Flag Race

by Felipe Valente

  Antônio couldn’t refrain himself and interrupted him. “Doesn’t idiopathic mean you have no idea what’s causing this? So how can you think you can treat my kids if you have no idea what you’re dealing with!?”

  “It’s not that simple, sir. You may take them to any other doctors and hospitals you wish and I’m sure they’ll give you the same diagnosis. It’s not that we ourselves can’t explain the origin of your kids’ disorder. Medical literature itself still can’t explain this rare sort of dystrophy. But that’s no reason for pessimism.

  “What I can guarantee to you,” the doctor went on, “is that here they’ll have the best possible treatment. We’re in touch with the most advanced medical centers in the world, which will help us put them on the queue for an innovative procedure, one that employs nanotechnology to treat patients whose clinical condition is similar to that of your kids. But that’s, obviously, only if we can have your consent.”

  Marta looked at the twins. In their innocence, they had no idea of what they were talking about. The young boys could only grasp that it was serious and that their family was worried.

  “What about the costs?” Pedro asked. His parents were startled by his question.

  “I don’t have the exact figures to tell you now, but... for both of them the final estimative would be... something around a million and two hundred thousand reais. Of course, that’s not including the preliminary expenses to prepare their system to accept the treatment, besides the medication that might be needed to keep them well until the procedure is performed.”

  Pedro, Marta, and Antônio sank deep as they sighed. Over a million reais? How could the doctor say there was hope? Antônio and Marta were already struggling with their debts at the bank, how could they expect to raise all that money? Even if they asked the whole family for donations, there was still no way for them to afford it!

  “I understand you need some time to think about it. But you have to keep in mind that the kind of treatment I’m suggesting didn’t exist until a few years ago. Despite the high cost, you should feel lucky for having this opportunity. I’ll understand if you want a second opinion or even if you wish to look for treatment in another hospital, but I recommend they should be hospitalized as soon as possible. Crises may come up anytime and it’s important for their recovery that they stay at a medical facility.”

  On the two days that followed, Antônio and Marta went through all the other hospitals in the city, bringing Rodrigo and Marcelo along, trying to find better prospects or more affordable treatment options. Unfortunately, the diagnosis seemed to be correct every time. Most other doctors they saw were startled to see the boys’ test results and recommended they seek help with the doctor with whom they had already consulted.

  There was no other option. Meanwhile, Rodrigo and Marcelo’s condition was getting worse. Their movements were getting more and more lethargic, and even their eyelids seemed to never be fully open. The twins were hospitalized at the recommended facility, where, after due preparations, if one day they managed to raise that money, they could have that nanotechnological procedure performed. Until that happened, they’d continue the conventional treatment, hoping it would slow down the disease’s evolution.

  Pedro allowed the constant rumble of roller blades to invade his mind while he strolled by the seashore, one of the places he used to visit with his brothers. They’re going to get out of this! They have to! He pitied his whole family. From his brothers, suffering with their godforsaken disease, to his parents, who now had the responsibility of finding a way to obtain over a million reais if they wanted their kids to have any chance of recovering.

  How could they raise all that money? The small marketing company they managed could barely keep their current living standards; making a million bucks in such a short time was unthinkable. And Pedro knew his parents had their advertisements in every media: newspapers, magazines, television, the Internet...

  But not the Neuralnet!

  Could that be the answer? Pedro started feeling hopeful again. He recalled the loci he’d seen with Mary, all of which featured advertisements for their users to see. If their parents could keep such a locus, they would get that money in no time!

  He had to brake abruptly, turning on a sharp corner. However, that leads us to another problem... Maintenance for a locus probably didn’t cost so much as a million bucks, but it was surely something they couldn’t afford now, especially considering they had to pay for the twins’ treatment. He then decided he’d spend his time inline investigating loci and their costs. After all, he still had a few days before the next match in the Flag Race amateur championship semifinals.

  Despite all these worries in his mind, Pedro couldn’t help but be anxious for his friend. Sitting with Daniel and Luiz in the great school auditorium, he waited for Letícia’s technosamba performance to begin.

  The place was packed with students from every grade, watched over by their respective teachers. The murmur of their voices filled the air, under complaints from the teachers who were organizing the event.

  When everybody was in their seats, and all conversation was reduced to whispers, the beginning of the performance was announced.

  Curtains opened. Letícia and four other girls were already on the stage. There were spotlights pointed directly at each one of them. Pedro realized how beautiful his friend was in her outfit, just like last time, if not even more so. Though he knew Letícia was concerned about her performance and the audience’s opinion, her smile revealed not a single sign of anxiety. It was like she was in another world, completely focused.

  They started with slower steps, following the same pattern as at the rehearsal Pedro had watched. He never thought it possible, but Letícia seemed to be moving even more fluidly and accurately than before, even when the music picked up its pace. The other dancers were great as well, but they didn’t come near her level of radiance.

  “You haven’t picked this one up yet, have you, Thiago?” Pedro heard a voice from the row behind him.

  “Oh, my friends”—Thiago’s voice was unmistakable, coming from the seat directly behind Pedro’s—“there’s no girl in this school I can’t pick up. But I never saw her looking this hot. Why should I get a girl that’s just ‘meh’ when I can have nothing but the best?”

  Luiz and Daniel glanced stealthily at Pedro, who tried his best to focus and zone out, ignoring what Thiago was forcing him to hear. He knew he was talking louder than usual and closer to his ear just to mess with him. He had to focus. He couldn’t give him the pleasure of letting him mess with his mind, despite having to hear all that about the girl he liked so much.

  “In fact, just a few days ago I ended up realizing she’s kinda worth it, you know?” the nagging boy went on. “Sometimes we need someone else to show us that a girl’s worth it, you see? What fun is there in picking up some sad sack nobody wants? None, I tell you! But making out with a chick there’s more guys after, now, that’s a victory!”

  The music was getting faster and faster, and so were the dance moves.

  Pedro focused on the performance, trying to keep his cool, but he was inevitably fantasying about several ways through which he could disintegrate Thiago if they were on the Neuralnet. A boulder could appear above his head, he could set his seat on fire, or draw a sword and cut the boy in half. Anger was rising, welling up inside of him, he could feel it. He had to calm down! Couldn’t let that jerk...

  The music was at its fastest tempo. Thiago was unrelenting in his provocation.

  “I’m telling you guys, by the end of the year, this chick’s gonna be mine! She must never have truly been with a man, if you know what I mean! I bet I’ll get her so excited with what I’m gonna do to her she’ll even let me film it so I can send it to some people...”

  That was it. Pedro fell on the boy, landing a punch squarely on his face. Thiago shrunk back to protect himself, grinning the whole time. Pedro followed his blow with one more and yet another. When he realized Thiago was still
grinning, he doubled his efforts, though he realized his punches weren’t actually hurting his opponent. He was about to give him one final blow, gathering all his might, when he felt his fist being held down.

  “That’s enough! You two, to the principal’s office, now!” The teacher responsible for his class was dragging him to the exit. Thiago changed his expression into a fake grimace of pain, pretending to be the poor victim of an act of unwarranted aggression, who hadn’t even fought back. While only Pedro could still see and hear him did he say, in hushed tones, “See you around, loser!”

  Before he’d even met with the principal again, Pedro was sure of what was going to happen now. Thiago would make up some story about how he’d been threatened, refused to obey Pedro’s orders, and got punched for it. His swollen face and purple patches of skin where the first blow had landed would confirm he was the victim of the story, letting Pedro take all the blame.

  His predictions came true. Despite asking for Daniel and Luiz to testify on his behalf, there was no changing the main fact: he was the aggressor, and Thiago the victim. Besides, Thiago also had his goons testifying on his behalf. All this meant Pedro was in a sorry condition.

  “Pedro, do you understand how serious this situation is?” The principal, leaning forward on his chair, pierced him with his glare. “It’s not only your scholarship that’s in danger! We could have you expelled! Attacking a student who didn’t even try to defend himself? What could possibly be in your mind? You’ve always been a model student in this school! What has happened to you on the past few weeks?”

  “Sir, I—”

  “You know what? I don’t care. Nothing is going to change what’s happened today. It’ll be worse if you try to hide your actions behind your brothers’ disease. It’s not their fault you’ve been acting like this. People struggle with health issues in their families every day and this doesn’t turn them into aggressive slackers like you’ve recently become. I’ll tell you this: if it weren’t for Thiago’s request, we’d have kicked you out of this institution right now. Since he didn’t think it was fair for you to be expelled, I’ll see you’ll get a mere three days suspension, but only as long as you apologize to him in the classroom. And, Pedro”—he paused—“consider this my final warning.”

  Pedro opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Was that the way the principal saw the situation? As a gesture of benevolence from Thiago? He wanted Pedro to go through the humiliation of apologizing in front of all their classmates and wanted him to be around just so he could rub his triumph over Letícia in his face. Surely he wished to torture him by parading her around, kissing her...

  There was no way out he could see, however. If only he had restrained himself! If only he had simply tuned out! On his way back to the classroom, Pedro was beginning to wonder how Letícia would see this situation. How could he explain it all to her?

  As the door opened, everybody’s stares fell on him, followed by complete silence. He sought Letícia’s green eyes, which revealed there were a thousand questions she wished to ask him. Pedro slowly walked down to the teacher’s side, standing in front of everyone. Sighing, he began, “I wanted to apologize for what I did. I owe Thiago an apology and I owe Letícia an apology too, for having ruined her performance.”

  “And what else?” the teacher asked.

  “It won’t happen again.”

  “Great. Now back to your seat, because we’re going through the final chapters of the book My World of Yesterday and its influence on Brazilian literature. We’re going to discuss now what the author meant by...”

  Crestfallen, Pedro sat through the remainder of his classes in silence, afraid of suffering further retaliation. He couldn’t let his guard down, because Thiago would surely take advantage of that to torture him even more.

  As soon as the school bell rang again, announcing classes were over, Pedro ran to Letícia, who was putting her tablet away in her backpack.

  “Le, I’m really sorry I ruined your performance and—”

  “What are you talking about, Pedro? I didn’t even know what was going on until I had finished dancing. There was no issue at all for me. And then? What happened, after all?”

  What now? What was he going to say? Would she understand it if he told her the truth?

  “Oh, I dunno. Thiago kept pestering me throughout almost the whole performance and I really couldn’t control myself.” He tried steering the conversation on some other direction. “But you, you were gorgeous, Le. All the time I was looking at you, you were perfect. From what I remember from your rehearsal, you didn’t miss a single step! I told you you were going to kill!”

  “Thanks, Pedro. I dunno, though, I’m not sure it was that good. But at least nobody made fun of me. At least not yet... so... did you really hit Thiago? What did he say to you that made you so mad?”

  Pedro was afraid the subject would keep returning. He wanted to make up some excuse, talk about something else, but he was too tired to think of anything. He decided to take a shot.

  “He was badmouthing you, Le. And I couldn’t stand that,” he said and then, seeing the look on her face he added, “I mean, no, no, it wasn’t anything about the performance. He kept talking about ‘making out’ with you and how good it would feel rubbing that in my face.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he knows I like you, Le!” Pedro heard himself say.

  They went silent. Pedro couldn’t believe on the words he’d just uttered. Letícia didn’t know how to react. They kept on staring at each other for a while, before she finally broke the silence.

  “I... erm... I’ve got to go, pick up my things and all, OK? And I... erm... see you later!”

  Chapter 11

  As he sat on the bus back home—since his parents were way too busy with work and taking care of his brothers—Pedro was mentally cursing himself. How could he have allowed that to slip like that? He’d imagined so many better ways and situations in which he could have told Letícia he liked her! Now he’d let it fall, like a bomb, over her all of sudden? And what if she really favored Thiago instead? Then he’d have finally buried any chances there were of one day being with her.

  This day wasn’t turning out OK at all. And it was about to get even worse, as Pedro noticed as soon as he got home. Huh? The car’s still in the garage? Shouldn’t Mom be at the hospital by now?

  “Mom?” he shouted, while closing the front door and laying his backpack on the floor.

  “Up here,” she answered.

  Pedro grew more and more nervous as he climbed up the stairs. What was going on now?

  It all made sense to him once he peered into his room. His teary-eyed mother was sitting on the bed. The Neurolink box lay at the bedside. It was open. She had the device on her hands.

  “Will you explain to me what this is?!” she asked, waving the object up in the air. “Will you tell me why on earth you have a Neurolink here at home and you didn’t even tell neither me nor your father?! And worse! Here it says your first access was on your birthday!”

  “Mom, I—”

  “I was already worried sick because of your brothers, I came here to pick up a few toys to drop off at the hospital and then I find this! And if that wasn’t enough, I got a call from school saying you got into a fight again!”

  He sighed.

  “I can’t believe it, my son, that you’re not seeing how you’re turning into an addict! It can’t be that you yourself can’t see how this goddamn thing is destroying your life! Not to mention all the danger in running around in that nonsense Internet, sweet Jesus!”

  “Mom, there’s no danger nowadays and I—”

  “Oh, there’s no danger?! Didn’t you see all the news of people getting brain-damaged from abusing that thing? If there’s no danger, then why didn’t you tell me and your father you had got this crap on your birthday, huh?”

  “Because I knew you’d get all like that, Mom! I knew you wouldn’t understand!”

  “What I do understand, my son, i
s that ever since your birthday your grades have been dropping and you’re now getting into trouble after trouble! None of this is anything like you!”

  “But I’m getting better, Mom, I’ve been studying more and I’m gonna fix everything!”

  “Oh, really? How are you gonna do that? Beating people up in school? It’s no good, my son, you won’t understand it while you’re on this crap. You need some detox time, you’re so hooked you can’t even realize you’re not thinking straight!”

  “Mom, please! I have an important match this week in this championship I’m in and I have to get inline and help my team, or we’re gonna lose!”

  “You see? Now you’re making up excuses, my son! This is so wrong! How can a little game championship be more important than your life out here? How can that be more important than your grades and good behavior in school? Things that you should be trying to keep straight, especially now that we’re going through all that with your brothers!”

  “Mom, it’s nothing like that! I’m doing my best! You just don’t understand!”

  “That’s enough, my son, enough!” she said, getting up. “You need time to think. I’m taking this thing here away with me, and you, sir, won’t be using it so soon! Make good use of your time to think of what you’ve been doing with your life and help take care of your brothers. I have to go see how they are doing now.” As she climbed down the stairs, she added, “There’s lunch in the fridge.”

  What a most absurd day this had been! He’d just gotten suspended from school, he’d scared off his friend saying he liked her (and possibly ruining any chances of dating her), and now his Neurolink had just been taken away. And all that a just few days before the next championship match. He had to find a way to get inline! If they won the next game, they’d have a high enough score to be in the leadership position!