Love and dreams are ageless
- Are you all right? Do you need any help?
- He's a bit confused, poor old thing. It was the fault of the cyclist who almost ran him over.
- He's bleeding a lot, we'd better get him to an emergency room.
- Are you alone? Or do you have someone we can call to come and keep you company?
- No, no, I'm fine, thank you!
- Can you stand up? Here, hold on. Now let's sit on the stone wall until you feel better.
- I'm already feeling better now that it's just you here with me. All those people around me were making me nervous.
- Did the bike hit you?
- No, no, I lost my balance, that's all.
- But your knee is bad. Can you sit here for a while while I go to the pharmacy across the street to buy some bandages?
- No need, I've got everything at home. Let's just stay here a little longer while I calm down from the shock.
- It's a nice day, isn't it? After a week of rain, I couldn't stand staying at home any longer. When I woke up and saw that it was sunny today, I decided to go for a walk in Urca. Look how beautiful it is, the sun reflecting off the masts and hulls of the boats moored at the Yacht Club. This is a little corner of paradise. Did you know that some days I see dolphins following the fishing boats coming back to Quadrado da Urca? I've always dreamed of living here. And you? Do you also like to walk in Urca?
- I like it very much, I come every Sunday. I live very close by, I can walk home.
- Speaking of which, it's time to bandage your wound. You need to wash the wound so it doesn't get infected. I'll call a taxi to take you home.
- No need, I can manage on foot. Would you mind accompanying me?
- Of course not! Let's go.
- Please don't notice the mess. I've been sleeping in the living room since my last partner left me. Since then, I've never been able to sleep in our double bed...
- Don't worry, Antonio. Where's the material for the bandage? In the bathroom cupboard? Just sit here and let me get everything. All right, all right. Let's wash this wound, it's full of sand.
- Are you married, Mrs. Vera?
- Call me Vera. No, I'm not married.
- How can something like that happen? Such a beautiful girl!
- Things of life, Mr. Antônio. But look, your bandage is ready. Now you have to clean the wound and apply antibiotic ointment every day so that it heals properly.
- Thank you very much, you're an angel. Can I get you a glass of water?
- Thank you, Antonio. I was just looking at the view from your apartment, how beautiful it is! You can see the whole bay, even Niterói.
- This apartment is tiny, but when I sit here admiring the view, I remember the times when I was younger and took part in offshore speed boat championships. I feel happy all at once. I had an Intermarine speedboat, with a cabin and everything. That boat was my life. More than once I was champion racer. Look at these newspaper clippings I've had framed, it's me in my speedboat. What a beauty!
- And what happened, Mr. Antônio? Why did you stop racing your speedboat?
- Call me Tony, please. During a competition in which I was doing the Santos - Rio de Janeiro crossing, the speedboat passed an abandoned fishing net on the high seas. The engine's propeller got tangled in the net and the boat flipped over. I spent four days in intensive care, between life and death.
- After that, you never piloted your boat again?
- Never again. My children had to sell it to pay the hospital bill. I would have preferred them to sell my apartment, but since they were angry about the boat, they passed it on. They kept saying that speedboat racing was something for young men, that I was old enough to settle down. They sold it for a pittance...
- At least you seem to have recovered very well from the accident.
- Oh, I was treated very well. When I came out of hospital, I could barely move. The doctor told my children that it would be difficult for me to walk again. So they and my ex-wife decided to leave me to live on the farm, in the care of the caretaker and his daughter. I retired on disability and began to live a simple life.
As I was an orthopedist, I had some knowledge of the movements I should make to stimulate my muscles. So I started treating myself. I spent whole days lying in bed doing exercises on my own, while distracting myself by looking out of the window. I had asked the caretaker to put some wedges at the foot of the bed so that it would be level with the window and I could enjoy the view better. And the view was beautiful, oh how it was!
I've always been stubborn, when I put my mind to something, nothing could stop me. So, with a lot of exercise, I began to regain my movements. Meanwhile, I saw the caretaker's daughter moving around, and every now and then she would give me a little smile. How beautiful Ritinha was! I spent hours distracted by my physiotherapy, watching that little girl work. She fed the chickens, did the laundry, picked the vegetables in the garden, cooked, mended my clothes and even sang all the time.
After a while, Ritinha started helping me with the more difficult exercises. With two, everything gets easier, doesn't it? Three years after the accident, thanks to her dedication and my efforts, I had regained most of my movement. Shortly afterwards, we found out she was pregnant and decided to get married. So, at the age of 58, after almost dying in a speedboat accident, I was starting a new life. This deeply upset my ex-wife and my children. They were disgusted that I had decided to marry a girl 40 years younger than me. They said I had no sense of the ridiculous. That I'd soon get a pair of horns!
Ritinha and I moved to Rio de Janeiro and, as soon as our son started going to kindergarten, she was able to go back to school. Rita quickly finished her supplementary education and went to college. After helping me with my rehabilitation, she discovered her vocation for physiotherapy. She had an incredible ability to learn. After a few years living in Rio, she already looked like a different woman: she had learned how to dress, how to behave, how to speak properly and had acquired social skills from socializing with her college classmates and my old friends from work. I was amazed at my new family!
My grown-up children continued to curse me, even more so now that Rita had become a great woman. They made a scene every time I gave my little boy an expensive present. In addition, family parties had become an ordeal. She was always accused of being greedy and a cheapskate. But Rita always behaved with great dignity and ignored every barb thrown in her direction. All this hurt me a lot, because nobody seemed to care about my happiness.
My son was already ten years old when she started going out at night with her classmates. They went to bars and concerts. At first I wanted to accompany her, but I felt very out of place among the younger crowd. She soon started going out alone with her new friends. She was now a woman at her best. It was hard to resist her charm. The simplicity of a girl brought up in the countryside, in the midst of nature, was part of her charm, which enraptured her classmates and teachers.
Two years later she left me. She went to live with a classmate with whom she was madly in love. I can't even condemn her for that. A woman in her prime... what would she want with an old man like me? Since we split up, I've had other girlfriends, but women aren't like they used to be, they don't want anything serious. After a while they leave. Do you know what the last one said to me when I asked her why she wanted to separate from me? I don't like it anymore, she told me!
- Tony, your life is like a soap opera! But don't be sad. Soon you'll meet someone interesting. In fact, I think you'd really like to meet my aunt, she's also a woman full of stories to tell.
- Hummm. Maybe. Maybe not. But what about you? Would you like to have dinner with me tonight at Maxim's? They say the view of Urca from up there is wonderful!