Whirlpool

Adriano dropped by home today. Said his mother wanted to come but sent him first to see if it was possible. I told him old friends like us needed no frills like those.

Aparecida showed up a bit later, followed by Duílio. So I thought to myself now I realized it had been a week or so since we last talked. I stayed home like I had been grounded by invisible forces. Went places, but not to the farm Taurinos. So the mountain had to come to Mohamed.

"The event was so pretty", Aparecida was telling me, "never seen such polite youths in my life. They'd help me even with the chores in the kitchen, can you believe it?"

"I do believe you", and I remembered the scout Renato, his love of his honor and his correctness. Poor child wasting his precious time in this absurd town.

"And there were songs they sang", and she hummed The Tree In The Wood and some other lullabies, "they held some very pretty ceremonies there. The kids engaged in archery, so many things happening at the same time you wouldn't believe", and she sounded enthusiastic about the event.

Duílio said he had found it strange that I wouldn't be on the farm Taurinos any of the days during the event. Told him I felt much the same. That the presence of the scouts here twisted everything.

"I mean it in a good sense, but it changed everything in my routine", I played it by the ear to see what the talk would develop into.

The couple and Adriano eventually said they didn't understand why Andrés only returned home the day before. Asked me if he had been here all this time. I said he sometimes escaped to the Town Hall, but that he stayed here most of the time.

"Miss Grisam, he promoted the event and wasn't even there", explained Adriano, "we had to stand for him during the event, it sucked big time. It was a pretty event and all, but wasn't it weird that the host and his group did not appear?"

At this point, I started to think if I should tell them that Andrés and Bruno, as well as each and every scout in his group remained here because someone did them the favor of locking them in time within the first or second day of arrival, a day on which they should stay here and wait for the Jamboree to begin. And all of this probably due to the argument between the scout Renato and the fearsome duo downtown. I ended up telling them all about it. The Obscure Police didn't even ask me to keep it secret anyhow. The Conselheiros didn't like a speck of my account, however small. I made them see the boys from Taurinos played their games among themselves and we were always in the middle of the whirlpool.

"See if we get it from the beginning it was Andrés and Renan together up to their necks in that story of the Celestial Gardener with Arthur getting at them", I explained what my theory was, "now it's Andrés and Bruno together up to their necks in this story of the Jamboree. The actors change, though the game is always the same: rules of one are broken and one tries to fight back. In the case of the Celestial Gardener I needed nothing more than going into the Sanctuary to set the wheel in motion. In the case of the Obscure Police master Danilo needed nothing more than saying chupacabras invaded my land to get things down and running. It is much like an uncontrollable and permanent feud of all against all, where what is the least important is the reasons why, and the most important thing is the feud itself."

"My good Mithra! Chupacabras, Miss Grisam? Like those in Varginha?", asked Aparecida, frightened. I explained to them what had happened and what had been arranged with the Obscure Police. The feeling of strangeness of the scouting group and the promise master Danilo and I made to each other of not letting the scouts find out about the weird happenings in town. What was just like trying to empty the sea, with some five hundred people coming to and fro within the rural area of Taurinos. Adriano didn't like my explanation much, it seemed.

"Master Danilo and I had to make up an excuse very quickly", I added, "Renan learned about his excuse somehow and made his own mountain out of a molehill from that fact. As if it were revenge for the time in the Sanctuary or even his old dislike of the nicknames he's given as the Obscure Police itself, you see. But it's all just like Duílio said the other day, those brats are always fighting for no reason at all and we just keep getting caught in the middle of this whirlpool."

The Conselheiros didn't know what to do, this was clear to me. The anger was the anger they naturally nourished against Renan and now Anderson, the newest "millennial" member of the Obscure Police. Other than that, it was like they themselves were trapped in that same feeling of stupor the scouts all fell prey to. Would it be the Obscure Police bringing time to a stop again?

"These children are all deranged, and we don't know what to do anymore", said an uncomplaining Duílio.

Duílio does his part, beating his two little creatures to a pulp whenever "necessary". This has never solved any problems, "sêo" Octávio beating Renan to a pulp has never solved any problems; what good would it be after all? Where would it end? Because they knew nothing would solve the problem, the parents preferred to vent their spleen on the kids whenever they felt they "needed" it (though I'm against beatings, sometimes I can't crucify the parents for that — at least not like the Obscure Police crucified Taurinos' ex-Mayor some ten days ago).

"What are going to do?", asked the patriarch.

"I'd love to take the Police to a Council", affirmed the Mayor's elder brother.

"What for? You'll put Renan working with cattle with Andrés or paying communitarian service at the Town Hall for two weeks or two months, then it happens all over again?", I questioned the solutions of the land to these issues though I had no better ideas myself.

"I don't know if it's going to be any good, but it is for sure better than letting them get away with it, no?", declared Adriano, upset with my questioning.

The young constructor was such a sweet teenager, but had a history of conflicts with me that was worth considering no matter what I said to him. However, I told him that he was right: the humblest of punishments was far better than just no punishment at all.

"I too agree with my son. If we can't stop them from doing what they do let's at least make them see that what they do has its consequences", declared Aparecida, supported by her husband. The Conselheiros seemed in agreement on this issue.

Andrés appeared soon after. He wasn't very enthusiastic about taking the officers to Council. Even advised us against it. We all wanted to know why. He never explained his reasoning beyond two or three superficial reasons.

Would it be because Renan considered him a traitor for joining Bruno with such a nature-oriented purpose after the "humanization" of the bulls in the very dawn of Taurinos? Because he didn't want to further the policeman's irritation since Renan already considered him a traitor? Eventually I gave up raising those mysterious and ancient points with Aparecida so close and so prone to fits and faints.

"There's a point we haven't looked at", I added, "what if there's punishment for Renan and Anderson for that reason (and for the crucifixion of the ex-Mayor too) and what if Renan accepts it but calls for punishment for the Celestial Gardener too? After all the Gardener left signs of a garden I told him to remove entirely from my house and this was seen by the scouts who made it a campsite during the event. By the way, he'd be right in invoking something like this and I'd support him on this one, if you ask me. If there was no punishment for the Celestial Gardener, why punish the Obscure Police?"

"Lend your ears to this voice of wisdom", recommended Andrés. Funny things was, it didn't sound as a satire or mocking, he did speak serious. Like me, he seemed to understand the implications of it all.

"And maybe that's even their plan after all", Andrés went on in mild voice, "as on the day Renan had it out with Anderson at the Mithraeum. He played to lose, because he wanted to drag the locksmith to the chasm together with him. What if he's thinking of doing the same with the Celestial Gardener? Who can assure he's not? Who knows what goes on on that little mind?"

Master Danilo showed up a bit after and found it strange to meet the whole of the Conselheiro clan reunited in my house. But said that in spite of the harm done he agreed with Andrés none of them should be taken to Council. He agreed with Andrés' theory it might be their plan, said it was perfectly possible, "we don't know what has remained loaded there from the time of the Sanctuary punishment and then there was Andrés joining Bruno and it might have been like treason to him. I'm not even speaking about the ancient times, but right from this episode of the Celestial Gardener recently."

There was a huge, almost eternal limitless pause.