Sapphire Moonlight

Chapter 44

Chapter 44

'You see, we were not late,' she told him. Her gaze lingered on him. 

He wasn't worried about their being late and neither was she - this was due to the very reason that might have caused it. They had yet the whole night before them. Of course the dance was such a great occasion as all summer dances in interior towns always tend to be. They are enveloped in a movie-like atmosphere of romance. With the notes from the band floating in the air, and the drinks brought on trays by waiters that walk to and fro, and the clinking sound of glasses on tables and the elegant clothes, and all the people, people that have known each other and their families all their lives. They were both of them enthusiastic about it and because they were there in the club. But all they had done in the afternoon was still fresh in their minds, and there was some interference, as if they were still there in Ernestino Dias, Santa Clara and the Santa Ines farm.  

It was half past ten and they were sitting at the table that belonged to Juliana's father in the club, midway to the bottom, on the right. As was the case with all the other members of the club, the position of the table was marked on a map and it was always the same table in the same position with slight changes.  

Elaine and Marcelo were at Elaine's father's table, which was beside Juliana's. Thais's father's table was across the ballroom from where they were. She and Joaquim were there.  

The band was on the stage, at the bottom of the club, playing. The ball had started at ten. Current hits, that could be heard on the FM stations, were being played smoothly and in style. People on the floor alternated between dancing either separately or close together holding each other tight, depending on whether the rhythm was fast or whether it was the soft slow rhythm of romantic songs. 

'Yes, that's OK, darling, go,' Thais said to Joaquim. They had turned up from across the floor. Thais sat down at Juliana's table after they greeted. Joaquim talked to Marcelo briefly and Marcelo afterwards said something to Elaine. She nodded, he patted her on the shoulder meaning he would be back soon, her lips moved in a word of approval while she stared up at him as he got up to go. He and Joaquim approached Joao Caio and invited him to come with them to the bar. 

'So you know the bar,' Marcelo said to Joao Caio. He said this because there were waiters serving. 

'Yes, you'll like it,' Joaquim said to Joao Caio. 'It's a pretty good bar. And it's a chance to walk around and have a look at things,' he added.  

'They've invited me to come to the bar with them. They'll be back soon,' Joao Caio told Juliana.  

'Yes, go, darling,' she told him approvingly.  

The club was packing up but they had no difficulty reaching the cash desk, where they bought tickets to be shown at the bar. They walked to the elegant L-shaped solid wooden counter, across the wide entrance hall from the cash desk, and had to wait a little until they were attended. It was a crowded counter. Behind it, alongside the wall were fine glass shelves, almost as high as the ceiling, glittering, full of different bottles of all kinds of liquor in a range of different colours, crystal, yellow, red, green, blue, all of them in various shades, some opaque, many transparent, plus a wide variety of beer cans with colourful beautiful labels on shiny aluminium backgrounds. Their shape, for whatever reason, made Joao Caio think of the ampoules of perfume squirters - which held pressurized perfumed ether - that people used in carnivals in the fifties. He had seen them in a photo in an old magazine.  

A friend talked briefly to Marcelo. Marcelo introduced him to Joao Caio. Joao Caio and the young man shook hands. Then two friends of Joaquim's stopped and chatted with him for a while amid the hubbub in the bar and Joaquim introduced them to Joao Caio.