

"So what seems to be the trouble for everyone here is the time of the day and the amount of people watching. It doesn't matter what he did, it had to be under wraps?"

Master Danilo looked thoughtful for some time. Then he stared at me, the same cold stare of Andrés and Adriano defending their theories about how ill-intentioned outsiders should be destroyed to set a good example of what happens to those who dare do any evil around town.

"Do you want to know if I felt sorry for the guys Renan killed? No. They're birds of the same feather as those who came here to steal, rape and even kill. You saw that and even experienced that according to what you told me just now. What if the kid hadn't called you at all and still you walked there at that time of the day? As today you came to my house at this time? Regardless of him calling you or not, guy was on those roads at that time. The fact he found you there is sheer proof of what I say."

"And the other guy? What evil was he doing apart from hanging out in bad company?"

"God only knows", and master Danilo shrugged.

"What is 'God only knows' supposed to mean?", I stared at master Danilo astonished by his cold-bloodedness, "someone gets his life taken and all you got to say is 'God only knows'?"

He watched me in brooding silence. It was the first time he had looked slightly impatient since I first met him. For a while it was like he was measuring my reaction to how he viewed the situation.

"I can't see how I can convince you that the boy was doing the right thing. He only crossed his limits when he did it downtown in daylight."

"This too is a big legend", I said upset, because I had witnessed the two deaths, "I saw him killing the two guys and the second did never seem to be being killed. This can be proved by the fact the body was only noticed on account of the vultures that were spiraling down like there was no tomorrow to feast on the rotting human meat down there exposed to sunlight, out in the open, so subtle the kid was at performing the operation. He knew exactly where to rub the weapon on the man's belly to open only the necessary wound to make him agonize for some hours while giving him no time to recover from the alcohol and search for help. What was humiliating for the city was the fact that the body rotted without being removed, that's the naked fact. What was humiliating for the city was the fact that nobody ever noticed the guy was sitting there stone cold dead after maybe agonizing for hours non-stop in that stupid position. It's a fact that not even you noticed there was somebody dead there. Mind you, you walk downtown every day, no?"

Master Danilo was surprised at the fact the body had lied down there for that long. He looked real uncomfortable now that I demonstrated clearly how Renan had humiliated the town. I told him that the hand is faster than the eye. And this was by far what made Renan big at that moment.

Night dreams | Shell shock

Radio Universal: Shadowplay