Mintaka, Alnitak and Alnilam

Called the farm Teixeira and asked Renan if he was going to ride tonight. The kid said he wouldn't. The open sky inspired me to go out to the fields with my mp3 and my friends to watch the nocturnal sky. I wanted Renan to come, the policeman that scared the hell out of me and Andrés with his curiosity on what we were doing at the field at night that night. I wanted Meire to come along too, to watch the skies. Give herself some rest after all the madness she has been living (even peripherically) in town. Show her that Taurinos isn't only the maddening violence she has been an involuntary witness to since she came to town.

"Can I go in my uniform?"

"Oh, no, Renan; don't give me that. Is there any outsider you need to exterminate so badly tonight?"

"All calm today", he replied, the voice sounding casual on the other side of the wire, not minding my irony.

"So why come in uniform? Come in your plain clothes, no one is going out to ride tonight anyhow."

Later on, Andrés asked me whether Renan would come in uniform, "'cause if so, I won't go out, won't be walking the fields with a policeman coming along", and I told him I had asked the lad to leave his uniform at home.

I said that master Danilo had advised me to avoid the fields of Taurinos that were not few. Renan was interested and said he was probably speaking about the Obscure Police.

"He said it because of me, I always ride in the fields at night. This is how I ran into you that night. But today you are with me. There is no way of having the… Obscure Police show up", he had accepted the name, though he was still wary of pronouncing the moniker he used to hate so mortally.

Andrés came walking along with Meire, a bit after us. I found it better this way, whenever the two lads came together side by side, it always ended up in an argument. Renan seemed happy to be invited for a night walk that wasn't the call of duty — that was what he called the Obscure Police — but asked me what we were going to do in the fields.

"The same Andrés and I were doing that night in the fields."

"And what were you and Andrés doing in the fields that night?"

"Watching the sky and the stars", I said, "performing the reading of the sky."

"And is it so cool to look at the stars that you come out of home just to do it?"

"I think it is that cool. I remember I used to travel hundreds of kilometers just to watch the night sky in São Thomé das Letras, near here."

"My parents once went to São Thomé to spend some days. I know because they told me, I hadn't been born yet, but Guilherme was with them when they went there. They said it is pretty town, but the quarries there are destroying it."

"True. I don't remember how long it's been since I last went there. I hope they haven't destroyed the town."

"I've been to Cambuquira, I went there with Guilherme, Dad and Mom last year. The city is nice, but I found it was too dull. We stayed in a hotel named after the town. Near the hotel, there was the Water Park, with those waters tasting so strange that give you the runs later. There's even one that smells like rotten eggs, can you believe it?"

I laughed. Said I liked the aerated water from those fountains. Told him he was speaking about sulphurous water; the smell owed to salts of brimstone dissolved in the water.

We all sat on a big cloth I had taken. There was a huge pause. I was involved by the stars in a way I couldn't (and didn't want to) avoid. It made all my problems and woes so small. It made all our problems and woes so meaningless. What existed was the vastness of the Universe. At two hundred kilometers above the sea level, there are no low clouds. We are too high, that's the question here. Meire looked non-stop too, absorbed by the absolute vision of the Milky Way. Andrés searched for his favorite constellations.

"Andrés told me that the stars form drawings in the sky, Miss Grisam", Renan told me.

"Look it up there, Renan, that's the Southern Cross. Follow my finger here, yes. Can you see it? That star always points to the south."

"Hey, it's pretty cute. And there's a little star almost in the middle of the… of the…"

"Constellation, Renan", helped Andrés.

"Yes, constellation. Isn't it? A tiny star in the middle"

"That star is the one we popularly call Intruse. Its astronomical name is Juxta Crucem, that means something like 'close to the cross'. It is 384 light years away from here", I clarified.

"What is this distance in kilometers?", asked Meire, curious about it. I explained she'd have to get the number of seconds in a year and multiply it by three hundred thousand. She was astonished. Said she wasn't even able to imagine a number that large. The boys were all astonished at the number too. Renan got to say a number like that wouldn't even fit a calculator, what I agreed with him about.

"The nearest star is Gacrux that is some 88 light years away from here. Even if we could travel at the unimaginable speed of 300,000 kilometers per second we'd spend 88 years trying to get there."

Andrés whistled in his admired style.

"This is no trouble for us. I'll be ten years old from now to 88 years anyhow", commented Renan, amused.

"And I'll be twelve", added Andrés giggling.

Meire glanced at me with that astonished look on her face that made me giggle like Andrés. The silence was that of the crickets and curiangos around us. Andrés showed Renan his discovery, Orion, the Celestial Hunter.

"I thought it was so near the Southern Cross, but it's well on the other side", he declared, "look up there, Renan, the hunter's belt is formed by the Three Marys."

Renan apparently saw nothing that was being described by Andrés. He pointed at it again and again until the little kid started to understand something. He had no trouble spotting the Three Marys, but found the constellation was far from looking like a hunter.

"Ah, Renan what you lack is imagination", affirmed Andrés.

"Hmmm… I have much more imagination than you", the little kid was angry.

"You don't…"

"I do…"

"You don't."

"I do."

"You don't!"

"I do!"

"You don't!!"

"I do!!"

"You don't!!!"

"I do!!!"

What a high level discussion these children are having, "you won't start one of these stupid arguments right now, will you?" and the two calmed down. I said that the Three Marys had interesting names, Mintaka, Alnitak and Alnilam. The latter, I told them, was nearly 1,400 light years away from here. Meire still giggled from their little argument. Said she'd love to travel the galaxies. Renan said he wanted to have a spacecraft and tape his trip to upload the video to You Tube. I laughed and said not even all You Tube would be enough for him.

We stayed hours there. I could not reckon how long any more. I noticed that the night sounds went dead all of a sudden. Andrés and Renan seemed to notice the same. Only Meire was still bound to the contemplation of the sky, still travelling the stellar vastness. I could not blame her for that.

"Listen", said Renan.

"Listen to what?", asked Meire, waking up.

"Wait, be quiet and listen", said Andrés placing his index on his lips for silence.

Sounds of a horse in the distance. Was it someone from town? Renan had said there'd be no riding tonight. Who could it be? The policeman placed his ear on the ground to hear better.

"It's Agent Anderson", he said, confused and, seeing that Meire was about to copy him, held her strongly by the arm, "hey, please, "sá" Meire, don't do it, for Mithra's sake!" and added, "he is in your favorite night aspect and coming right here."

When the devil can't come, he sends in his secretary. I could even see myself in another meeting at the Council repeating to Anderson the same shit we said to Renan on that day. Meire asked me what that aspect was and I answered it was something we wanted to avoid in my house yesterday. That I had forbidden Anderson to manifestate like that.

"The heinous thing that looked like a duck?", she turned around startled, now clearly hearing the horse approach us in the field.

"Here we go again", complained Andrés, "it seems we can't take even a night off in this field."

"Hey, what's going on, was it me who disturbed you that night?"

Andrés simulated a forced laughter to show Renan he was not being funny at all.

"Renan, one of these days I'll end up punching you hard in the face for these little funny jokes and you'll hate me once again, you'll see…"

Renan changed subjects for the urgency of the moment and said there was no problem at all. Said we should simply avoid looking Anderson's way and mainly looking at him directly. Meire started feeling like a fit and urged us to go, "let's take off, I prefer to go home", and I said there would be no time for that. We could now clearly hear the clicking of the sticks and herbs being trodden by the goddamned horse's hooves breaking its way across the field to reach us there. Andrés was the first to see Agent Anderson in the distance. As on the other night with Renan, he was coming from behind us. Andrés turned his back on the apparition of the horseman. The Obscure Police approached and reduced his speed when the horseman was well within reach. "He is still approaching", Renan said, "wait here and I'll talk to him."

"Is this kid nuts? How can he talk to a phantom like that?"

"This kid is a phantom like that", explained Andrés to Meire, apparently trying to keep calm.

We finetuned our ear to hear better. Agent Anderson's apparition was now too close for our security; talked to Renan or should be talking, because we heard no sound. A minute later we heard the foredoomed horseman crack his whip on the horse's hindquarters and go. The sound of the whip sent shivers up and down my spine and maybe everyone's but Renan's, fully immune to that fatal charm. It took the sounds of nature five minutes to start being heard again. The very nature of the cerrado trembled and shook under the hooves of those legendary horses.

"All right now, you can all relax and look at the stars, he was just doing some exercises I passed on to him and came to ask me about something."

"What about?", Andrés and I inquired him.

"Oh, but you're so curious. He wanted to know what we were all doing here. He didn't want to pry, but was curious. See? Not only you are curious anyway."

I have found out that people here, wrapped in this magnificent sky all night with an open universe like this simply don't know what to do with it. In the sky, the Southern Cross, Mintaka, Alnitak and Alnilam shone like they had always shone since the beginning of the times.

Anywhere out of that hell | No harm

Radio Universal: Obscure Police