The tree in the wood

Renan and I were standing in front of Anderson's hardware store. Waiting for Anderson so we could leave. Then I saw this boy scout from the group of Varginha who greeted us with a luminous smile, walking into the store for something. I was nervous, now I am nervous every time I see a scout walking in a store.

After some time, Anderson came out of the store. I asked them why ride in black on their black horses in this sun? They said they wanted to be an awe-inspiring Police even in broad daylight. Anderson changed subjects swiftly and said the scout was buying rope and that he was asking for an invoice.

"Can't your father tell him he's got no invoice book of his own?"

"Well, he can, but if the boy insists he'll give one to him for sure", said the blacksmith.

That cruel dilemma. Walking in and taking a chance of making things seem weird for the boy by attempting to stop Alberto from writing an invoice for him. The boy went away apparently tranquil and I said to myself, "what happened to solve the problem so easily?"

Anderson was about to walk in again, curious, when his father stepped out and explained to his son he had no invoice book. Said none of the shoppers in Taurinos he knew of had one. I thought to myself: living in Taurinos is living in formal informality.

"He is a mortal, isn't he?", asked the shopper to his son, curious, watching as the scout walked away.

"Yeah, Dad. He is a mortal."

Later I asked the two if they had visited me yesterday. They said I knew they did. That I should know at least, since the two spoke about helping out during the Jamboree by freezing time and acting in the in-betweens to cause the smallest impact possible. I said I understood the two, but finding the tent outside all covered with blood and guts and worst of it all, along with their leader, was not what I'd exactly call the smallest impact possible. They started to criticize me again, infuriated. And they were criticizing me all day long. I've noticed that the new tactic of the Obscure Police is to defend themselves by attacking. And by criticizing. I know I haven't been the nicest with them these days, but they haven't been any nicer than me on their turn.

"Now about this chupacabras thing, let's stop it while we still have a choice", Renan was annoyed as hell, "who the fuck called us chupacabras?"

"We invented it for the leader of the scouts. Would you like me to speak about the presence of the Obscure Police in town? Is it supposed to be obscure or not?"

"Well, Anderson and I understand the excuse, but let's stop it right now, get it? I've already had to swallow the Obscure Police thing", he said, glancing at Anderson and making him blush, "now if you start with this business of chupacabras we'll leave no stone unturned in this town, or I'm not Renan Augusto Giacomin Teixeira."

"And I'm not Anderson Nascimento Caldeira either", Anderson was quick to add.

Commented with master Danilo that the kids hated the comparison with the chupacabras. He laughed and found it natural. But agreed with me when I said the two were so horrible working they'd run rings around any chupacabras.

"The younger lad must have been mad. Calling him Obscure Police that was a pretty name made him want to kill you, let alone chupacabras. It was going to be another war like the one you, Andrés, Renan had with the Celestial Gardener."

"Do you really think it would?"

"Should the subject arise it's better to change subjects you know."

One of the scouts came to talk to us. Asked me who the two boys in black were he saw in town with me. I said they were agents.

"Police agents?", the kid asked me curious.

"Oh, they just ride their horses through town and tell the adults if they see something wrong going on."

"I know, they are like lollipop men", said the boy with an understanding smile.

"More or less… Some days they remind me of something in the same shape as a racket, I have to admit."

This time it was master Danilo who had to suppress a seizure of laughter that was brewing. Our desperation is our fuel. I recognized the scout. It was the one we saw at Anderson's hardware store earlier today. We were happy with the outcome of the invoices' episode, but now I suspected that that boy could tell his leader people wouldn't issue invoices in Taurinos. Wasn't I a bit paranoid about all of this invoice business, after all?

Andrés has been learning the life of a Mayor is full of responsibilities. Even more when he has to hide the fact he is a Mayor from five hundred fellow boy scouts. And he has had to address issues in infrastructure on the very farm Taurinos. He was lucky that the Department of Public Works slept next door to him. Adriano had created a complex infrastructure for the event on the farm Taurinos where all of the present scouting groups, except for the group from Varginha. Only Adriano knew how the complex really worked, but it was no real problem as the Jamboree would soon come to an end and the complex wouldn't be necessary any longer. Andrés said he was working to open more space on the farm Taurinos so that his group could join all of the others already there.

The invoice boy scout was called Renato. We ended up befriending each other. And Renato told me he was upset by the distance from here to the Jamboree.

"It is where everything is happening, Miss Grisam", he said with the eyes shining.

Oh it really is. I was picturing all of the five hundred boys around a bonfire singing something like this:

"All in a wood there grew a fine tree, the finest tree that ever you did see, and the green grass grew around, around, around. And the green grass grew around. And on this tree there grew a fine bough, the finest bough that ever you did see. And the bough on the tree, and the tree in the wood. And the green leaves flourished thereon. thereon, thereon. And the green leaves flourished thereon. And on this bough there a fine twig, the finest twig that ever you did see. And the twig on the bough, and the bough in the tree, and the tree in the wood, And the green leaves flourished thereon. And on this twig there stood a fine nest. The finest nest that ever you did see. And the nest on the twig, and the twig on the bough. And in this nest there sat a fine bird, the finest bird that ever you did see. And on this bird there grew a fine feather. The finest feather that ever you did see. And of this feather was made a fine bed. The finest bed that ever you did see. And on this bed was laid a fine mother, the finest mother that ever you did see. In the arms of this mother was laid a fine babe, the finest babe that ever you did see. And the babe he grew up and became a fine boy, the finest boy that ever you did see. And boy put an acorn all into the earth, the finest acorn that ever you did see. And out of this acorn there grew a fine tree, the finest tree that ever you did see."

The Tree In The Wood, nursery song, public domain.

"Have you lived here for long?", he inquired, pulling me out of my deliria.

"Some six months"

"Oh, so it's recent", said the boy beaming at me.

Recent. Some fifteen, sixteen thousand years ago only. But what are fifteen, sixteen thousand years in the time of our planet anyhow?

I asked Andrés why his group remained segregated here. I told him that the scouts here were upset they were so far from the stage of the Jamboree where things were really taking place. He said once again he was striving to get his group to join the others by opening more space on his farm.

"So you mean there was room for all of the scouting groups from Minas Gerais except for yours?"

Andrés didn't know what to say to me as an answer. Tried to change subjects by asking if I was not feeling fine with them occupying my land.

"If you don't want us to stay anymore, I can find another place for us to stay", he said a bit offbeat and disappointed, gazing at the ground. I got him by his chin and raised his head so his eyes met mine through the lenses full of the dust from the cerrado.

"Andrés, don't change subjects, you know perfectly well this is hardly the reason for my question. You can stay as long as you need, I don't mind."

"Well so that's it, there was room for all of the scouting groups from Minas Gerais except for mine", he now looked slightly annoyed.

I was silent. His explanation was not convincing but I had no better explanation to be perfectly honest. Out of the blue, my laptop started acting up inside my house again, sending a song to Winamp that soon got to the speakers and filled all my house with music, interrupting brusquely the activity the scouts were engaged in out here.

"It was an April morning when they told us we should go. As I turn to you, you smiled at me. How could we say no? With all the fun to have, to live the dreams we always had. Oh, the songs to sing, when we at last return again."

Achilles' Last Stand (fragment), written by Led Zeppelin in Presence, 1976, Swan Song, Atlantic.

I walked in to turn the player off and have dinner.