by Rute Canhoto
CHAPTER FOUR
Wednesday’s classes were over and there was no sign of Lucas. The boy had missed school for the rest of the day, so Marina had to leave the rebukes and questions for later. Anyway, classes were over and the two friends could do what they had agreed the day before - buy a phone. They left school and began the journey to the shop. As they walked, they talked about Lucas’ behavior at the Philosophy class. Ana twisted her nose as she spoke, “By the way he back-answered Manelito, he must be completely whacko. Stay away from him Marina. He’s no good.”
“That's true,” agreed Marina. “And what about what he did to me? He slinked away and I’d have had a zero because of him. There'd be no way I'd put up with that.”
“It's just homework. I don’t think the teacher will evaluate it,” said Ana.
“The 12th grade students said that he evaluates everything. You see, the tests count as 60% and the rest 40%. It’s better to play safe.”
“From that perspective...” answered Ana, putting on a thoughtful expression and scratching her forehead. “Still, I’m not sure I would do Lucas’ assignment for him. He should have done it himself.”
“I thought about it, but I preferred not to risk it, because you never know what to expect from Manelito.”
“Yeah. Well, that kid has a lot of nerve,” retorted Ana while kicking a stone.
When they arrived at the shop, they went in and started the quest for the ideal mobile phone. Marina was looking for a simple device; if it made calls and sent text messages, she was happy with it. However, Ana was hooked on cell phones and had already lost count of those she had had. Enforcing Marina’s simplicity would be difficult with Ana around.
They started by a row that had the latest models, but Marina soon grimaced when she looked at the price tags. She wasn’t interested in giving so much money for a simple device. They wandered to the other side of the shop, where they found phones more affordable and that resonated with what she wanted to buy. At last, Marina found one that pleased her. She pointed it out to her friend, who began complaining about the color - turquoise. However, after reading its features, Ana was satisfied: it wasn’t as good as hers, but it was a phone and they could communicate at any time. They called the store employee and Marina told her which one she wanted.
“Good choice. It's a good phone. Plus, the battery doesn’t run out so quickly and it’s quite affordable,” the woman said in a happy commercial tone, as if she was still selling the product. Marina, nonetheless, agreed with her. She had thought of something even simpler, but it didn’t matter. That one had what she wanted and some more stuff, and was well recommended; it seemed to be a good acquisition.
The clerk picked up the device, took it to the counter and placed it inside a bag, every move reflected by the mirrored surface on the wall behind. Marina looked into the mirror to fix her hair. While placing a hank behind her ear, she noticed the reflection of someone on the street. She turned toward the door, but saw no one. Perhaps it was just a person passing by on the street. The employee claimed her attention then by clearing her throat. Next she handed her the bag with the phone, while saying, “Here you are. Are you familiar with the complaints system in case the device malfunctions?”
“More or less,” confessed Marina.
“Then allow me to explain.”
During the next five minutes, the clerk explained what to do if the phone got broken or if it came damaged right from the factory. She also gave her some insights into what tariffs she could choose. When the employee finished, the girls thanked her for the information and left the store.
“I agree with the clerk, it’s not a bad buy at all. And you managed to spend as little money as you wanted,” commented Ana.
“It’s not that I’m greedy, I just don’t want to spend it all at once. I worked very hard for that money. Plus, mobile phones have a very limited lifespan. It's not worth giving a lot of money for one of them, if it has to be replaced soon,” clarified Marina, trying to make Ana understand her point of view.
The conversation was interrupted by Ana’s phone ringing: her mother, who worked in the nearby, was asking her to meet her at the accounting office.
While Ana was talking with her mother, Marina shuddered. Again she was experiencing the sensation of someone looking at her from across the street. Whoever he was, he was too far away for her to recognize his facial features. Her attention turned to her friend when, after killing the call, Ana sighed. “Sorry, I can't walk you home. You know how mothers are,” she apologized. “She’s asking me to go get my brother from school with her, and after that we have to go to the supermarket to get something for dinner.”
“No problem. My house isn’t too far, I’ll get there in a matter of seconds,” Marina reassured her.
“But if you have more weird dreams, like the one we talked about, text me, after all now we can send messages,” said Ana, as she winked her eye.
“I will,” replied Marina.
They walked together to the office of Ana's mother, and then Marina continued home alone. As her mom had forbidden her to walk along the river’s wall, she chose to trek through the back street that led directly to her house.
Marina walked at a snail's pace, although she felt that something was wrong. She had a bad feeling within herself that she couldn’t shake off. She tilted her head back a bit and noticed a shadow, which indicated that someone was walking a few feet behind her. Would he be following her? It seemed a ridiculous possibility, still she decided to consider it, since when she was at the store and later when she had left it, she felt like she was being observed. What if, from observation, he had moved to stocking? She was being paranoid…
Anxious, she hurried on. As soon as she reached the cement arcade before her house, she abruptly sat on the stairs. She remained still and held her breath. A shadow hesitated behind her, but only for a few seconds. Marina didn’t look back right away so as not to disclose that she knew she was being followed. Waiting a little longer, she got up. Leaning against the wall, she peered out and found that who pursued her, had continued to walk down the road. By the silhouette, it could be a man or a tall boy. If he had really followed her… it could be risky, still she wanted to know the identity of the person who seemed to be tracking her. In a curious role inversion, she decided to go after him.
With a considerable distance separating them, Marina pursued him down to the main street. However, after a child’s clothes store, she lost sight of him. Where the heck is he? she asked herself. Had he entered a shop, went into a house? Or could he have turned into a different street without her noticing it? He couldn’t have just evaporated. She delayed her march and slowly walked past shop windows, peeking through the glass in the hope she would see him there. Eventually, she stopped. She put her hands on her hips, in a gesture of frustration, and looked around, trying to guess where she could find the mystery man. The answer came to her in the sound of a thud, followed by a moan. Marina lowered her arms and tried to tune her hearing into what she heard and where it came from. She heard another thump. Only then she noticed that there was a staircase next to the children’s clothing store.
The sun was beginning to go down and the street lights weren’t lit yet; the twilight made her reconsider approaching the stairs. Still, the need to know what was going on screamed so loud inside her that she decided to go on. The scenario she encountered was nothing like the one her imagination could picture, not even if it worked really hard: the man dressed in black had returned and was kicking Lucas, who was lying on the floor, with one hand covering his stomach and the other trying to protect his head. What was he doing to Lucas? Marina was horrified, mostly because if she didn’t stop it, the aggressor could leave Lucas very injured, or even kill him. But how could she help him? Shouting for help was an option, nonetheless it didn’t seem the wisest thing to do. Reacting on instinct, she bent down to pick up a large loose stone from the pavement, near the wall of the store building. She went up a few steps of the stai
rcase and threw it with all her strength, hitting the Goth right in his head. The man howled in pain and red liquid began to drip down his forehead. Furious, he turned toward her with the intention to make her taste her own medicine.
Sensing that his abuser had stopped, Lucas took his hand off his head. He glanced up and noticed that his attacker injured, which was weird. He looked down the stairs and then, upon seeing Marina, understood that she was the one responsible for that.
Enraged, the Goth stepped in her direction with clear evil intentions. Learning that, Lucas decided to act: he yanked the guy’s leg hard, making him crash down the stairs, just a few steps away from the girl. Feeling scared, Marina trembled. She feared that if he could stand, he would run up to hurt her. Before the man could rise, she ran into the street. Two people were passing by at that moment, talking and admiring the shop windows. They greeted her and continued their walk. Luckily, their presence was enough to discourage the Goth from doing whatever he wanted to do to her. Visibly angry, the man stood up and shook the cloak he wore over black pants and blazer. He makes me think of Dracula, she though. The man climbed the stairs with a limp, applied a final blow to Lucas and disappeared down the alley.
Marina wasn’t sure of what to do. She wanted to go to Lucas and to help him to compose himself. She knew, nonetheless, how fickle he was and she feared his reaction. Still, and as he had helped her in the river, she would help him too, even if he didn’t want it. She filled with courage and prepared herself to handle the comments and derogatory insults he might make about her.
With her legs trembling, she went up step by step to meet Lucas, who, in the meanwhile, had begun to move. When she reached him, he was sitting with one knee semi-raised and his head bowed. When he lifted his face, Marina noticed that he had a busted lip and a large hematoma was forming near his right eye. She crouched beside him, put down her backpack, unzipped it and took out a small pack of tissues. In the morning, she had bought a small bottle of water at school; she took it out of the bag too, opened it, and splashed a little onto the Kleenex. Lucas looked at her askance, but said nothing. Although she dreaded his reaction, Marina dabbed the wet Kleenex on his lip and tried to clean it carefully. Next, she repeated the process and placed another soaked Kleenex on the hematoma near his eye. During these procedures, none of them spoke, although their eyes almost never lost contact, creating an invisible, but almost palpable, tension between them. There was nothing to say: he had taken a beating, needed care and she was there to provide it.
After making his face more presentable, Marina put her stuff back into her rucksack. Lucas stirred and began to try to get up. She stood up promptly to help him stand, but he was faster and was soon upright as if he had no pain. Marina thought it was strange that he could pull himself together so fast, but chose to say nothing and accept it as a gift. Lucas shook his clothes to loosen the grains of sand and dust, and hinted that he would leave in the same lane that the Goth had used. Marina was stunned. She hoped that he would say something, his mouth, yet, seemed to be sealed.
Guessing that she wouldn’t get anything from him, Marina took the initiative and started to walk down the stairs, although she kept looking at him. He took a step toward the alley, but, suddenly, he turned and shouted at her with rage, “You have no idea what you have done. Stay away from me!”
It was as if she'd just taken a slap in the face. She had fought with the Gothic guy to help him and, in return, got whipped like an unwanted mutt. While the shocked girl tried to digest what he had said, Lucas disappeared down the alley. She was still internalizing what Lucas had said, when left down the alley. Bewildered, Marina staggered down the stairs and into the main street. As she was a positive girl, she tried to see things from another perspective: maybe Lucas had told her to get away from him to protect her, because he hung out with bad guys, as she had found. Or maybe he was just embarrassed or resented having been seen by her in that situation. Perhaps he feared that she would think that he was weak, or that she would tell everyone what she had seen and they would make fun of him. She would never do that, but he didn’t know her. She herself didn’t know Lucas, and all she had discovered about him so far, didn’t show in his favor.
The sun had almost completely gone down on the horizon; it was time for Marina to go home. Her mother knew she was going to buy a phone with Ana, but she was taking too long. Still, she preferred to walk back home at a slow pace, since she needed to regroup her thoughts. Her heart was still pounding as if it had taken an injection of adrenaline. By the time she reached the old building’s door, she was calmer.
Her mother received her while wiping her hands on a cloth; she had probably been doing the dishes. “Hello, darling. How are you today?” greeted mom.
Although Marina was still a little shaken, she tried to control her voice when she replied, “Better. I’m not in much pain, although I have a slight headache.”
“Do you think it has something to do with what happened?” asked her mother concerned, while remembering what the doctor had said about late symptoms.
Marina hastened to calm her before she could make a drama. “It has nothing to do with the bridge incident. It began early this morning, because I had some hassles with my Philosophy teacher.”
“Really? You, having problems with teachers? I could never imagine that.”
“I just hadn’t been taught by «Manelito, the Terror» till now,” justified Marina, opening both hands in front of her. “I’m going to my room and do homework.”
Once in her chambers, she sat at the desk, pulled the French notebook from her bag and did homework. She soon finished it, since translating a few words with the help of the dictionary was quite easy. As she still had some free time, and to avoid committing the same mistakes as last night, Marina decided to choose the clothes for the next day and to get her backpack ready. When she was putting the Portuguese diary into the backpack, she dropped it and it opened up at the last page, where Lucas’ name was written. Marina picked it up from the ground and stared for a moment at the letters that she had drawn. I really should get rid of this sheet, she thought to herself. Shaking her head, she closed the notebook and stuffed it into her bag.