CRISTINA

 CRISTINA

Cristina was restless. The clock already showed almost midnight, and Cristiano still hadn't arrived. Which was unusual. Usually he used to get home around nine, ten o'clock. It was true that he had warned that he would be home late that day, but... that late, like that? She knew that the boy had an appointment he couldn't miss, and that would be the reason for her absence for so long. But she expected it to be a couple of hours late. And she was already completing almost three of her usual hour...

Cristina decided to go out into the backyard, went to the gate... she was already getting upset with the boy's delay... it was close to one o'clock in the morning, and the boy didn't show up... desperation took over her being. .. what would have happened to him? Why didn't it ever come? Why didn't he call home to give a sign of life? Well, then she remembered that the phone was there in the living room, and if it rang, she wouldn't hear it, because from the gate to the living room it was a reasonable distance...

The hands of the clock didn't stop ticking... one hour... one-fifteen... one-thirty... and Cristiano still didn't appear. She decided to call the boy's cell phone... again, as she had already tried about thirty times, since the clock struck eleven and he didn't show up... like the other times, the answer was the same... "leave it your message". What to leave a message! What she really needed was to hear her son's voice! Where had that senseless boy gone, my God? Where was he, that he didn't answer the phone, didn't call home... what could have happened to him? Could it be... no, it was better not to think about bad things... thinking about bad things brings bad things into one's life.. she had to think that soon the boy would be opening the door, saying as always... "Mommy, I'm home!"

Cristiano was a quiet boy. He was seventeen, but anyone who saw him would tell he was older. That's because of the beard he'd let grow, which made him look at least a couple of years older... some said he looked a lot older, actually. The boy worked in a print shop... one of the few left in the city. His work was important for the family, since his salary helped, and a lot, in the maintenance of the house. He worked from eight to seventeen hours, Monday through Friday. After his shift, he went to school, where he was finishing high school. It wasn't like him to be late like that... it was very rare for him to fail to get home on time. Had he already been late some other time? Yes, but not as late as that day. Admittedly, it was Friday and he wouldn't be working the next day... but still...

The boy had told his mother that he would not go to school that day, as it was his girlfriend's birthday, and he wanted to take her out to dinner and then catch a movie... the mother did not like the idea very much, but what to do ? In a few months he would turn eighteen, and be legally his own man... and he had always been a sensible boy. So much so that, as soon as he turned fourteen, he tirelessly looked for a professional position, because "he needed to help around the house", as he said. Cristina had been separated from her husband since their son was about eight years old. In addition to him, she also had two more girls ... Crismara, fifteen years old, and Crisnara, eleven years old. Yes, she wasn't very good at choosing names... but anyway... well, the two girls were sleeping the sleep of the just, and Cristina is burning her neurons, trying to imagine where the boy could be. If only he answered his cell phone...

When the clock showed a quarter to two in the morning, Cristina was really scared... the city was very dangerous, her neighborhood was very dangerous... what if something had happened to the boy? What would become of her? How could she live with that? Cristina began to pray, asking all the saints she knew to bring her son safely into their arms... the woman's despair was so much that she was on the verge of crying... then... the gate clicked. she heard... she almost didn't believe it... but, yes... she heard the steps coming through the yard, and in that sound she recognized her beloved son... the noise of the key opening the living room door was the most wonderful sound that she could hear at that moment. Then, calmly, the boy entered the house... when he saw his mother standing, looking at him, he couldn't hold back a gasp of astonishment...

- Mother?!

The woman ran to the boy and hugged him, almost suffocating him with the tears of relief that flowed down her face...