Sapphire Moonlight

Chapter 15

This is dedicated. May it reach Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and all the region!

Chapter 15

'I had intended to stay home until evening,' Elaine said to Juliana and Thais. 'But then at around three o'clock they dropped by to invite me,' she continued without adding a complement. She stared at Marcelo, who was holding her hand, and smiled up at him.  

Joaquim had his arm around Thais's shoulder. These two were gazing ahead calmly waiting, with an expression of quiet cheerfulness on their faces. All the others had that same expression on their faces, as though they had decided among themselves to appear like that that evening. They were together in the veranda in the backyard in Denise's house. Ariovaldo, Denise's boyfriend, was with them. The party had already started. It was taking place in the backyard. 

'We were at Church Square, Roberto and I. Sergio and Jose were also there,' said Marcelo. 'It is nice to sit on the benches in the shadow.'  

'It must have been fun,' Ariovaldo said. He hadn't been able to join his friends in the afternoon, because he hadn't arrived from Sao Joao D'Acre, where he had been taking exams at university. The fact that he had been taking exams was something extraordinary. He always had such high marks that he never had to take exams. His final pass marks were achieved without having to resort to exams. But one of these things that sometimes happen and cannot be explained had happened and he didn't achieve the pass mark in Statistics and had to take an exam. It was not due to incapacity, it looked like a champion team that was taken by surprise and conceded an incredibly stupid goal. Ariovaldo had always studied hard from an early age and when he was a boy in secondary school, while most mothers had to constantly urge their sons to study, his, on the contrary, had to tell him to stop studying for he used to sleep less than the standard hours. A great amount of time was spent on his books. Now he had grown up and could manage his time freely. He loved his engineering course and lived for it. So the fact that he had to take exams was really astonishing.  

'We thought of calling you, but Sandra told us you weren't in town yet,' Marcelo said.  

'It was only at half past four that I arrived,' Ariovaldo said, smiling gently at his friend.  

'I didn't see you around either, Joaquim,' Roberto said. 

'No, I wasn't in town,' Joaquim answered, and moved aside a little, to give Juliana a better place. Juliana thanked him with the eyes. Joaquim stared at her kindly. 'I was out of town,' he said again, this time looking at Thais. 'We were at the farm.' 

The veranda where they were was quite spacious and it was situated at the back of the house. It led to a laundry and to the kitchen, towards the inside of the house. Towards the outside, past the veranda, an equally spacious cemented open terrace stood as a platform, its level higher than the extensive grassy area that came next. After the grass there followed a rather large earthen area.  

Not all the spotlights placed on top of the house were on, but the ones that were on illuminated the backyard almost throughout. Those on the ground had been kept off, in order not to dazzle the guests. These last were in a considerable number already. They stood in those three parts of the backyard, or in the veranda. It was a landscaped backyard. Scattered around and all over the place were orange, lime, mango, and guava trees, and other trees. There were also flowers. To the right of the house, after the terrace, there stood the walled back of the garage. The drums from the band had been positioned on the terrace, near the garage, and the three guitars lay nearby on a table. There was also a keyboard.  

'We went to the river,' Elaine said. 'To that part of it right at the entrance to the town, where it forms a bay.' 

'I do like that place,' said Juliana. 'It's a wonderful place.'