Circe

Renato told me he couldn't wait until the Jamboree started. Miguel woke up early today. I saw him out of the tent at about eight. Offered him and Renato some coffee but they turned it down as usual, telling me they had already eaten. Andrés was nearby overhearing our conversation and told me he needed to talk to me. He had a certain laziness showing all over his body, a stupor I couldn't identify or classify. In the kitchen while I had (and he scavenged) some coffee he told me it was time for his scouting group to move to the stage of the Jamboree at last.

"When does the event start at all? I thought it was already going on…"

"Tomorrow", he took off his glasses and started cleansing the lenses slowly, like in slow motion, as he stared at me.

"God, it seems it's been days it should have started… Oh well…"

I was wondering whether I had already asked him about the event's starting date. Something didn't match anything at all. I already thought of my house as Circe's refuge. A sorcerer whose house no one had ever managed to leave. Echoes of Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel in his Exterminating Angel? Echoes of English writer William Golding in his Lord Of The Flies?

Even master Danilo was astonished when he learned the scouts still hadn't left my house for the Jamboree. But I remembered I had seen the scout Renato downtown. The leader of the scouts had never left it here. Not even when he was abducted by the Caipora in his eternal pursuit of cigarettes, but the scout really had. I remembered it had been already a week since I last went to the farm Taurinos myself. The old countryman seemed not to get the hang of anything at all. I myself seemed not to get the hang of anything at all.

Questioned, Renato left his circle of fellow scouts and joined us for a while. I asked him subtly what he thought of my house. I didn't know but I wasn't prepared to hear what he had to say to me. Neither was master Danilo.

"Wondrous", he replied, "I'm not sure if I have already told you how beautiful I think your garden is. I still haven't managed to explore it all and I don't think I'll have the time to."

He beamed a luminous smile as the children here usually do. Master Danilo and I nearly broke our necks when we glanced at each other, "you said garden?", we asked.

"Yes, this beautiful garden you got, falls, bridges and all", he nodded. Miguel walked up close and praised the garden like there was tomorrow too. Master Danilo and I couldn't stop glancing at each other. I asked the leader about today's date. He asked me why I cared so much about full dates and I came up with a story of a memory problem.

"Today's January the 24th 2011", he informed me shrugging, almost at the same time as the scout Renato, "can't wait until the Jamboree starts at once", and the two smiled that luminous smile that is so common here.

Later when Master Danilo and I were alone and he commented that their calendar was so different from ours, but I stopped him with a gesture.

"Master Danilo, not only is their calendar different from ours, but it is also the same date Miguel gave me when they first arrived in town. If it's what I think, they've been living on the same day for over five days now."

"Yup, you can tell by their talk they are trapped on the exact they they first set foot here", the old countryman was astonished, "what now, "sá" Stella?"

This was the reason why we had seen the boy scout Renato downtown, but never on the farm Taurinos, where everything was supposed to happen. They wouldn't go because it was not time yet: the Jamboree still hadn't started. And they'd never go because the Jamboree wouldn't start any more. Because it had already started and ended. Only then did I understand how big a mistake it had been to allow them to come and put up their tents in my land.

The Obscure Police showed up a bit later to complicate things a bit further. The two were once more irritated by the presence of the scouting group still in my house and came to ask me when they'd finally leave town. I told the Police that the Jamboree had not even started to them because they were yadda yadda yadda.

"Worst of all is this garden they say they can see around my house", I added leaving the two puzzled.

"Garden? What garden?", their vocal timing was just perfect.

The police officers promised not to take on the aspects of two black talking kids that spat fire from their mouths and went to pull out the Mayor and Bruno from their tents. With an embarrassed smile towards the scouts and their leader, we all went in my house and the Obscure Police was annoyed at the two they called hipsters, demanding explanation from them. Andrés and Bruno looked like two morons. As if they were lost in the spell of Circe. Master Danilo and I could notice they were part of it. As Andrés had been trapped in the Sanctuary, now he and Bruno shared the same fate of not being able to move on from the day when the scouts came to town. I said this to the Police when none of the scouts seemed to find the words to define what they were going through. The officers let their wave of youthful hate subside to fall in a deep abyss of perplexity.

"Wow there are even things like this", Anderson crossed himself as a good Christian would.

"And what about this garden thing?", Renan reminded, beginning to get annoyed and making me annoyed as well.

Andrés and Bruno affirmed they knew nothing about a garden. Asked them what day it was today. They frowned at the question but eventually said it was August the tenth, 2009. Renan frowned at the answer, Anderson frowned at the answer, Master Danilo and I frowned at it too. Only Andrés and Bruno didn't frown because they had fallen prey to that strange sensation of stupor that was no different than the one I saw in the other scouts of the same group. The long nights spent under the starry sky: stupor.

"Renan, Anderson, are you sure this technique of stopping time is safe?", was the first thing I asked.

"So we're to blame for this one too???", the youngest prepared to get at me.

"Renan, for Mithra's sake, I'm not blaming you, we only need an answer. We need to eliminate some possibilities to…"

The drone switched to a lower key. He eventually said if it were for their bringing time to a stop it would have been the first time. Master Danilo didn't know what to make of it all.

"So what about this garden? The scouts can see it while Andrés and Bruno can't", Anderson reminded, beginning to get annoyed and making me annoyed as well.

"On that night with the musicians from Rio…", the old countryman started, "oh, but you won't start sermonizing us again, will you?", Renan cut him short and I told him to shut up and listen first, "… did you notice if they were looking all around as if they were admiring something, "sá" Stella?"

"Didn't, if they at anytime saw there was a garden there either they disguised it well or didn't care much for gardening."

Renan added that when the Obscure Police arrived terror installed everywhere and even if they paid attention in the musicians' behavior they wouldn't be in position of enjoying any garden, what I found to be extremely logical.

"The rain", master Danilo said in an epiphany.

We looked at the window, see if it was going dark outside. The old countryman laughed and explained he was talking about the rain which fell on town just one day before the scouts arrived. The only incident we could take notice of in the sequence of days before the event.

"The rain has stopped it all, hasn't it?", said the Mayor from his corner, smiling like a moron.

I asked the Mayor if he couldn't notice days and nights were passing and judging by his answer, one could say he wouldn't tell days from nights at all. Bruno did not perform better as he tried to explain what the last days had been to him.

"I think it'd be better if we called Arthur; wasn't it him who sent this rain?", suggested Anderson.

Arthur arrived two hours later on his horse. He was staring at the tents as he progressed across the land to my porch. He seemed embarrassed when he walked in. Didn't seem to want to look anyone of us in the eye.

"Arthur, what was there in that rain you made fall?", was the first thing I asked him as he took a seat.

"Water, no?", he replied despite himself as if I had asked him the most absurdly obvious question ever. It was obvious too he wanted to be elsewhere not here in my house answering questions like that.

"And did no hidden, potential or magic seeds came along with the water?"

The young Feletti frowned.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

""Sêo" Arthur, the scouts can't leave "sá" Stella's house anymore. There's more though. They can see a garden around the house that none of us can see and by the looks it is the same garden you wanted to set here and had to remove."

We explained that there was even the issue of an eternal August the tenth 2009, that neither Andrés nor Bruno saw the garden but that they were equally affected by the stillness in time. Arthur's astonishment only grew at each new word he heard.

"When you told me to remove the garden it must have somehow remained there but could not be seen by anyone from Taurinos any longer", he explained much to our bewilderment, "and the rain must have shown it to them outsiders. It might have doubled its energy and now it can be seen but only by outsiders. "

"This no doubt explains why neither Andrés nor Bruno see the garden. But if I can ask you why did you let the garden remain here if I had asked you to remove it completely?"

"I thought I had done it but you've shown me something has remained. And I just don't know why."

"So there are things you can't control", I questioned him.

"Yes I guess I'm not so different than you in some respects."

And the boy smiled a satisfied smile when he saw my embarrassed expression. But rather than satisfied he seemed sad. Said he was not able to foresee what could happen when he set the garden in my house.

"We just wanted to do something good to you. There was no way of seeing it'd end like this…", and he began to appear nervous, glancing everywhere and nowhere with what seemed to be a lump in the throat.

"Arthur, no one is placing blame on you for anything. We only need to find a way out of this mess. Besides, we aren't even sure this garden is the cause of the issue with the scouting group."

"Yes, we still have the Police to blame", Renan reminded, beginning to get annoyed and making me annoyed as hell.

"Wasn't there the issue with the bell? Couldn't it be back in trouble?"

"Sure not", Anderson denied immediately, "and were the problem back it would affect all of us, wouldn't it?"

Anderson finished by saying they applied the technique of bringing time to a stop more times on the farm Taurinos during the Jamboree and this affected nothing in those people's time. Exactly as they did here, but more times.

He was right. Only the rain and the garden we couldn't see remained as likely causes.