Chapter 1 page 01-05

SEISMIC LOVE

“Mom! Mom! Mom!” – A little boy came screaming into the kitchen, his slippers echoing,

startling the woman who was mixing cornmeal and other ingredients in a pot on

the table. – “I made a new friend!”

The woman put her hand to her chest to calm the palpitations, dropping the wooden spoon,

she didn't know where her son got so much energy even after class.

“How good my angel.” – The woman said in a soft voice, making a gesture for the little

one to approach. – “Put away your backpack and come help mother to bake some

bolo de cabo-de-madeira, yes?”

The boy nodded and ran to leave his backpack in his room, the mother heard him stumble and

grunt, he must have hit something, but he quickly returned to grab the hem of his mother's skirt, his eyes shining with longing because only once a year his mother made that recipe, for the Santa Barbara Festival.

The kitchen was simple, with exposed brick, grayed by smoke from the woodstove, but the

smell of clay and wood was what made that house a home for the little boy.

“Tell me about the new friend of yours.” - The mother said, returning to the service but

still giving her child some attention, the boy smiled his widest smile and told his mother what had happened.

It was playtime. The best part of going to school was the break. Not that studying was

bad, it just wasn't as intriguing as everything there was to be seen and felt outside the classroom, the walls of the house that served as a school, it's fences, the city limits, and beyond.

That's how Davi ran out the door when the bell rang, with his disheveled hair obstructing his vision, and ran into a smaller boy.

Davi was used to this kind of situation. Really. It was routine to bump into his classmates down the only corridor of the elementary school. And as a routine, the classmates fell to the ground and cried. The boy waited for the other one to start the outburst, but instead, the boy with properly lined up dark hair just checked his clothes, frowned and continued on his way.

“Hey Hey hey.” – Davi said running after the other. – “I'm Davi!”

“Pedro.”

Davi looked at Pedro, his social clothes, with tie and all, something that no child, not even one, had ever worn to go to that school. Davi had never seen that boy before. He had tanned skin and his eyes were a dark green, streaked with aqua green, unlike the amber and gold eyes of everyone else.

“You're new!”

“I'm not! I am already seven years old.” - Pedro pointed it out, embarrassed.

With that Davi burst out laughing, while Pedro, blushing ashamed, walked quickly away from the boy who was bending over, holding his belly with laughter.

“Davi! That was rude!” – Davi's mother, Dona Lourdez, interrupted the boy's chatter. – “You have to apologize to the boy Pedro when you find him.”

“But mom!” – Davi crossed his arms with a frown. – “I haven't finished telling the story yet.”

“I'm sorry my angel, go on then, but first get the oven running for mom, yes?”

Before she finished speaking, the boy was already running out into the yard to heat the clay oven.

Then, with his cheeks aching with laughter, and his eyes burning with tears, Davi ran to the schoolyard looking for Pedro. In the makeshift patio, children from the school's four classes played. Davi saw Pedro with some ease, not only because of his looks, the boy was the only one who was not sharing the toys.

“Found ya!” – Davi shouted, running towards the boy who was leaning against the school's fence.

“What for?”

“Well...it's just... I don't know really.”

Pedro wasn't looking at Davi as if he have found something very interesting on the ground.

“I'm sorry.”– Davi said, and that finally made the younger boy face Davi, without, however, saying anything in response.

“I... it always happens, I'm really sorry, just...” – Davi gestured with nervous hands. He stopped for a moment seeing that Pedro kept his expression neutral, took a deep breath, and said the first thing that came to mind. — “I am a tapir.”

“And I am Pedro.”

Davi was astonished, his mouth open, while Pedro let out a muffled giggle.

“Only you would do such a thing.” - The mother stroked her son's tangled hair. – “You did good apologizing. So now you guys are friends?”

“Yea! He's my first friend!” – The boy said innocently, to which the mother looked with some dismay. Her little angel was always smiling, energetic, curious, and prone to getting hurt, she didn't know if she was happy with that prospect. – “Can I go play outside?”

“Of course my angel, but be back in time for lunch!”

The front door slammed before the mother finished speaking. It was going to be a big day - she thought.

Davi was always running. His mother said that as soon as he had taken his first little step, the next minute he was already running around the house. For Davi everything was too fast, so much to see in such a short time, he didn't like to run, but it was necessary. Pedro was the first thing that ever had been able to stop him.

In Ribeirão das Dores, there were about a thousand people, as far as Davi had counted. He knew almost everyone's name. In the morning, before returning to class, Davi asked Pedro where he lived, who replied: “With the Pelegrini's.”

Davi stopped in front of a gate and looked at the house where Pedro lived. It was the best house in the community, the biggest. The people of Ribeirão liked colors, all the houses, even the poorest, were colored, but the Pelegrini house was pure white.

Still stunned, Davi remained in front of the house, hoping to see Pedro somewhere.

“What are you doing there, boy?” - Asked a man with a bulging belly, glossy mustache, and riding boots.

“I'm looking for Pedro.” – Davi replied immediately. There was no point in lying. Though he's already been shooed out of a few other places once, or twice – maybe three – times.

The man ruminated as he smoothed his bushy whiskers, peering at the lanky figure that was Davi.

“Who are your parents kid?”

“I’m Lourdez’ son, from the river's low.” – Davi replied.

“Dona Lourdez, great woman! Even better at cooking!” – The man said pompously, letting out a laugh at the end. – “Say boy, are you going to have her treats at the Festival today?”

“Yes, sir, she spent the whole morning doing it!” – Davi said proudly. The money his mother would get at the festival was “to get through the month”, which was much more than what she was paid for doing other people's laundry.

“Look boy, Pedro can't go out now, but I'll take him to the festival, you can meet him there.” - Said the man opening the gate.

Davi watched the man, who locked the gate and waved goodbye.

It felt like the night would never arrive. For Davi, time had never passed so slowly, yet he resigned himself to looking at the hill that stood out on the horizon, hoping that the sun would go down soon.

“Dazin, come here!” - Davi's mother's voice brought him out of his lethargy.

“I'm here!” – Davi replied, running to meet her.

“It was so quiet 'round here, I thought you left without telling me.” – The mother said as she arranged the cakes wrapped in the banana leaf in the baskets. – “Get ready and we're going to the plaza.”

After putting on his best slipper, the boy ran back to his mother, who handed him four small wicker baskets, while she herself carried three large baskets.

The Santa Barbara Festival was Davi's favorite, as it was at night, with all the lamps lit, the colors of the surrounding houses became even more vibrant.

In Dona Tança's tent, with which Davi's mother shared, it was already up. Davi helped his mother organize the lace linings on the trays so that he could put the cakes out for sale. It was barely finished, and Davi was already running

through the tents, looking for Pedro.

Davi caught sight of the mustached man he'd been talking to that morning, but no sign of Pedro, when a hand grabbed him by the wrist, pulling him away. From the size of the hand, Davi already knew who it was.

“Hey Hey hey.” – Davi complained. – “Where are you going?”

“I cannot be late.” – Pedro whispered in a hurry. – “Mr. João gave me just a few minutes

for me to buy something and come back.”

“Le'go to my mom's tent! Her cake is the best!”

Pedro shook his head in exasperation, looking around, left something in Davi's hand, and ran back to whom Davi would later learn was João Pelegrini. Davi got upset, he wanted to enjoy the festival with his new friend, he returned discouraged to his mother's tent, sulking in a corner the boy looked at what Pedro had given him. It was a thread bracelet, the boy smiled, apparently green was his new favorite color.

Years later, memories of that childhood would turn bittersweet, before disappearing in a spiral of fractals. But for eight years, which went by too quickly for the likes of Davi, the two boys were no longer seen one without each other.

Even though he changed schools the following year, Davi met Pedro every day, after all the school was right at the end of the same street as Pedro's school. Davi

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