Stargazing

Downtown with Adriano buying for the month at the Souza's Serve Well To Serve For Life. I make a point of carrying all of the bags, he only has to drive. I found I gave too much trouble to the family already with my requests for staple transportation. The youth loved to drive so he agreed and even proposed to take me every month. Duílio wouldn't take long to agree, a sign that either he trusted his elder a lot or was fed up with my requests. I hoped for the first alternative but since I had Adriano as a helping hand I wouldn't need to pester Duílio any longer.

Adriano and I went to Zé of the Depths to eat. Incredible, he even had Minas cheese pastries and all that jazz. The snack window on the counter didn't look like a toothless mouth this time. We walked in without noticing a table in the background. We crossed the bar and sat at a table beside that one. I felt a chill up my spine that bothered me but it was something at first I could not identify. I started moving my eyes slowly to my left side. Anderson was sitting at the table in the darkest corner of the bar, exactly by our side. If I reached out I could touch him. Adriano saw him and stood up from the table with his pastries and a bottle of Coke.

"I'll be waiting in the car", he growled, not happy with the company. Anderson was silently looking at him as he got out of the bar heading for the car. His eyes fell on me as soon as Adriano disappeared from his field of vision.

"How much do I owe you for the work on the lock?", it was the first thing I asked him.

"I've told you, you've paid for the lock already."

"So what you mean is that every time you got to fix something in my house this will be the price to pay? Nightmares and having you come out of your store as a black dog out of the blue? There's no Procon here, but there's the Council of Taurinos' Ancient Society."

"Next repair will be charged in money, I promise", he was quick to act.

"I hope so."

I got out of the bar with my things and went to eat in the car with Adriano. I wasn't angry with Anderson. I was in fact a bit afraid of him.

At night, went out on my own. Went to a field nearby to gaze at the night sky, spend some moments enjoying the beautiful starry skies of Taurinos. I opened a mat on the ground, sat down and let myself be absorbed by that wonder. The Southern Cross, the Air Pump, Coma Berenices. How many more constellations could I ever spot?

It hadn't been half an hour since I had gotten to that spot when I heard a distant murmur. In time, it grew clearer and I could tell what it was. Horses. As usual I wouldn't take long to have company. And it was likely to be bad company.

I wasn't moving. If those kids kept on playing these tricks, I'd bring them to Council myself. I was so sick of all of that. The horses came closer but unlike the other occasions, the sound of the night wouldn't die away. As carefully as I could I bent over and placed my ear near the ground. Nothing strange. The horses came closer and closer. I set my ear exactly on the ground against all recommendations from master Danilo and the Obscure Police itself. Again, nothing strange. The horses came closer and closer; now they could be seen, weren't they coming from somewhere behind me.

As usual, the horses slowed down as they approached me. I had the impression I heard a metal clash somewhere and the sounds of two people walking, one at each of my sides. They sat down. I looked at my left side with the corner of my eyes and there Anderson was, sitting. On the right side it was Renan. None of them said a word. I was in silence myself. The fact that on such vast fields the two would stop exactly by my side seemed to stubbornly mean something to me.

I didn't remember spending so long with those kids without a word like that. It was or seemed to be hours there. After a period that seemed an eternity, the policemen rose from the ground and once on their horses, disappeared in the last darkness of the night that preceeds the dawn as silent as they had appeared.

It hadn't been half an hour since they left when I saw the day's first break. I stood up, folded the mat and saw blood splats on the grass the two had been sitting upon. That indicated that their night had been hectic. I figured the time stargazing did them good. And like them, I took the long way home too.