Forgiveness day

I thought that Renan would pay me a visit last night, but I was wrong. Andrés told me about the night on the farm Taurinos. He politely turned down the breakfast I offered him, telling me he had already eaten at home.

"What about Adriano? Did he accept Renan's apologies?"

"Yes, it didn't take him long to. Renan wanted to apologize with my mother too, but she asked us to tell him she was too upset with him and would end up hitting him. He wanted to talk to her just the same and told her that if she really wanted to hit him, she could do it until she drew blood from him. He said that it was what he deserved."

"And did she really hit him???", I was astonished.

"No, she ended up forgiving him. She seldom even hits us…"

"What about your father?"

"Dad doesn't hit other people's children either. He forgave Renan more to get rid of him than anything else."

I brought up a subject we had talked about yesterday and got me interested.

"You told me Renan was now ready to initiate Anderson when the time comes."

He tilted his head to look at me as though he guessed what my point was in asking him that.

"If you want to know about the Initiation, ask the policeman. Or simply wait, because I guess it's going to happen soon anyhow. I don't know when, because it only depends on Anderson."

I inquired him why he didn't want to tell me what the Initiation consisted of. The little Mineiro scratched his head. Said he didn't want to get involved in the Obscure Police issues. That we were going to find out anyhow, because the Initiation could not be performed without the presence of all Taurinos' Ancient Society's members. I still put some pressure on him so that he could tell me what it was, but there was no deal.

Another visit, nearly at dusk. Master Danilo. Interesting thing was that I was making coffee. Coffee always gets us together for a good deal of talk. I remembered I had to go downtown to buy provisions I'm running out of. Master Danilo told me I just had to call ServeWell To Serve For Life grocery store and they'd deliver the purchase. I had a good laugh and asked what the hell that weird name was. He smiled and told me this was the name that used to come on the plastic bags of the store. That the print-shop that printed the bags in Varginha was run by novices and they had printed the name and the motto all on the same line and with the same type size by mistake, leaving no lines in between. People in Taurinos found it funny and started joking about that odd name. The owner of the grocery store didn't like the joke at all, but found it better to use the bags and not throw them away, but the fact was that he was very angry with the happening.

"Couldn't he just return the bags?"

"He found it be more trouble and waste to get at the guys at the print-shop than to actually use the bags. He didn't want to discard all that material, what I think he did really well."

I agreed with him and laughed again at the weird name. He said the Conselheiros probably had their telephone number. I took advantage of his mention of Renan's and Anderson's case to ask him about the said Initiation.

"I don't mess with these subjects, "sá" Stella" and the countryman was suddenly serious.

Master Danilo changed subjects abruptely, telling me happily that CEMIG would finally install electricity in his house. I was happy for him and let him lead the talk, respecting his silence on my question. It just would be no good to insist.

The boy the with thorn in his side |

Radio Universal: Obscure Police