63 - EXCHANGING IDEAS...

 

63 - EXCHANGING IDEAS...

 

- Alberto, I swear I don't understand...

- What don't you understand, Duarte?

- Well, you're a doctor... you're a man of science. Honestly, don't you think our teammates are a little crazy?

- Why?

- Well, because.... how can they think that there are souls from the other world prowling around our city... and even worse, killing people?...

- Duarte, I am an enlightened person...

- I know... that's why I'm talking to you... I think we should start doing a real investigation, looking for the real culprits, not spirits coming from who knows where...

- Duarte, think a little...

- Think about what?

- You've witnessed some paranormal phenomena lately... I've witnessed some myself...

- What phenomena?

- Just to refresh your memory.... one of the most scabrous... Tiana's Mané...

- What about him?

- Exactly... what about him? I honestly can't say. Everything I learned at the Faculty of Medicine does not explain what we witness here, Duarte. And not once, but twice...

- I don't understand....

- Duarte, Duarte... the worst blind person is the one who doesn't want to see, you know? First, we got the dead guy here at the Morgue....

-We thought he was dead... doesn't mean he was.

- Duarte, I've been a coroner for a long time. I know when a guy is dead. And Mané was dead, yes, sir.

-Ok... then explain to me how he managed to get out of here with his own legs, if he was dead....

- I can't explain... that's the problem. He was dead and there was no way he could have gotten out. That simple.

- You yourself showed me that he was moving...

- Duarte, stop being a tomboy, man... Mané had his abdomen open. I had removed some of the guy's viscera... how did you want him to be alive? But not even with reza braba... and you forgot how they found him in the field?

- I'm sure you have some explanation for that...

- I have... oh, if I have! Duarte... the guy was stinking, melting and just dissolved in front of him. And you want me to come up with an explanation for that? Sorry, my friend, but there's no way.... I'm forced to embrace the theory of the delegate and Seu Zacarias...

- But that doesn't make any sense...

- My friend, from the beginning this story has no logic... it's a body without blood, it's a body without viscera, without wounds... it's an apparition that emerges from the river...

- What apparition?

- Duarte, you told me yourself.... and you said that you almost smeared yourself...

- I could be hallucinating...

- Even in the field, along with the rest of the group...

- And why not? It can happen, can't it?

- You might as well... but remember that you, the priest, Chief Vicente and Juca were there... plus three other cowboys... are you going to tell me that all of you were hallucinating? And that what they saw there was the fruit of their imagination?

Duarte was momentarily speechless. He knew the doctor was right, but to admit that was to admit that otherworldly things were happening in his jurisdiction... and he couldn't admit such manifestations... it wasn't logical... it wasn't natural... but the doctor seemed to accept the events calmly... as if it were the most normal thing in the world...

- Duarte...

- Yes, Alberto?....

- I even wanted to refute the ideas of delegate Vicente...

- And why not refute?

- Because, as much as it pains me to admit, he is right in his conclusions... if it were a human agent that caused these attacks... or even an animal... we would have already identified and neutralized the threat...

The two are silent for a few moments. The door opens and Alice enters, smiling as always....

- Wow, boys.... you're not too serious, are you?

- We are trying to understand some things, Alice...

- May I ask what that would be? Or is it something confidential?

Duarte turns to the teacher and answers....

- No, nothing confidential... at least not for our group... it's just that I'm questioning Delegate Vicente's line of investigation on the cases we are investigating...

- Know...

- He thinks we have to look for the supernatural to explain the cases that are taking place in the region...

- AND...?

- And I think this is absurd... we have to look for rational answers to solve this... mess....

- And what do you think of all this, Alberto?

- Well, Alice... as much as it pains me to admit it... and it hurts me, be sure... I am obliged to agree with Chief Vicente....

- But... Alberto, the delegate's ideas don't make any sense...

- Not rationally, Alice. But if we consider that we don't have any logical explanation for the events, we have to have an open mind, and accept other ways...

- Alberto, you are a scientist...

- I am a doctor. But when logical explanations are not enough, let the illogical ones come...

- I didn't understand...

- Simple, dear... I prescribe medicine for my patients...

- Yes...

- But sometimes they heal with their promises to the saints of their devotions...

- AND...?

  -Now, if the Beyond works as an agent of light, it may be that it also works as an agent of chaos...

- I never heard a more preposterous idea...

- Alice, as I said before, we have to keep an open mind...

- Not to accept nonsense and beliefs as truth...

- If they give us an acceptable answer... why not?

Alice was a little irritated by Alberto's remark. And his answer came out between teeth....

- Because I've just never heard of such a stupid idea before... that's why.

Alberto didn't understand his friend's sudden bad mood. But he decided to let it go. He was tired from work, the day had been long. And he invited the two friends to stop by Ms. Monica's boarding house for a good cup of coffee accompanied by a chocolate cake. The two accepted instantly and instantly Alice's good mood returned. They began to talk about banalities, leaving the problems of the station and the morgue locked behind the closed doors. And there were the three of them, chatting happily...