Tabu Page #4

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with one of them

an occasionally remembered

to take the boy out on a Sunday.

At fifteen,

Mario had looked death in the eye.

A tragic expedition to Mount Tabu

resulted in the deaths

of several youths.

Aurora's husband's crucial

intervention saved my friend.

I'm not aware

of the exact accident

or haw he intervened.

But I believe both held sacred

the bond that was born then.

He invented

an impressive curriculum

and was accepted

as an assistant lecturer

in the Department of Geography

of the Faculty of Humanities

of Coimbra.

He never made the journey.

The maps he designed

were very beautiful,

but, it later proved,

hardly scientific.

October

Despite living next to Aurora's farm

we only met months after my arrival.

My neighbors were looking

for the small crocodile

that had escaped from the lake

that Aurora had built on her farm.

I found the animal in my garden

and spent part of that evening

watching it move in the bathtub.

Aurora was happy when

she got the crocodile back.

Since her husband

was away on business,

she ordered lemonade

to be served outside,

following the customary

prudish etiquette.

To make small talk,

I asked about the animal's name.

She replied it had no name yet.

Aurora had many possessions.

but one was very peculiar:

the house cook...

who had been serving

the husband's family for decades.

a sage old man

of excellent cooking reputation.

He was also a sorcerer

and used to read the future

in the entrails of the animals

he prepared for the pot.

One October day,

after the first rains, he confided

words from the spirits to the maids

that Madam was pregnant.

and her end would be bitter and lonely.

But one of the maids betrayed him,

and the prophecies

reached Aurora's ears.

Furious, she fired him...

claiming that she could

no longer tolerate

such repugnant and heretical rituals.

Time, however, would prove

the first prediction right.

Aurora was expecting a baby.

and the husband,

who hoped for a vast succession,

was happy about his firstborn.

He celebrated the event... and

doubled his matrimonial attention.

After her initial euphoria,

Aurora became more reserved.

and wasn't passionate

about the subject.

November

Her husband attributed this to

a natural fear of maternity

and some harmless, slight bipolarity.

that he had noticed in her from before.

A rare beast, thought to be extinct,

was hear for weeks on the hills

from where came...

echoes of lonely

and excruciating growls.

Many chased it without success,

but Mario was the one to capture it.

Challenging a second time

the scary summit of Mount Tabu,

he made a triumphal descent

with the caged beast.

A powerful Arab caliph

soon bought it,

giving my friend the first installment

of a vast sum that he would

never see in total.

Socialism would put

an end to the caliphate.

Ignorant of the revolution,

and thinking

he would have the money,

Mario accumulated debts and

splurged on various whims,

including recording a single

that would be the band's debut.

This record

is today a cult object

amongst music lovers

due to its rarity and simplicity.

December

Around Christmas,

the crocodile escaped again

and Aurora immediately knew

where to find it.

We later found the crocodile

hidden under a cupboard.

Since that fateful day

Aurora secretly gave the animal

a romantic name:

Dandy.

The news that Aurora has missed a shot

caused quite a stir.

Her shotgun

had not fired a stray bullet

since her early youth.

January

It was thought the pregnancy

was linked to the incident

and that maternity had the power

to sweeten her virile nature.

It would be Aurora's last hunt.

Meanwhile there were rumours

of revolts and massacres

perpetrated by black people

elsewhere in the colony.

In the quietness of our community

the news sounded exaggerated

even unreal.

The confirmation arrived

through a military officer

carrying out

government information sessions.

White folk got excited

and organised militias,

night patrols

and did shooting exercises

accompanied by tea and biscuits.

Indifferent to the fate

of the Empire,

I saw it as another opportunity

to be near her

even if her husband's presence

caused me a new and growing anxiety.

February

I wonder, can anyone really understand

the moment one goes

from desire to love?

I believe I have already said,

my past was

hardly deprived of pleasures,

especially when socialising

with the ladies.

Despite my fiery passions,

going from one woman to another

had never bothered me,

as they all seemed very beautiful.

Aurora irreversibly

overturned my nature,

I'm not sure when

or for what obscure reason.

I couldn't ignore that Aurora

carried the child of another man,

her lawful husband,

and that being her lover

meant committing a colossal foolishness

that I could only live to regret.

But in her arms,

the future

seemed a vague and stupid concept.

We met in secret

while the others played their wars.

The risk of being caught was high

but schemes to hide illicit affairs

were nothing new for me.

The originality here

was of a different nature:

Aurora grew in me

as an absolute reality.

March

My growing discomfort reached

its climax at a party

in the pool house.

Maybe the lugubrious aura of this place

stressed my restlessness.

The parties there

owed their reputation

to the strange family that lived there.

The lady had run away, leaving son

and husband in charge of each other.

The son had been born

with feeble nerves,

and later returned even

more perturbed after

a long stay in Marseille,

where he got involved

with the underworld

and especialised in French boxing.

In panic situations

he would take flight

into another reality

and, just like Don Quixote,

he'd fight invisible enemies.

The father hid a feral despair

under a polished cloak of amiability.

On New Year's Eve,

after a bottle of whiskey

he'd close the living room door,

load a bullet into the drum of a gun,

raise it to his temple

and challenge life.

He later died as a consequence of this.

His parties often ended

with a gun salute,

scaring the guests away.

Due to my forbidden love.

I had grown apart from Mario

in the last few weeks.

I couldn't tell

how he'd react to my secret.

Mario evoked God,

he believed Divine Providence

had come to my aid.

He showed me a letter

from a famous singer

from a British colony

who liked the band:

an invitation to perform at a hotel

in the capital for a few months.

Two days later I flew out there.

April

"My dear Lady,

The sweet and ill-fated moments

we have lived in the last few weeks

make me fear for my future

and above all for yours.

The profound emotion I feel

when I'm next to you

puts me in a new, frightening position.

I can't justify my actions.

My heart begs me not to,

but I have made a final decision.

I shall not see you anymore.

I believe this is the only way

to stop this horrendous crime.

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