42 - THOUGHTS

 42 - THOUGHTS

Juvencio was in his room, already lying on the bed. It must have been past midnight, but sleep wouldn't come. And he began to go over the events of the day. First, the conversation he had that morning with the professor, and how he came to know that she had a record of the entire population... that would be interesting for his investigation. The good thing about her records is that she was a skeptical person and for this reason there would be nothing but facts in her notes. Her considerations about everything were clean, without interference of any kind of belief... although the purpose of her research was precisely to collect tales and fantastic stories from the sertão. But in the end she had a history of all the families, or at least most of them, from their region of origin to the various marriages between the many groups...

She also began to think about what Doctor Alberto had told her about the various cases that had occurred around the area, culminating in the corpse missing from the morgue. The empty bodies, without the entrails, were what intrigued him the most. Even more than bloodless bodies. Of course, everything was strange, there was no denying it. But some things he had already seen in his wanderings, and he knew how to fight. Others were already new and he would have to figure out how to proceed.

Maybe Zacarias had the best clues to solve the cases.... he knew the stories, their origins and God knows what else... the man was a source of information about everything, although he was evasive in what he passed on to the others... he never spoke about any subject directly... it was always with figures of speech, illustrating his stories in such a way that the most distracted listener could take them as simple stories of stove foot... but they all had as a reference cases and real people involved... it was rumored that he was even able to identify some of the beasts that roamed the region and that, whenever possible, he tried to resolve the situation in the best possible way...

And Juvêncio thought... if only the teacher's knowledge could be combined with Zacarias's, plus the doctor's critical eye, it would be much easier to untangle all that tangled yarn... the problem is that Zacarias didn't like to talk about the things he knew... and the teacher was too skeptical... as for the doctor, he was in love with the teacher and maybe that affected his practical sense...

Out of the blue, Juvêncio started thinking about the meeting he had with the teacher. Twice in the same day... once by accident, once by sheer chance. He couldn't deny that she was pretty…attractive. And suddenly he began to compare her with Rosinha, the woman in his life who had left him for another man. The day he returned to his village, willing to leave aside his life as an adventurer, to be at the side of his beloved was the day he discovered that she had grown tired of waiting for him to fulfill the mission he had committed himself to... find and punish those responsible for the death of his family. He couldn't blame her… after all they hadn't seen each other for almost a decade… how could he expect her to keep waiting for him for so long? The impact felt was strong ... not even the worst bandits he had faced in his wanderings managed to knock him down the way the brunette did. Well, in the end, when he returned, she had been married to the son of one of the local farmers for two years. Of course, when she saw him coming, she was afraid of his reaction. But Juvêncio, even with his heart wounded by disappointment, knew how to understand and accept what had happened. That's when he received an invitation to join the Federal Police and he accepted... with time... and with the tasks he received from the command... he began to accept the blow he received better...

Alice was a beautiful woman. Medium height, fair complexion, reddish hair... she was a sarará, as the countryman said. Soft voice, which made the caboclo dream even when he was scolding. Sweet smile, look like an enchanted doll... yes, the girl really was a piece of bad way. But better get those worms out of your head... the girl was... or she seemed to be... betrothed to the doctor. And he wouldn't want anyone else to go through the hell he went through when his lover left him for someone else... but the look in her eyes...

Shaking his head to dispel certain ... ideas ... Juvêncio thought it would be better not to look for the teacher for a while ... it was better to focus on the problems he was facing and not create any new ones for his life. He was fine with his life as a lonely man and he had no reason to change that. Not now, at least... but those blue eyes... I've never seen a woman so beautiful... and intelligent...

Trying to break out of the daydream he was in, Juvêncio focused on the figure of Zacarias, who might hold the key to solving at least one of the open cases... he also tried to focus on the story of the missing deceased of Doctor Alberto, but it was all in vain... the teacher's image overlapped with everything he tried to think. And it was in this profusion of contradictory thoughts that sleep ended up overtaking him, giving him a few hours of respite, where nothing but the green meadows existed in front of him... and in these meadows he rode Corisco, who was still alive and strong. , and gave him moments of complete happiness, as they ran through the immense fields of life...

It was during his sleep that a question arose in his mind... at what point in his life did he start fighting beings from another world? Fighting common thugs was much simpler... just identify who was the villain of the moment, give him a few beatings and, if that wasn't enough, just let the guns do the talking. Simple, fast and clean. Well, maybe not so clean, but... now, facing otherworldly souls... how did this start? When he left his village to hunt his parents' killers, sure. After all, hadn't Pai Zequinha said a prayer and some blessings to close his body? This was, in a way, a preparation to face forces from beyond... and he always carried amulets full of mandinga to protect him from things he could not even imagine... but which he ended up facing in his wanderings through the sertão. And as he rode Corisco through the meadows beyond, these images flashed through his mind as if he were living them again...