Chpter 2 (english): The Half-Moon Scar : A Mark of Destiny

Almost 5 years had passed since the day the Souzas woke up and found their niece lying on the couch holding a letter, but Praça da Liberdade had hardly changed. The sun rose over the same gardens, reflecting on the curves of the Edifício Niemeyer building and invading the windows of the Souzas' kitchen, and it remained almost the same as it had been on the night Mr. Souza heard the dire news about the military coup. Only the photographs on the fireplace console showed the time that had already passed. Five years before, there were a bunch of photographs of a smiling, spoiled child on the beach, at the waterfall in Parque do Inhotim - but Pedro Souza was no longer a baby; and now the photographs showed a tall, blond boy with a buzz cut in military fashion. There was no indication in the living room that there was another child in the house, however, Madil was still there, currently asleep, but not for long. Her aunt Ana woke up, and it was her sharp voice that produced the first sound of the day.

"Wake up, girl! Get up! Now! I need help preparing breakfast."

Madill was there living in the maid's room. Her father, a Bulgarian immigrant, was a lawyer and her mother was a Brazilian house cleaner, and both died in a terrible car accident in March 31.

She turned her back and tried to remember the dream she was having. It was a pleasant dream. Madil felt comfortable in the arms of the Saci, despite being a legendary creature known for playing pranks on people. She felt the fresh breeze on her face as they spun around in a whirlwind, and the Saci's laughter beside her was contagious.

"Have you gotten up yet?" she asked.

"Almost," replied Madil.

"Well, hurry up then. I want you to take the dog out before going to school. I want everything perfect today its pedro's birthday."

Pedro's birthday - how could she have forgotten? Madil got up slowly and started looking for her flip flops. She found them under the bed and, after removing a cockroach from them, put them on. Madil was used to cockroaches because the maid's room was close to the laundry room and the drains were always full of them.

Perhaps it was because she lived in a dark maid's room, but Madil had always been small and very skinny for her age. She seemed even smaller and skinnier than she really was because she was only given Pedro's old clothes to wear, and Pedro was a boy and much bigger than her. Madil had a thin face, bony knees, curly black hair down to her shoulders, and very green eyes that stood out against her chocolate skin. She always wore neutral-colored clothes that were patched up, and she had broken her nose several times fighting with Pedro, who always punched her in the nose. The only thing Madil liked about her appearance was a thin but cartilaginous scar in the shape of a half-moon on the palm of her hand. It existed for as long as people could remember, and the first question they could recall asking Uncle Souza was how he had gotten it. "Jumping from rooftop to rooftop in the favela where he lived," he had replied. "And don't ask questions." "Don't ask questions" was the first rule for living a peaceful life like the Souzas, and in Brazil in general.

Uncle Souza entered the laundry room when Madil was attaching the collar to the dog. "Smooth that hair," he ordered, as a good morning greeting. About once a week, Uncle Souza would peek over his newspaper and shout that Madil needed to relax her hair. Madil must have had more straightening and flat-ironing sessions than all the girls in her class combined, but it didn't make a difference. Her hair simply curled back into perfect curls.

Madil went to take the dog out. Outside, she saw a blue macaw looking at her as if it wanted to communicate. She said hi, but the macaw only flew away. As she returned to the apartment, she saw the pile of gifts that her cousin Pedro had received for his birthday. She felt a tinge of jealousy as she knew her own birthday was next month, and she would not receive any presents like Pedro.

As Madil entered the living room, she noticed the dog was already there, jumping and wagging its tail. Suddenly, the dog grabbed one of the gifts with its teeth and started shaking it vigorously. Madil ran to take the toy away from the dog, but it was too late - the toy was already broken.

Panicking, Madil tried to hide the toy under the sofa cushion, hoping no one would notice. However, just as she finished hiding it, her aunt entered the living room and caught her in the act.

"What are you doing?" her aunt asked, anger rising in her voice.

Madil hesitated for a moment, but then showed her hands. To her surprise, the broken toy was no longer broken - it was as if it had been magically restored.

Confused and relieved, Madil wondered if it was all just her imagination, but she knew deep down that something strange had just happened. She looked at her aunt, who seemed to have forgotten the incident and was now busy organizing the rest of the gifts.

Madil breathed a sigh of relief and decided to keep the strange occurrence to herself, knowing that no one would believe her if she told them. She watched as Pedro excitedly opened his gifts, wondering if there were any other surprises in store for the day.

Madil was taking the dog's collar off when Pedro walked into the kitchen with his mother. Pedro would be considered handsome if he wasn't unbearable, he looked a lot like uncle Souza. He had a big, rosy face, a long neck, blue eyes, and slick, oily blonde hair. His teeth were too big for his thin-lipped mouth. Aunt Ana often said that Pedro looked like a child model - Madil often said that Pedro could fry an egg with the oil in his hair.

At that moment, the doorbell rang, and Aunt Ana went to answer it while Madil and Uncle Souza watched Pedro unwrap a new bicycle, a set of toy soldiers, a remote control car, a science kit, a board game, a soccer ball, a pair of roller skates, a model airplane kit, and a train set. He was tearing the packaging of a gold necklace when Aunt Ana returned, looking both angry and worried.

"Bad news, dear. Mr. Lobo cannot keep her," she said, nodding her head towards Madil.

Pedro turned red with anger, but Madil's heart skipped a beat. Every year, on Pedro's birthday, his parents took him to spend the day with a friend at the club, waterfalls, cafes or at the cinema. Every year they left Madil with Mr. Lobo, an old madman who lived nearby. Madil hated the place. The whole house smelled of French cheese and Mr. Lobo would show her pictures of his old exchange program in Europe all the time.

"And now?" asked Aunt Ana, looking furiously at Madil as if he had planned everything.

"What now?" - tia Ana asked, looking furiously at Madil as if he had planned everything.

"We could call Graça" - tio Paolo suggested.

"Don't be silly, Paolo, she hates the girl" Often, the Souzas talked about Madil like this, as if she weren't there - or rather, as if he were something very contemptible that couldn't understand them, like an amoeba.

"what about your friend, what's her name, Rosa?"

"She's on vacation in the Lençóis Maranhenses."

"You could leave me here," Madil risked hopefully.

Aunt Ana looked like she had swallowed a live slug. "And when we come back, find the house in flames?" she growled. "I'm not going to set the house on fire," Madil promised, but his aunt and uncle weren't listening anymore.

Maybe we could take her with us to the Pampulha Zoo and let her walk around the lagoon while we visit?said Aunt Ana slowly.

"The lake is immense, we'll never find her afterwards, and if the military see her alone, it will cause even more trouble for us."

Pedro sat on the sofa and began to sob as if he couldn't breathe. In reality, he had no problem at all, in fact, he knew that if he put on this show, his mother would give him whatever he wanted.

At that moment, the uncle looked at the living room clock and shouted, "We have to go now, otherwise we won't be able to visit the entire zoo before it closes."

"I'm warning you" - he said, getting closer with his red face and yellow straw-colored beard almost touching Madil's face - I'm warning you, the first prank you pull, the first one, you'll be locked in that maid's room until Easter.

"I won't do anything" - said Madil -" I swear..."

But Uncle Paolo didn't believe her. Nobody ever did. The problem was that strange things always happened around Madil and it was just no use telling the Souzas that it wasn't her fault. Once, Aunt Ana, tired of seeing Madil come back from the hairdresser as if she hadn't been there, grabbed the iron and straightened her hair against the kitchen table, burning her scalp and leaving her hair super straight except for the bangs. Pedro laughed at Madil, who spent the night imagining what school would be like the next day, where they already laughed at her because of her boyish clothes. The next morning, however, when she got up, her hair was exactly as it was before, perfect curls. They had locked her in the maid's room for a week because of it, despite her attempts to explain that she wouldn't be able to explain how her hair had returned to its natural shape so quickly.

Aunt Ana had once tried to force her to wear an old dress she had bought at one of those thrift stores (brown with orange pompoms) to go to Uncle Paolo's sister's wedding. The more she tried to pull it over her head, the smaller the dress seemed to become, until it looked like it was made for a rag doll, and certainly wasn't going to fit Madil. Aunt Ana concluded that it must have shrunk in the wash, and Madil, to her great relief, wasn't punished but had to spend the night at Mr. Lobo's house.

On the other hand, she got herself into big trouble when they found her on the roof of the central market. Pedro's gang was chasing her, as always, and to the surprise of both Madil and the others, she ended up sitting on top of the water tank. The Souzas received a very angry call from the market director, reporting that Madil had been climbing the market buildings. But all she had tried to do (as she shouted to Uncle Paolo through the locked door of the maid's room) was to jump on the big garbage bags. Madil supposed that maybe the wind had caught her at the moment she jumped.

But today nothing would go wrong. It was even worth being in Pedro's company to spend the day somewhere other than school, the small room, or the room that smelled like cheese at Mr. Lobo's.

Madil sat in the backseat of the car, looking out the window as the city passed by. She was lost in thought, humming along to the song on the radio "Come on, let's go, waiting is not knowing. Those who know how to do, don't wait for it to happen" when suddenly, the music abruptly stopped. Confused, she turned to her uncle, Mr. Souza, who was driving.

"What happened to the song?" she asked.

"That song was critical of the government. Intelligent people don't do things like that." Madil frowned, not understanding. "But why can't they express their opinions?"

"Because it cause trouble," Pedro interjected.

"But what about freedom?" Madil asked, feeling frustrated.

Mr. Souza sighed. "There's no such thing as absolute freedom. You have to consider the consequences of your actions."

Madil fell silent, her thoughts still churning. As the car continued down the road, the radio remained silent, and the only sound was the voice of the news announcer on the radio.

The Souzas and Madil arrived at the zoo, and Pedro's excitement was palpable. He had been talking about the zoo for weeks, ever since his parents promised him a visit on his birthday.

As they entered the zoo, they were greeted by the sound of animals and the smell of popcorn. Madil looked around in amazement, taking in all the sights and sounds. She had never been to a zoo before, and it was a completely new experience for her.

Pedro eager to see his favorite animals. They passed by the giraffes, the elephants, and the monkeys, but Madil was most fascinated by the big cats. She stood in awe as she watched a lioness lounging in the sun, her golden fur glowing in the light.

Suddenly, a loud roar echoed through the zoo, causing Madil to jump in fright. Pedro laughed and pointed towards the tiger exhibit.

"Check it out, Madil, that's my favorite one!" he exclaimed.

Madil followed Pedro to the tiger exhibit, where they found a large crowd gathered around. The tiger was pacing back and forth in its enclosure, growling and snarling at the people watching it.

Pedro was so excited that he climbed up on the railing to get a better view. Madil was hesitant, but she didn't want to be left out, so she followed Pedro up onto the railing.

Suddenly, the tiger lunged at them, its claws extended. Madil screamed in terror as she felt herself falling, but then she heard a familiar laugh.

It was the Saci, spinning around her in a whirlwind again. She felt the wind in her hair and the joy in her heart, as the Saci whispered in her ear, "Don't worry, I've got you."

When Madil opened her eyes again, she was lying on the ground, surrounded by concerned onlookers. Pedro was beside her, shaking her and calling her name.

"Are you okay? What happened?" he asked, his voice panicked.

Madil sat up slowly, still feeling a little dizzy. She looked around, but there was no sign of the Saci.

"I don't know," she replied. "I think I just tripped."

Pedro helped her to her feet, and they continued their tour of the zoo, but Madil couldn't shake the feeling that something strange had just happened. She felt a strange energy coursing through her body, as if she had been touched by something magical.

As they left the zoo, Madil turned to Pedro and asked, "Do you believe in legends, Pedro?"

Pedro looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you believe in things like the Saci?"

Pedro shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it's possible. Why do you ask?"

Madil smiled to herself. "No reason. I was just thinking about something."

She knew that she would never forget the strange events of Pedro's birthday.