Figure of eight

Guilherme was the man. Or the lad, to put it better. And to put it even better, I'd say he was the guy. He wanted to bring his accordion to Basilisk Island, but was prevented from doing so by his younger brother. Instead he brought along a tuning-fork, much easier to carry.

It was his and Adriano's first time on Basilisk Island. He stared at the bell created by his friend blacksmith as I did, in sheer disbelief of what he saw. In Taurinos things could be seen that sometimes haunted even the natives of town, used to that magic and ever-changing reality. Anderson seemed to be growing more and more uptight in time, as if he were about to burst. On our coming to the island I had to isolate him in the front seat or Adriano (that was our driver for today's raid) would end up crashing or overturning the car, so massive was the destructive energy accumulated by the two officers. Guilherme seemed tense too, he could feel the animosity between the officers and would rather be anywhere else but in that car in that particular moment. I couldn't blame it on the boy, but he seemed to play an essential part in the issue that had just emerged.

On the island, Guilherme waited for the two officers to walk a bit ahead of us and, alone with me and Adriano, commented that since the ritual day hadn't recognized the old friend Anderson any longer. This was more than natural, who finishes a ritual like that exactly the way they started it? Not even us were the same and we were not the executors, so try and picture Anderson's situation. The kid objected that there was something in his expression that he, Guilherme, had already seen before. I told him I had had much the same impression. That I myself had seen that look in his eyes before. Guilherme found that the detail that took his attention could as well be the look in his eyes. Adriano said nothing but seemed to feel the same: he moved on with us interested and silent at once.

I missed old countryman Danilo's temperance and soberness on today's trip to the island. The way he demanded respect from Anderson when he was already getting off his rails again, his knowledge of the town, his timeless watch of the local customs. Course there were limits to what he could do. We're hostages to these seven kids. When master Danilo said we had no way of pulling the kids apart when they fought, this was what he meant. Today I'm alone amid these little monsters little gun-powder barrels always ready to explode.

At the bell site we didn't have any need to go around it. The part of the bell facing us was already different, its details and even the text. In the self-engraved text, the same enigmatic disposition of the first time.

"The letter "A" has your name. The letter "A" is the first for the word "absent". The letter "R" has your name. You are here but you are here all alone. The letter "G" has your name. The letter "G" has your toll."

I was looking at Anderson and he at least glanced back at me, seeming completely embarrassed. Renan turned his eyes to me and to the others as confused as anyone else.

"Now what?", inquired Adriano, "one more charade?"

Yep, that was it. Far from pointing out solutions, the self-updating "owner's manual" for Tinnitus only seemed to give us food for thought. There's definitely something jamming things here.

Today, we all climbed the spiral staircase regardless of the protests by the two officers, especially Anderson, that objected as much as he could until Guilherme, Adriano and I voted otherwise. After all, we might be in the Outer Chamber of the Obscure Police, but the Police was subordinated to Taurinos' Ancient Society anyhow.

Up there there was a wide passage for people to stand and parapets with reasonable height for the wind that passed by the top of the bell, a continual, permanent wind. We had come tot he windiest spot of the island: the top of the bell itself.

We stopped in fron of the equipment. I had never seen anything alike. It was a box welded to the floor or maybe it would better to say it was one with the whole of the arch of Tinnitus. On the box a lying eight as the ones seen in the heinous night armors worn by the officers at night. The eight was like a luminous particle moving on the box's lid forming its figure that was artificially and absurdly luminous even for broad daylight.

Guilherme joined the other two and he too placed his hands on the lid. They shut their eyes and I heard Anderson saying things softly in his ear as instructions on what he had to picture while concentrating. The buzz started to bother already, especially on this island so close to the bell, especially when we were right on the top of the bell.

Nothing happened. The buzz went on and on. Renan scratched his head and turned his eyes to this brother and to his partner. Anderson had a distant look in his eyes while Guilherme seemed to watch him with attention. Suddenly Guilherme drew the tuning-fork he had brought from his pocket and struck the structure of the arch with it. The strangest thing happened at that very moment: Anderson fainted as we heard the tiny sound of the tuning-fork. While we helped the blacksmith, Guilherme was standing there with the tuning-fork in his hand. I glanced at him and he glanced at me looking all but confused. Not less confused than me, Renan and Adriano. Guilherme stated that the note really didn't fit the one from the tuning-fork; it was going down and down in time.

Andrés was walking in circles in the dining room as Adriano and I told his parents about today's activities. The same strange feeling towards the enigmatic phrasing of the bell, something that confused rather than explaining.

"So it means that "A" stands for Anderson?", inquired Aparecida, interested and already beginning to complain about the bell's buzz that was getting more and more annoyingly present. Now the buzz is not discontinuous any longer, something that comes and goes.

"Yes, as "R" stands for Renan and "G" for Guilherme", explained Adriano. Duílio followed interested but said no word like Adriano himself earlier on the island.

"And if he was absent it means he was not there? What does it mean, for instance, his thought was far from there?", she went on.

Adriano didn't know how to or didn't want to answer; I said it was reasonable idea of that part of the enigma. The passage of Anderson fainting to the sound of tuning-fork was meaningful and caused the family to be astonished.

"Anderson has been acting strangely lately; it's not like that feeling of rebellion he had before", I declared.

"The other day I joked with Anderson and said I knew a way of harming Renan deeply if Anderson gave me his left thumb", said Andrés in a deep confessional tone that surprised and frightened all of us, "he drew a hunting knife from the sheath and I had to struggle with him to get the knife out of his hands, because I saw that he was about to cut his damn thumb off his hand. Lord, it was a fight…"

His account filled us all with some more astonishment. Aparecida even told him off, "you nuts, is this something you propose to someone?", and Andrés added, "that's against the Obscure Police's very nature. One has to die for the other. There's no such thing of thinking of doing harm to a partner. It was a joke, but Anderson's look was serious the look of one who accepts a proposal, not counting with the struggle it was to disarm him. I get chills at the very thought. His look was not his look."

"Guilherme said the same to me on the island today and I have been feeling much the same thing", I informed as Adriano nodded at my words to confirm them.

"I had heard it, Miss Grisam", Andrés told me with a shadow of a smile.