Sapphire Moonlight

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

In the drawing room where they usually stayed in the Cincinato's house, Miguel Bueno, Bruno Cincinato and Joao Caio were talking. Miguel sat on the left part of the sofa while Bruno was reclining in the armchair opposite, his legs crossed, resting on a table top. Close to the bookcase on the right of the room, sitting casually on top of the desk was Joao Caio.  

Bruno and Miguel would go sailing at the weekend. They were working out the steps for the trip.  

Over the sofa, through the window which overlooked the internal patio, Joao Caio stared at part of the patio and the lawn. A stretch of the swimming pool was also visible. Two spotlights overhead flooded its very white borders. At the other window, on the left wall between the places where Miguel and Bruno were sitting, the garden could be seen. Through the open windows, in which both frames were up, there came the scent of wet grass, which had been hosed before dusk, together with the quietness that pervaded in the garden and in the patio. From the nozzle of a hose lying close by there came a hiss. It told gently, in a whisper, that the working day had come to an end, with all its challenges and rewards, as had all the rush in the streets and the traffic. They had all come to a pause, a ten-hour truce. 

This had been a truly hectic day. Money had been made and money could have been lost - and was almost lost - in the business done throughout the day.  

Then at the end of the afternoon, coming from the Stock Exchange, Joao Caio and Bruno stopped at Tencarlo. They had left the Stock Exchange together. Miguel was to join them afterwards. He had left at lunch time as some dealings had to be attended to and nothing had been heard of him since. 

Joao Caio and Bruno decided to stay at the counter. At quarter past six no less a person than Alberto Cincinato, Bruno's father, arrived. This was a surprise as he was not used to going to restaurants after leaving his office in the company. He would go straight home, always. He greeted his son and his son's friend. He had an appointment with the three politicians that had gone to his house the week before. 

Soon afterwards, the politicians came. They greeted Joao Caio and Bruno and Miguel, who had just arrived, and went inside the restaurant together with Alberto Cincinato.  

The three young men soon left for Bruno's house where they had dinner with Bruno's mother and Bruno's sister. When dinner was finished - plain rice and beans, fried potatoes and steak, plus stewed chayote, and stewed cabbage, lettuce and tomato salad, and chilled lemon juice to drink -, they went to the drawing room where they used to meet.  

Joao Caio told them about his trip to Providencia last week and about the one he would be taking tomorrow. Then Bruno and Miguel began to discuss their sailing arrangements.  

These two would go tomorrow to Arinhan-Ropia, the beach, in Sao Tiago. They would sail together in Bruno Cincinato's yacht, the Pharaoh. Their girlfriends - Maria Camargo was Bruno's girlfriend and Sandra was Miguel Bueno's girlfriend - would come with them. Sandra was a young woman who had just graduated in business and Maria Camargo had gone to college together with Bruno.