Penumbra in broad daylight

Renan is in my bedroom. Quiet, he watches me sleep, probably unaware that I am spying on him through a gap between the bedsheets and the blanket on me. Silence is deep while I watch him breathe quietly beside me. Suddenly, he jumps over me when I least expected, he has a stiletto in his hand. I rise from my bed dead scared only to find out that I'm alone in the room. It was just a dream. Renan is not in my bedroom, but what is this furtive shadow I capture out of the corner of my eye in a corner of the room filled with penumbra and nothing else?

"Ms. Grisam please do something about this boy's behavior, for heaven's sake. I'm losing my patience with him. Now you tell me if that's the way to do things. Doing this in the middle of the street with townspeople passing by, in broad daylight?"

This in broad breakfast table, with the kids around and all. "Ms. Grisam is part of the family no trouble at all", said Donana to her husband when they argued with me around. Mr. Teixeira would be embarrassed and she would say that sentence off the top of her head.

"Do you know how many days the body was there at the gazebo?"

Renan looked at me serious, the only expression he could find for the moment. Donana with an air of "God, it hasn't happened again" and Guilherme, to which it only remained to whistle in disguise, so embarrassed he was.

"Days?" the man shook slightly, I saw the volume in his throat move like it was an alien about to chew its way out to the light of the day.

"Guy had been fallen there since Tuesday, when we went shopping at Souza's. Townspeople, of course, won't get any close to the gazebo, after all the guy is an outsider, deserves no confidence."

Renan looked at the floor, avoiding his father's stare. Gulherme chewed nervously a mouthful of cheese bread. Dead cold silence all around. I told them they had only removed the body yesterday, I saw that when I went to town with Andrés to talk to Anderson.

"Yesterday I almost rubbed salt on his wounds to see him jump so mad I was at him. Shame on him, a body fallen at the main square since Tuesday…"

His tone sounded a bit more conciliatory. I don't foresee another storm like the ones I've experienced on the farm Taurinos. Duílio seems much more severe in some issues. But I have to ponder I arrived yesterday when the lashing was already almost over. I dedicate myself to the benefit of doubt, not knowing how long it had been since he started getting lashed.

Renan was sitting in the sun as I saw him on Tuesday. As on Tuesday, I walked up to him to find him playing with his hands and amusing himself with his own shadow. He looked sad and nervous. I was going to say something but he prevented me from doing so with a gesture of his hand. I was silent while he played with his hands forming a dog, those shadow play things.

It took him ages to let out an understandable utterance. He said he was sad, but this I could tell from the way he played with his hands in the sun.

"Will my father take long to make out with me?"

"Oh, yes he will. And so will your mother… You're lucky to still be talking to me after what you did on Tuesday."

"I promise to never do it again in daylight."

As though it really were the point. I sometimes think I'm the only one to miss the point here, I have to admit. He can kill, provided it's not done out at the square with townspeople walking up and down the streets downtown. Even when Anderson stated "this time Renan overdid it" he was referring to the fact you don't kill people on the street at busy spots like the main square. However, Renan's movement was subtle enough not to be perceived until yesterday. Weren't it for the stink of rotten flesh dominating the whole of the square, guy would have been turned into stone with the other statues at the square.

"Glad to know you'll only murder people in the shade."

"You're kidding me, aren't you?"

"I am really tired of punching needles, doing this all for no fruits at all."

"It must be painful", the little devil commented.

"Now who's kidding who?" I copied the way he worded things.

He was silent. His eyes turned to the mountains. Thoughtful moments hung heavy between us. How can I tell him that what he did was monstrous let alone for someone his age when the whole town not only approves of his behavior (and the other boys' too) but also expects it? How can I say that to someone who promises to no longer do it… in broad daylight?

People and vultures | Night dreams

Radio Universal: Shadowplay