Third visit

Staring at the plant as usual. Its curly pattern follows me everywhere I go as if it were a dog that wants to show me something. I can't grasp what it means, but I already know that if I don't I will prolong the kids' sojourn in the Sanctuary forever.

Anderson dropped by once again on his horse. This time he didn't ask for water, but instead invited me to go with him to Horns Falls. It had been long since I last went there. In fact, didn't remember going there after my death, perhaps it was the very first time ever since.

"I don't understand why you don't let the other kids in your house, Miss Grisam. Is it because they support the Celestial Gardener?", he asked me while we walked to Horns Falls.

"I do support the Celestial Gardener", I stated to Anderson.

"Seems more like you're at war with him."

"I follow what's right. I don't think he had the right to prevent me from talking to them. In the beginning I couldn't even dream of helping the two. Now I'm the only one who can help. Still I can't talk to neither of them because I can't even dream of stepping in the Sanctuary again. Isn't this all stupid?"

"Nature affects whoever is on its way", and he shrugged.

"Nature and me", I retorted.

We went silence the rest of the path. Anderson seemed less willing to go on a tour than to tell me something that he eventually wouldn't tell me. I wanted to ask him about that, but refrained from doing so. We sat down there amid the noise of the fall, while we ourselves were completely silent. Neither would utter a word. Then we heard Anderson's voice shouting in the bush around us, "master Danilo! Oh, master Danilo! Still lost here?"

I glanced at the blacksmith and the blacksmith glanced at me by his turn. He goggled at me and motioned to stand up. I pulled back sitting on the rock and he saw himself appear in front of him and me.

The Caipora was embarrassed when he saw it was the boy instead of master Danilo. He looked around, gathered some leaves from stems nearby and told me to rub them on Anderson's eyes when he was all gone. Again he told me my hair would be prettier if I fastened it. And then he was gone.

Anderson kept gazing at the same direction he saw himself standing. I rubbed his eyes with the leaves the Caipora had given to me. Anderson came to and his eyes were back to their normal size.

"What happened here, Miss Grisam?"

"Nothing happened…", I tried hard, but wasn't casual enough.

"What do you mean, nothing happened? I heard my voice in the forest calling master Danilo, then I saw myself in front of me and you and I was talking to us; is this what you usually call nothing?"

"Do you really want to know what happened?"

"I do, Miss Grisam."

"Are you sure you really want to know what happened?"

"I am, Miss Grisam.", he was growing impatient.

"The Caipora used your voice and your image to contact us. He did it to me and master Danilo yesterday in the forest."

I told him all, of the pact with the cigarettes and how master Danilo smoked with the entity in the forest. Anderson was pale and looked cold as he heard me. He trembled and shook, taken by chills all over. master Danilo had really told me not to tell anyone about it especially Anderson. Only I had no choice as the kid really wanted to know. The creature opened the case, that's what happened.

"Well, you wanted to know, so here it is."

I touched Anderson. He was as cold as a lizard. Shook all over. Took almost an hour to be back to his normal self. When he looked better, I took him to my house. Ended up offering him water, but this time it was him who turned it down. He took off on his horse, looking back as one who wants to make sure they were not being followed.

When in the evening I told master Danilo what happened he put his hands on his head, "but did he look better when he departed?", I told him he did. He seemed to grow calmer when he heard this.

"I had no way of hiding it anymore, he saw it all like it was a movie"

"I know it was not your fault, "sá" Stella."

"You know it was like he was not looking exactly for you but had shown up to just tell me my hair would get prettier if fastened."

"So he said it to you again, eh?", he was thoughtful, "you got this twice from him on two different days. Either he wants to help you badly or he's getting instructions from someone else to visit you in the bush and say this to you."

"Now who could it be?"

"It might be someone who have recently helped", he replied, "think about it."

Night was beautiful outside. I poured coffee into the thermos jug and invited master Danilo outside to watch the skies. We sat down in front of the house and were gazing at the stars in silence. I thought of all this story of an entity coming to brood my hair. Whatever he tried to tell me seemed too repetitive not to be symbolic. I remember I myself had compared the plant to a curl of hair. It was common to refer to hair and vegetation by analogy. What was it all about? Would this be the symbolism? Master Danilo heard me serious and hardly commented on my flow of thoughts. Night went on.