I left it to Jackie to stop explaining everything, since she was the one who got the least tired when talking. Me and my three other sisters sat on the couch farthest from the office, watching as Jackie spoke and gestured. She told everything. From the beginning. Long before we had the idea of putting together that painting, even talking about the parallel investigations that I did only with our mother. So, when she finished, she cleared her throat and showed that she was tired. Our mother sighed." Even with such a plan, caution is always important," said the family matriarch, taking a step forward of the picture. She slid one of her fingers through my father's photograph, so she turned to us. "Your death would not bring any benefit, because your father's will leaves part of the fortune to the uncle you hate so much. Unless, of course, you get married and have children, which I believe is far from happening. But considering that your guardianship is still mine, it makes me think... W
The house where Joana told me to stay for a few was huge. Big enough for me to know that I would be bored at various times of my day. I took a long shower after Hazz left. He stayed with me for lunch, but Joana and Jessy left to solve some issues. Alone with my brother, I regained that lost familiarity, confessed my worst secrets and listened to his.In the end, we ended up getting it right again. Hazz justified himself about the visits, but I didn't pay much attention. I didn't want to hold on to what kept me away from him, quite the contrary. It was a new life. All I wanted was to reestablish myself. When he left, it was already the beginning of the night, and he said that Joana would be coming to keep me company.I was happy to know that Joana would keep visiting me, but anxious about how it would unfold. She met me at my worst, and we ended up making a sequence of mistakes by involving us lovingly. I wanted to be with her. I wish I had a life with her. But I would never have the c
"So, congratulations, love," she said, moving to kiss me softly. "You have just evolved in this life.”"I feel like an insect," I played and she laughed. I slid my fingers gently on his face, capturing a lock of golden hair that was falling before his eyes. " But although we have nothing concrete, I can say with all the letters that you were part of this evolution, Jo. Thank you very much for being with me. For still being there.”"Do you still want me to be?”"Are you still asking?”"Well, now that you're free, you can go out with whoever you want. There are more options.”"And since when do I need more options?”"I don't know, you had mentioned the story of the call girl..." she said, afraid, so her face lit up. "I got the information you asked me for. I contacted the man responsible for taking the girls to the prison. As far as I understood, he was moving, because women were not making so much profit on the streets. After a while, men lose their grace in what is nothing new, he said
I woke up with Britney Spears singing on my cell phone speaker.Due to the erotic dream I was having, I could even imagine that the music was part of the striptease I watched. However, as I had programmed for my cell phone to always turn up the volume every second it took me to turn off the alarm, that striptease show started to hurt my head and I was forced to open my eyes.Overall, I was always a haughty spirit who thought that sleeping was always a waste of time, and with that I mean that I always woke up well before any animal, and always slept well before what people my age would consider a good tone.Born in a family with five daughters, I was the one they all called an elder, even though I wasn't the oldest. My night habits were unique, because I slept too early, but not enough to be fully rested, so I spent half the day complaining about sleep or stressed with someone.Of course, the only person who could be blamed for all the stress the next day was myself, because insomnia w
So, still with my head spinning, my stomach squeezed by the alcohol ingested less than four hours ago, I crawled out of the warm sheets of my bed. I let out a deep sigh, mentalizing some mantra to keep my stomach in place, and threw a farewell look at the soft pillow that called me to lie down again.While I put on my slippers and got up from the bed to open the heavy curtains of my room, I couldn't help that tightness in my chest that always hit me in the morning; or, in fact, it always hit me at any time I dared to think about my family's story. Always at the moment when I remembered how vulnerable we were in that cruel world, surrounded by cruel and ambitious people.The early morning sun touched my eyes, as I watched the sea in front of our house, with blue waters spinning and shrinking, only to loosen in waves that foamed in front of the sand. One of the privileges of living on the beach was the sunrise; not only for the beauty, but for the time.Because I woke up too early, even
I woke up with a small bump on my body.I would give anything to listen again to the singing of the birds on the farm, the howling of some ox, or merely the natural aroma of the grass on a sunny day. However, my reality was always to wake up with some sudden movement against my body and provoked by my cellmate, or some loud curse of the police officers outside the cell." Wake up, sleeping beauty," sang Ramirez, my cellmate. He walked away when I yawned and mentioned getting up. "Today's day promises.”"What promise? "I asked with debauchery, but I remained lying down. Despite the cold of the bed, the constant feeling of being sick, I preferred to take advantage of every second I had to stay lying down. Maybe that way I could ignore the fact that my reality is total shit. "We never do anything different in this place.”"Just the fact of being alive is already something, brother," said Ramirez, kneeling next to our bunk bed and making the sign of the holy cross on his forehead. He clos
The very thin mattress, the thin and rough quilt, and all the coldness contained in that bed " although I sweated a lot against the mattress without a sheet, due to what I thought was a flu ", made me aware that my day would be more of shit, like everyone else. My body was sore, as if a car had run over me. Of course, this was because of my damn mattress. If I lay down on the floor, I would probably feel less pain.My cellmate was using the vase, and kept turning his back as I got up and stretched. Each muscle of my body creaked with the movement, like a very old and little used spring.Without realizing it, I ended up holding it with a little more force against the mattress, and it tore itself in my hand, releasing foam. I laughed, and my cellmate looked over his shoulder. How much urine would that bastard have kept in a single night to take so long?"Be careful, hermano," he said, in his foreign accent. I always suspected that Ramirez was Mexican. First, by last name. Then, for his
The prison was a real hole in hell.Like any place of maximum security, it was located practically in a condominium of its own to stay away from all the surroundings, although it was not like in the movies, where it was on top of a cliff surrounded by the sea. It was in the south of the city, kept in the eyes of all, but without much emphasis on the kind of people who were kept inside.The facade was simple, with a reinforced gate, high and thick walls, and agents in every corner. There were four guardhouses. Two in the front, one in the back, and one on the sides.The guards were armed to the teeth, some even wearing helmets that hid some aspects of their appearance. In general, they all boasted a frown, an expression of few friends and a unique coldness.I had an appointment. Besides, I didn't go alone. I made a point of dragging one of my co-workers, João Vitor, my partner in the office.He had more experience than me in criminal proceedings, considering that it was the first time