Moony

The phone rang. It was Donana, asking whether I had met Renan the night before. I said I did in the fields while I was watching the night sky. As everyone else in town, she wanted to know what made me stay in the fields at night watching the sky. I explained we had to spare some time to just do nothing, and so forth. She seemed not to have understood a thing just the same.

Still she changed subjects saying her son was moony as she had never seen. I said I always thought of Renan as something between an armored car and a soap bubble. Very mighty and very fragile, ready to explode at the slightest contact. She didn't grasp it at first but ended up agreeing with my vision.

"And they stopped at your side to stare at the sky too?"

"They were there with me for the remainder of the night, silent. All night without a word. They looked hypnotized."

"Don't you think it can do them harm? Never seen Renan doing this kind of thing, Miss Grisam"

"Well it might not do them good, but it sure will do them no harm, Donana."

"What do you think they do at night?"

"Well, don't they chase the outsiders or whatever out of town?"

"But is it all?", Donana inquired.

"I wouldn't say it's all. I think it must be hell doing what they do at night. If this does them no harm, what would watching the sky do?"

There was an extended pause on the other side of the wire. Then Donana said goodbye, said she had things in the oven. It was really ten in the morning, a time when women traditionally started cooking for lunch so it could be on the table by noon.

I dropped by the farm Taurinos a bit later. Andrés was at the Town Hall dispatching documents. Documents of what, seems there was nothing else to do in this town, there was never a street in bad conditions, never something missing or in need of repairs. Aparecida, Adriano and I were in the kitchen talking while I helped Aparecida with the cooking.

"And so she called you to ask you about the boy?", Aparecida inquired, absorbed in slicing kale so finely that I couldn't help but being afflicted by the thought she'd slash here fingers doing it.

"Actually she wanted to know if I had been with him", I answered as I went about slicing cucumber.

"Had you?", asked Adriano.

"Yes, the two showed up out of the blue in the fields…"

"Miss Grisam! Holy mother of God!", the woman was appalled at the very thought.

"But no, they weren't in armor, they were only in black and covered with blood", I answered trying to refrain from a seizure of laughter and making the Conselheiros' matriarch cross herself, "odd, they never said a word and we were there for the whole of the night in total silence…"

Adriano frowned and assumed an expression of one thinking deeply.

"So they didn't go there to scare you this time?", Aparecida asked.

"Well, it frightens you always a little bit, because I was alone and we always think they are coming in armor. But I didn't hear anything strange as I approached my ear from the ground…"

"For Mithra's sake, don't you ever do it, Miss Grisam! They say it's no good to hear them two approaching at night ear close to the ground…"

"Well, it's no good but better than sticking the ear to the ground anyhow, mom", said her eldest son, "if someone does it it is because they want to go insane, deaf or both, no?"

"Oh, there isn't a single thing I like about this talk… Can't we just change subjects?"

There was a pause, but it hadn't been five seconds since her request and Adriano and I heard her scream. When we turned our eyes to the scene, Renan was at her side, all in black, grumpy, staring serious at us, helping the poor woman back on her feet again. Adriano ran to his mother and got the little policeman rid of her weight. Renan was strange and shady as hell. Not that he wasn't usually strange and shady, but it was a different strange and shady look this time. I would never know how to explain but it filled my spine with chills.

"I hate it when you go talking about me and my partner as if we were spooks", he said in a tone that was as strange and shady as his looks.

"But you do like to frighten people, no? You're proud of how terrible you are", retorted Adriano still bringing his mother back to consciousness.

"Fuck you! I'm no spook, you hear me? I'm a lad as anyone else in this town!"

I signaled to Adriano so he could let the boy speak. I could see the moment when the boy was going to get armed in front of us and it would be hell on earth. Not to mention what would happen to Aparecida; the very subject was enough to get her all startled. The very sight of the brat all in black made her collapse to the floor.

"What's brought you here, Renan?", Adriano asked when the brat seemed to have relieved a bit of his emotional pressure.

"I came to ask you if I can have lunch with you today."

And he stayed for lunch. He was waiting and I called Adriano for some private words; asked him to take me t the farm Teixeira. He didn't get it, but took me anyhow. I couldn't believe Aparecida was brave enough to stay alone with Renan in her kitchen.

We got in the farm Teixeira and Donana came to welcome us. She invited us for lunch. I said we only wanted to talk to Renan, but followed me as we walked in the family's dining room. Renan was the first one to see and he beamed at us.

"You could have called first. So much trouble coming here."

Adriano stared at me, eyes wide open. Apparently the story of the aspects haunted him too. When we went back to the farm Taurinos, Renan and Aparecida were already having lunch. Obviously they had decided not to wait for us. Renan again told me I could have phoned him.

"If you asked me I'd have told you I was having lunch with my family" he observed, half shy, half murky.

At his side, Aparecida was none the wiser. I quickly changed subjects to avoid another collapse of the Conselheiros' matriarch. We talked a lot and Renan seemed especially amused by our talk and gave his contributions too. He was less and less shady as the meal progressed. At the end of the lunch, alone with him and Adriano on the porch I asked him why the heck he would want to have lunch in two places at once, places that were at least five kilometers far one from the other.

"We were too silent at my family's table today. I was sad."

Adriano and I glanced at each other. At the farm's gate, an unidentified car stopped and delivered Duílio at home, late for lunch.