Luke Fagundes

A lump formed in my throat as the plane took off towards Brasília, but I didn’t cry. I will never cry because my father decided to be a son of a bitch with me. I got used to your disdain, your lack of empathy. Likewise, I might even be going to hell, but I would come back stronger than before and be ready for my revenge.

An hour later, the plane landed on the runway. I went down and came across an unknown man, standing waiting for me. Gonzalo thought of everything, every detail, to make sure that the punishment would be strictly imposed against me. The man, in silence, directed me to a car, stopped a few meters away. Someone pushed unceremoniously from me into the backseat. Half an hour later he stopped on a street, without asphalt, with mud puddles and boys running barefoot. The place stank worse than the building where he was hiding with his mistress. The man opened the door and pulled me out.

“Your aunt is waiting for you,” he said, pushing me into the middle of the street, causing me to bump into a boy who was running with a kite in his hand.

“You don’t look where you’re going, do you, Uncle?” He looked at me and then turned his back and walked away.

The man got back into the car, pointing his finger at a house far ahead, indicating that was where I should go. Then he left.

For the last five hours, they had tossed me around like I was something nobody wanted. At that moment, I felt like garbage, thrown in the middle of a dirty place, with strange people, at the mercy of my own luck. Who knew my own father would do this to me?

I walked towards the house. It was actually a shed, where the wood was being eaten by termites. The roof was old; the sewer ran in the open sky, there was garbage scattered in the middle of the yard. How could anyone live in conditions like that? Even worse, like my father, being rich left a relative as close as his own sister to live in inhumane conditions just like that. As I thought about all this, I watched a fat woman come out. His hair was disheveled, and his sandals were old and worn out.

“Luke?” his face was so fat that they pressed his eyes in with the surrounding fat.

At least she wasn’t hungry, I thought.

“It’s me”, I replied.

“I thought so” she said it wrong. "You look a lot like your bastard father,  please come in”.

I also noticed that she didn’t like Gonzalo very much. But if that were true, why then did she agree to keep me there?

“Your father took it hard on you” he walked behind her, while crossing a wooden gate and heading towards the entrance of the house. “What did you do this time?”

If I told her, would it help me escape this hell? Hardly, no.

“I had enough evidence that he cheated on my mother”.

“You see,” the woman let out a loud and satisfying laugh, “I feel sorry for Olivia, who has to live with a man like him”.

We entered the house. Apparently clean, had a torn and dirty couch. A small TV rested on top of an old, rusty table. And that was all there was.

“How do you know my family so well?” I asked, while she turned to me and looked at me “because I didn’t know you”.

“I left Belo Horizonte before you were born,” he replied. “I never got along with Gonzalo because he always refused to help me financially”.

It was just the way he was.

“And why did you agree to keep me here?”

“You see, Luke boy,” she began to confess,  “I have nothing against you, you understand? But your father promised me a large sum of money to help him punish you. Surely with this money I will get out of this misery”.

But what a motherfucker. Apparently, bad cretism came from the genetics of the Gonzalo family.

“Oh, of course!” Once more I looked around the environment “​​I turned to currency exchange for your own interests”.

She looked at me, confused, certainly not understanding what I was saying.

‘We don’t have a bedroom at home, apart from mine and my husband’s” she probably didn’t have any children, I presume, “so you can sleep anywhere.’ I’ll get you a mattress”.

We walked to the other room, the kitchen of the house. There was a pot on a small wood stove. A rusty refrigerator and chickens walking in the middle of the room. Looking at that whole situation, I even understood why she had accepted my father’s proposal.

“I’m going to get some clothes for you,” he kept saying while stirring what was cooking in the pot. "You can call me Magdalena, Luke boy. For today, I will take it easy on you and let you rest. But be up at six o’clock in the morning, because you’re going to work at the grocery store I have right around the corner”.

And left the kitchen. Magdalena walked with difficulty, and I even felt sorry for her. Imagining the suffering life that woman lived for years might even break my heart, but her chalice would also be mine from that moment on. I needed to find a way to escape from here and make Gonzalo pay for all the evil he was doing.

The next day, I went to the little market that looked more like a bar. In fact, it belonged to Geraldo, my aunt’s husband. He was a nice and hardworking man. He started to teach me what I had to do, but I was completely out of the mood for that. Magdalena appeared in the afternoon and handed me a package.

“Your father told me to give you this” he held the thing out to me “and he said there’s a note inside that you should read”.

I took the object and started to open it. It was a cell phone. I was surprised. What kind of punishment would that be, where I could communicate with the rest of the world and be able to tell everyone what I knew?

I also took that note and read it

“Pay close attention to what I’m about to tell you. Don’t use that phone to do your crazy things, because I’ve certainly proven what I can do. If you disobey me, I will send you out of the country and there you will live real hell for the rest of your life. In six months, on condition of good behavior, I will send you a small amount of money every month to support you. In a year, I’ll bring you back. Until then, you’ll be working just to pay for your stay at Magdalena’s. Do as I command, and soon this hell will end. And when you return home, you will return as a man.”

I crumpled up the paper immediately. Gonzalo would keep me in a prison, with inhuman and even slave conditions, just to hide from the rest of the world how much of a petty and unscrupulous traitor he was. I wanted to find a way out of it all, but there wasn’t. I would have to endure and dance in the footsteps of my dear father. Once again, my throat closed up, and I refused to cry. Absorbing all the chaos, promising myself to make it my strength. I would get out of it, and Gonzalo would experience hell itself.

Aurora

The betrayal I woke up scared. My mother is sitting up in bed, her eyes closed, moaning softly in pain. I jump to my feet, and I know my eyes are wide. I’m worried, visibly lost, not knowing what to do.

“Mom, is everything okay?”

“I’m in a lot of pain, Aurora” I can see that she’s crying “it’s almost unbearable”.

“What do I do?” I look away, lost in the room. I look at the clock, and it’s almost six. "Wait just a minute, Mom, I’m going to call for help”.

I hurried down the hall, not knowing exactly where to look. Furthermore, I remember how well she was yesterday, smiling, happy. She didn’t even look sick, and now, she’s lying there crying in pain. I spot a nurse a few feet away and run towards her.

“My mother is in a lot of pain” I can hardly pronounce these words “please help her”.

“Calm down,” she’s kind, drops what she’s doing to talk to me “what’s your mother’s name and what room is she in?”

“Desiree, room 08,” I try to calm down, but I can’t.

The nurse goes there, and I follow her. It is inevitable not to feel this way. My heart pounds in my chest so hard, my breathing gets heavy. I wonder if it’s possible for gallstones to turn into a more serious condition. I watch as the nurse administers morphine to her and asks her to lie down and try to relax, promising that the pains will soon stop. My heart ached to see my mother like this.

“She’s going to be fine,” the nurse says, smiling at me, but that doesn’t reassure me.

I stayed for several minutes, sitting and motionless, watching my mother. The expression on her face gradually relaxed, and a few minutes later the moans ceased, turning into sighs of relief.

“Are you all right now?” I get up, approaching the bed.

“It was like taking it with the hand,” she smiles, and now I know she’s fine “go home and rest a little and when it’s time to change, you’ll come back”.

“I don’t want to leave you here alone,” I balk at the idea.

“I’m not alone, Aurora” she holds one of my hands. "Anything, I’ll call you”.

I gave some thought to the idea of ​​leaving her for a few hours, but the headache I’m feeling right now makes me accept the idea.

“Okay” I turn around, pick up my bag and look back at her. "Maybe I can convince my father to come see you”.

“Do it,” she agrees, “but avoid unnecessary discussions with him”.

“Don’t worry”.

I kiss her forehead and leave the hospital. The sun had barely risen; the morning was cold, and my stomach was groaning with hunger. I walk home, because I don’t think the distance between the two places is too far. When I arrived, it was after eight o’clock. I opened the gate and found the women’s shoes at the entrance to the house strange.

“These aren’t my mother’s shoes” I

Whisper, as I lean over, pick up one foot and realize that in addition to a terrible taste in shoes, their owner has a pretty big shape. I make a face of disgust at the same time that the little warning light goes on inside me.

There’s something wrong.

The door is unlocked, which is strange at first. My father left very early to work. He wouldn’t be home at that time. Then I think about the possibility of being an invader, a thief, a stranger in my house. I open the door cautiously and survey the room. Nothing out of place. Absolute silence. I entered slowly to make as little noise as possible, and I immediately remembered the female voice on the other end of the line as she spoke to my father. My heart races. I try to think that this is crazy in my head. But the shoes on the front door, the unlocked door, make me pretty sure maybe I’m not that crazy. I don’t realize the minutes pass, because I’m too focused on trying to unravel this mystery, when I hear voices and footsteps coming towards me. It was Claudio and a woman. They were hugging each other and smiling, but that same smile disappeared like smoke as soon as they both laid eyes on mine. The woman was in her nightgown and barefoot. I wasn’t that crazy.

“What are you doing here?” Claudio widens his eyes in fright as he walks away from the woman.

“Who is this woman, Father?” I’m amazed, incredulous.

“You didn’t answer what I asked you, Aurora”.

“Stop running away from things,” I shout. "Who is this woman and what is she doing in my mother’s house?”

“This house isn’t just your mother’s”.

“Enough, father” I shout again and a tear runs down my face “at least once in your life be a man, and answer what I asked you”.

“I demand that you respect me, Aurora.” He points his finger at me.

“Respect you?” I face him without fear. "You bring your lover inside my mother’s house, while she is in the hospital, and you want me to respect you?”

“You’re confusing things” he justifies, he’s more nervous now than before “don’t you dare tell your mother that”.

“Or what?” I get very close to him, looking right into his eyes “I’m not afraid of you anymore, dad”.

“Should have” he’s furious now.

“Take your mistress out of my mother’s house now”.

I watch the woman, who doesn’t seem scared or regretful about being caught in the act. Then I look at my father, who has apparently let his guard down.

“Get ready, so we can go, Rebeca,” he orders the woman, who turns her back and goes back to the room”.

“And you cheated on my mother, in her bed?” I continued the conversation. "Couldn’t you at least wait for her to leave the hospital?”

“You have to swear to me, Aurora, that you won’t tell your mother anything”.

“Just out of consideration for her, Father.” I felt disgusted with him. "If she weren’t so sick, I wouldn’t think twice about telling you everything I saw here”.

He is silent for a few moments. He turns his back and seems to think it over, but I can’t see any trace of remorse or regret in his expression.

“You could at least confess what you did, “I mean, with a revolt stuck in your throat”.

“How is she?” you mean my mother, but I know you’re only asking that to change the course of the conversation.

“Don’t pretend to care about her”.

“Just answer what I asked you”.

“If you’re really interested in knowing,” I grab my bag again, ready to leave him talking to himself, “go to the hospital and ask yourself. If you have time to cheat on her, you should make time to see her, too”.

I turned my back and walked towards my room. I push the door behind me so hard that the noise it makes reflects the scream lodged in my throat. He sat on the bed and let the cry that, minutes ago, I held, flow. I wonder how long Claudio has been doing this. How long has he been cheating on my mom? I remembered her moaning in pain, while he moaned with pleasure inside her house. It was absurd. Inadmissible, unforgivable. The revolt was increasing every second I thought about it. My mother deserved to know this, but I couldn’t count on it now, not with her in a hospital. I had no right to divert her focus from just taking care of her own health and recovering. And only later, who knows, reveal the whole truth to her. My head now aches uncontrollably when my cell phone rings again. It’s Gene.

“You come back and not even text me?”

I let out a smile as I wiped away the tears.

“I missed you too”.

“Is Aunt Desiree okay?”

She always referred to my mother that way.

“You have a crying voice, Aurora. Did something happen?”

“My mother is fine.”

I answer, but I don’t tell the rest.

“Are you sure everything is okay?”

I try to control the emotion. I swallow hard, take a deep breath before I continue talking.

“We can meet today. Before I have to go back to the hospital.

“We must. I have a lot of news to tell you, people to introduce.”

I find her excitement amusing.

“At two o’clock, in the same square as always”

“Combined.”

“I really need to talk to someone, but now I have a horrible migraine.”

“We’ll talk later, then. Rest up and see you later.

The call ends. Geane has always been understanding. Perhaps this is her most outstanding quality. If I said I wasn’t fine, she didn’t question it. Glad to know I’d see you in a few hours. I feel relieved to be able to get out of the chaos my life has become in the last twenty-four hours. I take an aspirin and lie down, trying to sleep. Not only that, but I don’t dare go outside, so I don’t have to find those two together again. I try to push those thoughts back, somewhere they can’t disturb me. My father’s time to pay for everything he’s doing to my mother will come, but that time is not now, and I myself will make sure that happens.