"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
"All right, it's just a normal prison," I said softly, wiping my wet hands on the side of my thin and chic pants. "He's just a normal inmate. Everything's fine.”"If you don't feel prepared, Jo..." said João, but I interrupted him."I'm always prepared. It's just a shock of never having been so close to a place forgotten by God.”"Now you understand me," he said, fixing his tie. "Wait until you are face-to-face with the despicable prison director. So you will regret even more wanting to help your friends. Also, remind me why did your sister ask you to take this case, particularly?”"She is dating the deta's brother," I replied in a conspiratorial tone. There was never a bad time for gossip. "And, before they can take over publicly, our advisor kind of gave some guidelines to clean up all kinds of nebulous past that may exist in their lives.”"And, as always, this part of cleaning ended up falling on your lap.”" Exactly, my friend.”João giggled."Get ready, friend, we will be enterin
The work in the kitchen was in full swing in those early hours of dawn.I had already had my breakfast, separated from the other prisoners, since the agents themselves served the food and guaranteed that we had not put any poison or something worse in the puree mixture. I've never spit on any food I've touched my hand on. I only said that to cause fear and disgust in others, although I wanted a lot, food has always been sacred to me.I came from a very poor family. My father was a farmer, in fact, he just took care of the place. The owners of the farm were older, and had grown up with my parents, since the whole generation of the family seemed to have been reduced to forced labor in the countryside. My parents were too old, too painful. And they could never control me, but they taught me basic principles and that I still followed, even in a distorted life.My parents taught me not to get involved in what was none of my business. And I wasn't stuck for that. I got into what was my busi