Chrome

Yesterday I didn't even touch my laptop. Spent the day sleeping like there was no tomorrow, having heinous nightmares about the Obscure Police, woke up at about six p.m. with a typical post-Police hangover. Walked to the farm Taurinos to find Andrés sitting at the porch, his nose protected with cotton. Asked him what had happened to his nose and he looked at me enfuriated.

"So you're now playing the innocent child?", he roared more calmly than his usual.

"Because of yesterday morning?"

"What else could it be? Do I look like a boxer? You kidding me?" and he motioned to stand up from the chair.

It took me a while to calm him down. He said that, like me, had spent the whole day in bed. His father found it strange that he wouldn't get up and he had to fill him in with the events of the night before. Besides the nose bleeding, he had to stand Duílio telling him off.

"Why didn't you walk away and leave me there alone?"

"You're fucking deranged. Never seen anyone want to do what you did. Do you really think I would just walk away and leave you there on your own when the Police was just about to pass exactly where we were? Besides, we wasted precious time discussing bullshit, time we could've used to get out of that place. If I stood up I'd meet him face to face, what would've been even worse!"

Then, looking all serious at me, he inquired, "you didn't open your eyes, did you?"

"Not only did I open my eyes, but also raised them to face the Agent."

He punched the palm of his hand as he always did when he was about to explode.

"If you go on like that, I'll have to find you a psychologist!"

"You're gorgeous at doing it. Didn't you even find one for yourself very quickly?"

He calmed down. Apparently my remark had hit home. He was staring nervous at me, but seemed to have nothing else to say. But he didn't resist the temptation to ask me how the Agent was.

"Next time we meet him, open your eyes and see." I replied nonchalantly.

Nevertheless, I ended up describing the Agent to him. The same shape of a drake I had seen before. I added that his resolution was unimaginable, the same I got when I looked at Andrés at that moment.

"You were so right", I said, as I agreed with what he said yesterday and before yesterday, "he has accumulated power enough to appear with the maximum resolution possible or even more than that. I could see details of the body, the boots, all black, sleekly electroplated. Weren't it for the crescent moon he and his horse would've been invisible in that darkness."

Still stunned by my description of the Agent, Andrés told me that Duílio even thought he'd go to the farm Teixeira yeterday for a new complaint against Renan. On the phone, Donana said father and sons had gone shopping in Varginha and would be at home only late at night, probably around eight, according to the sleeping patterns of the town.

"Your father doesn't need to do it, we two could perfectly handle the issue", I declared.

Speak of the devil and he doth appear. Duílio seemed very discontent with our night walk, judging by the way he addressed me, "you should already know how things go on around here. If my son said you should've come back home, that's what you should've done."

I replied that if Andrés found it better to walk back home, he might do it perfectly well alone. I wanted to stay and did it. Told him that I had argued with Andrés against walking away, what didn't mean I had chained him to the ground at the clearing with me. Duílio still tried to blame me indirectly for the event mentioning my agreement with Renan that the Agent would come to my house that night. I replied it was an one-night agreement with him. I couldn't be held responsible for his initiative of interrupting his riding and coming close to us at the clearing. The big man calmed down a bit, but seemed astonished by the events last night and thought it was time we did something against these assaults by Renan.

"My thoughts exactly. I talked a long time with Anderson about it. I think he could join Renan and try to talk some sense into that young little mind."

"I'm talking about us going there and talk to him directly", returned Duílio, "if we are to expect Anderson's good will, I don't know… Also, we can't blame it on the boy, it must be one of the worst professions in the world."

"So you can't blame it on Renan either as he had not many choices after he made his first choice. And this first choice, didn't he make it for the town?"

Andrés agreed with me. He had no way of differing, knowing the Master Plan as he did. Duílio didn't seem to have seen things eye to eye with us on that matter; his silence was now living proof of it.

I looked at the clock wall. It was almost eight o'clock.

Under the Milky Way | Language of fear

Radio Universal: Obscure Police