I thank, awkwardly waving, the applause from the guests and walk down from the podium to shake the hands of my collaborative team.
Anahí and I make the most of the fact that Das Dores is taking care of Apoena and go out to dinner and dancing until late. My back groans from the effort and I grab Lady Godiva, my cane, to walk better, without limping. When I first started my recovery, I imagined that I was going to go back to racing, run in the beach, I don't know, maybe even sign up for the marathon... But the reality is very different from the fantasy, which makes it sometimes even more challenging. The spinal cord injury that I suffered, even though there wasn’t spinal fracture, was significant and aggressive, so every day that I walk on my own two legs, is a victory for me. I always thrived on challenges, so acing my obstacles, my everyday battles, give me the strength to keep moving forward, even if I don't know where the road is leading me to. For me, it's not about arriving but about the path.
I open the door to the bedroom and watch my little cabocla in the light of the lamp, after we made love. The hunger I feel for this woman is never slaked, never stops, she fills my flaws like no one before her. The depth with which we give ourselves to the other, from our first look until today, only increases. Anahí turns in bed, facing me with tired almond eyes from coming. Her naked, reddish skin, sweaty after hours of making love calls for me to pet her. It's a sin not to lick and kiss her cabocla skin. I'm not a virtuous man, so I don't resist, lying down and bringing her perfect, warm, soft body next to mine and bury my face in the curve of her neck, getting drunk in her addicting female scent.
"You smell so good."
"And you're so hot it's impossible not to taste you again."
I squeeze her breasts and lower my hand unhurriedly, Anahí holds my hand leading it to her belly, pulling on my lips with her teeth.
"Do you know what's in here?"
I shake my head feeling my heartbeat increase with the remote chance of my dreams once again become reality.
"A little tenant. The echo will tell us if a boy or a girl."
She's pregnant? No! No way! Apoena has turned two, her arrival in our lives, was for me a true miracle... I never thought I could love a being so small as I love my little girl. And now, I'm going to have another child. Me, who never dared to dream of having my own family?
"Fuck, baby. Are you trying to tell me you're pregnant?"
"Yes, what do you say?"
"Fuck! Fucking hell!”
Anahí hits my arm and laughs, teasing me, "That's not an answer, Viking. Are you upset that I'm pregnant? Are you unhappy with the news?"
"Are you crazy woman? I'm so happy I still can't believe it. Is it true, really true?"
Anahí nods and I kiss her still flat belly.
"Something tells me it's another princess. And if it's a girl, I swear I'm getting a gun. No little bastard is kissing my girls. Only after she's 30, yeah 30 seems like a good age to start dating."
Seven months later after Anahí found out she was pregnant, Kauã was born, my big boy, with light hair like mine and his mom's dark eyes. Anahí has just came back from the surgical center, face still tired from the effort of the birth. She places him on her lap and he cries sulkily and grumpily. And as soon as she starts feeding him, he can't get enough, starving, emptying Anahí's breasts. I hold Kauã carefully and the little glutton burps and fall asleep fast. Anahí looks at us smiling and I sit next to her on the bed, settling Kauã on her lap.
"Looking at the both of you like this, I think, little cabocla, it's not that hard to be happy, right?"
"You think, honey?"
I don't think, I'm sure! I always had so much and at the same time so little. So much money, so much fame, so much meaningless fucking. I thought life was perfect, I was a winner in the tracks, I had all the women I wanted, but I always wanted more. Too much was too little, I wanted more challenges, to go further... But I never felt like this, complete. If I knew being happy was so simple, I would've brought you into my life sooner."
"And who told you that I would fall for you that easily?"
"Destiny, it's the way that it was meant to be. You and I were fatally predestined to be together. One way or another we were going to meet and go through all of this. You were born to me mine, my little cabocla!"
"And you were born to be mine, my Viking!"
"Fate that came to pass
Of feeling your heat and being whole
Every day is for living, to be whatever is
And just be whole...
Yes, all love is sacred.
All love is sacred.
Yes..."
THE END
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[1] A person with mixed indigenous Brazilian and European ancestry
[2] A type of Brazilian palm tree.
[3] Indigenous healing ritual.
[4] Oca(s) – typical Brazilian indigenous housing, similar to tribal huts.
[5] “My dear”, in French.
[6] One of the Brazilian indigenous people.
[7] Brazil’s national cocktail, made with cachaça, sugar and lime.
[8] People from Rio de Janeiro.
[9] Chorinho and Gafieira, types of samba.
[10] Goela and gogó both mean neck. While ema and pato are animals, rhea and duck, respectively.
[11] Conselho Federal de Fisioterapia e Terapia Ocupacional, independent agency responsible for standardizing PT and occupational therapy practices, along with having ethical, scientific, and social control over PT and occupational therapy activities.
[12] Brazilian slums.
[13] The fruit of a palm tree called Astrocaryum aculeatum.
[14] A pancake-type Brazilian delicacy made of ground cassava.
[15] A starch extracted from cassava root.
[16] A type of grid used to expose objects or food to the sun.
[17] A percussion instrument consisting of a closed basket with a flat-bottom filled with seeds or other small particles.
[18] A paste made from sweet corn, boiled wrapped in corn husks
[19] A type of hand frame-drum popular in Brazil.
[20] Cavaquinho is a small string instrument of the European guitar family with four wire or gut strings.
Fatefully Yours Page 23