Sapphire Moonlight

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

In the veranda at the front of the house Juliana paused her reading of the newspaper article for a moment, to look at the yard opposite. On the far side of the yard a man appeared, coming from the cowshed in the eleven o'clock morning sun. He wore a hat, as all employees of the farm usually did. He had just stepped into the yard and was coming towards the house. He then changed direction heading towards the towers on the right. That was where he was going to. Juliana knew him as she knew most of the workers in the farm. Some moments later, the man disappeared behind the towers to soon come into view again, but only momentarily, as he climbed down the stairs beside the yard wall to get to the road that ran alongside it, and vanish altogether. In the distance on the dirt road behind the cowshed, a cart was driving by. Some four or five men went along a secondary road that would cross the one in which the cart was going. They held their hoes against the shoulder, the blades behind the back. The men and the carriage wouldn't meet, though. Juliana then resumed her reading. It was Tuesday.  

At about twenty past eleven another glance at the road that came from the entrance to the farm to behind the cowshed revealed her mother's car driving down the road. It soon disappeared behind the cowshed to take the road alongside the yard. Juliana put the newspaper aside and waited for her mother.

They were in the veranda at the front. Mrs Dantas was sitting in the hammock, Juliana, Luiza and Otavio Sergio sat on the chairs at the tables. They had already had lunch. They had eaten meat casserole with potatoes and fried onion, fried green pepper with grated cheese on top, beans and rice, cabbage and tomatoes salad. For dinner they would have maize flour porridge, and cassava soup. 

'Mother,' Juliana said.  

'Yes, darling?' 

'Do you think you could teach me - not now, some other time -, how to knit?' 

'Ask me when you want to. To tell you the truth it's not that difficult. At least for me, as I'm not an expert.' 

'I was thinking it might be fun. Besides, it's a useful thing to learn.' 

'It is. It's quite relaxing. And I'm sure it's good for the mind as you have to concentrate.'  

'How did you learn it?' 

'My mother taught me. When I was about your age.' 

Luiza and Otavio Sergio left, in order to go for a walk round the yard and to the stables and Juliana started reading her book while her mother continued to knit. 

'Mother,' Juliana said, closing her book. 'Tell me about the time when you and father met.' 

Mrs Dantas thought for a second and then started. 

'We went to school together -' 

'No, before that.' 

'Your grandfather lived in Providencia. He was a doctor there. There was he and his wife and your father. Your grandfather was the owner of this farm, which he had inherited from his own father.' 

'They lived in the house where Doctor Claudio lives nowadays.' 

'Yes, in the house which now belongs to Doctor Claudio not in the one where they live at present. They lived in Providencia and a manager was in charge of the farm here.' Mrs Dantas went on knitting while she talked to her daughter. 'So your father was born and brought up there in Providencia just as I was. He did primary school there and afterwards, secondary school. When we started high school we fell in the same class. Of course we had known ourselves all our lives, living in Providencia. But being in the same class brought us closer. We started looking at each other. I found him so attractive and he felt the same about me. We started dating.'