Dogs

Woke up in the middle of the night with weird noises outside. Panting and rubbing sounds or so it seemed. The atmosphere was of a sullen and nervous kind, a fair warning of the terror it is to run into the Obscure Police at night. I came downstairs feeling nauseous and feeling it almost impossible to breathe. The phone rang. I rubbed my laptop's touch pad with my index, bringing it back to life. It was 3:35 a.m.. I decided to answer the phone. It was the Mayor, still up at that time of the night.

"There are two dogs in front of your house. Try not to look through the windows."

I told him I heard those panting and rubbing sounds and he agreed. Said I should by no means look through the window and hung up. I went back to my room, astonished and haunted. What was that supposed to be now? Why would Andrés call me at that time? Maybe he "saw" I was going to look around until I found the source of the panting and rubbing noises and had decided to warn me against doing it.

The noises were loud; too loud for the still of the night and too weird to let me sleep. i decided, against all advice to look and see at once what the hell that was all about. When I opened the window, it was morning already. When I turned around to go down ad see what was outside, I couldn't help but screaming in total astonishment: my nightstand was turned upside down, the armchair in the corner had been turned too not to mention my closet door had been ripped off its hinges.

I started feeling pain all over my body and sat down on my bed, trying to understand what happened. It was long past three thirty a.m. when I heard the weird noises outside. Andrés called me and told me there were two dogs in front of my house. I tried to sleep and ended up trying to peek, but it was morning already. Only I got all this mess in my room right now. I started to try to think of what happened between me waking up and opening the window. Or did it happen when I opened the window?

My God. I do remember it now. It was not in the morning when I opened the window. It was 3:40 a.m. at most.What I saw sent me back ricocheting against the walls and furniture in my bedroom as a massive rubber-band ball breaking everything my body could touch on its way. It was two black dogs, one smaller than the other. The larger one covered the figure of the other. The horror of seeing them in the middle of the night in that wilderness was what had sent me back like a firearm kickback.

By the window, I heard the sound of a horse approaching. I looked through the window afraid of looking through the window. The things you see when looking through the window here in Taurinos. To think I had always dreamed of a large window kitchen where I could cook looking at the fields and mountains for Mother Nature's inspiration, but my plans seemed to have all fallen through.

It was master Danilo. Left all that mess behind. I went down and started boiling water for coffee. The old countryman heard me with attention as I told him about my sleeping night. He was astonished and while he proposed to help me tidy up my room, said he himself had heard the noises next to his house. I asked him what time and he said it was well past three in the morning.

"Master Danilo it was more or less the same time it happened here!"

I was nervous and he perceived my impatience. After the story of the dog at Anderson's hardware store when a black dog came springing on me when I was inside Duílio's car already I caught myself nervous thinking of dogs and all of these spooky things.

"Do you remember, could you see what they were doing? I didn't have the nerve to look you see, I'm not curious about this kind of thing at all, you know."

"Only saw the dogs. It was too fast for my eyes to follow, it's the only thing I remember", I said, skimming the coffee.

He was in silence for some time. I was nervous with it all and with his silence.

"Were they a female and a male dog?"

I was ready to ask him how in the world he expected me to have noticed something so stupid but I did remember the two were male and asked myself how in the world I could remember something so stupid.

He was silent for some more time when I answered his question. I wondered now what the reason was for his thoughtful silence.

"A candy for your thoughts, master Danilo."

"The wintertime. They always come in the wintertime."

"Who comes?"

He turned his eyes to me as though I knew it already.

"The dogs, "sá" Stella", he said it serious.

"Is this good or bad?"

"Neither good nor bad, it is just something that the dogs choose to do. But it's among them, it is not something for you to be looking through the windows at. I told you before to avoid looking through the windows; sometimes it is best to simply go outside and look, it will do you less harm than otherwise, however weird it might seem to you."

He also told me I had to be wary of people looking at me through the windows from the outside of my house, especially the kids. As on the day Arthur stuck his head through my window to encourage me to open the gift he gave me. I told him what had happened the day before, with Aparecida fainting in her kitchen and Renan's double lunch.

He told me it was the vision of the kid framed by the net door on top of the issue that was being discussed that took her nervous system to such a high rotation it simply collapsed. I thought he might be so right there. When Adriano and I looked at the scene, Renan had already walked in the kitchen and was helping her back on her feet again.

"And of course he was annoyed of being called a spook. He probably heard it from you, from a part of your talk…" noted the old countryman.

"Yes, he probably did, it was a relaxed talk after all."

"And he is right, even so the kid is just another inhabitant of this town, "sá" Stella. He gets offended for being considered as something different, as a ghost. As "sêo" Duílio said, he is just one more of these brats that live in this town."

Out of the blue, Andrés and Adriano appeared at the kitchen's window, scaring the hell out of me and frightening even the old countryman. After scolding the two brothers, I offered them breakfast. They did accept it as castaways would. The Mayor looked at me and said, "of course you had to go and open the windows to look in the middle of the night", and still hadn't told him about the mess in my room (in case he hadn't still "seen" it by himself).

"I was telling her pretty much the same, plump fellow", the old countryman smiled a strange smile, one that tried to create a better environment where there's visibly no perspective of improvement. The kids were looking at him and he was looking at the kids, all of us in total silence. This silence began to annoy me as hell.

"What is this now supposed to be? Can anybody tell me what this new sensation is?"

"What?", asked the Mayor innocently as he picked up the coffee pot from the tabletop.

"Andrés Silva Conselheiro, don't be so ridiculous, what else are we fucking talking about????"

"Easy, Miss Grisam, it was just a joke… Easy!" The Mayor was pale in the face. He was scared with my emotional outburst. Master Danilo himself seemed very impatient with his childhood mate. I was nervous. Let them perceive it well.

I've been neurotic about these bizarre things happening in town all the time. Things that won't stop happening, driving you mad all the time. Why I decided to stay here was a question that had unfortunately ceased to have the need of an answer.

"Every end of winter, the black dogs start coming and do nobody knows what, because nobody has the nerve to look", explained Adriano, bringing up the theme of the end of the winter that master Danilo had begun with.

"Well, she dared to", said the Mayor pointing at me.

"How many dogs are they?", I cut him short brusquely.

"It's two in every one of Taurinos' houses", Andrés answered slowly and a bit afraid of my reaction, it seemed, not looking very directly at me.

"What do you mean?", I asked him astonished.

"Yes, there are two dogs outside each house. At the same time Andrés called you there were two in front of our house, yours, Arthur's and so it goes", added Adriano.

"I told you I had heard them next to mine too, "sá" Stella", confirmed the old countryman.

"But where do they come from???"

"we expected you to know and tell us", explained Adriano. The other two just nodded.

"Me???"

I was bewildered. Now it was me who was supposed to know everything. Well, why not, since I had created that town and everything that exists in in. How could I expect them not to expect me to know everything about it?

"I have no clue what it can be. You yourselves have told me more than I'd ever dream to know about it. Why do you think I know anything about something Andrés told me about a few hours ago at 3:30 something in the morning?"

Night, endless night over the mountains of Taurinos. From today's meeting, only master Danilo and I remained talking, for lost time. We went out to the porch, I turned on the light and the moths and other nocturnal little creatures had already started to land on the porch wall attracted by the light, casting weird and twisted shadows across the brick surface.

Cold was certain to be hellish tonight. Hardly had the Sun gone down it went cold as hell in town. Something typical of the Mantiqueira Ridge without matter and without a spirit we live on. A crystal-clear night and an absolutely cloudless awaited us outside.

I went inside for a coat as master Danilo ransacked his backpack in search of a leather jacket of his own. I brought out a thermos jug, cups saucers and the like for some coffee, dumped it all on the porch coffee table. Outside the limitless starry sky in this legendary and imaginary town.

We stared at the sky in respectful contemplation. For lost time. It should be seven, eight in the evening, but who'd care to count the time before the greatest show on Earth?

Distant sounds of horses that would sooner or later be here. I glanced at master Danilo and he brought his ear close to the ground as he always did to assess our security in the fields. Said it was probably the two kids, but that there was no reason to go in. We were looking at the sky as the horses came in a crescendo in the still of that night wilderness. Only the natural sounds and the still distant horses were heard.

The two stopped at my gate and waved at us. I glanced at master Danilo and the two lads waved at us again, as though they were calling us. The old countryman seemed all cautious as I told him I was going to talk to the police officers.

"I don't like how their looks feel, calling us like that, from a distance, "sá" Stella", he declared.

"They're only inhabitants of this town, remember? Only some brats who live in town."

As we approached the gate I got those old chills coming up and down my spine, chills that only grew in intensity as the light of the porch got lost in the outer shadows of my land. Sometimes I thought of putting up a post at the gate for better lighting. Sometimes I thought if it was worth it. Sometimes I thought if answering a call from the Obscure Police at night was worth it.

The two never got off their horses, as if horses and boys were one piece only. The look of the two was shady, charged, fluorescent, still more by the penumbra the end of the porch light let in.

""Sá" Stella, don't you go any closer than that", the old countryman advised me.

"You two can come to the gate, there's no problem", said Renan's tiny voice. A mild tiny voice, obscure and shady as the night around us. The darkness made me nervous in that moment.

"What do you want?"

"We're telling people not to leave at night on account of the dogs that have been appearing in town, you know", explained the elder policeman.

"What about these dogs after all? Are they dangerous?"

"Did you see them dogs?", asked the younger policeman.

"Just a glimpse through the window."

"You could find yourself in deep trouble just by looking through the windows, you know", the elder policeman was talking to me again.

"I found myself in a big one this morning."

The eyes of the two were horrible at that time in that penumbra. The old countryman avoided looking directly at them. I stared, fascinated by that vision of the two in black, getting mingled with the darkness around them and the white of their eyes that was fluorescent in that moonless night darkness; my insistent stare made the two glance at each other. They asked me to find accommodation for master Danilo in my house and insisted that he should sleep over. Needless to stay we accepted the suggestion right away.

"Is it alright with you? Can you possibly stop staring at us like this?", asked Renan, seeing that I couldn't get my eyes off him and his partner.

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.