Episode 5

Maria

While my father and mother talk to Pastor Paulo and his wife, my eyes, which should be on the ground—as I was taught—discreetly turn to the two of them.

The brothers.

Kael and Dylan.

They are just a few meters away, arguing in low voices. But even without listening, I feel... the tension. The magnetism between them and—for some inexplicable reason—with me too.

A chill runs through my stomach. The way they both looked at me a moment ago... was too intense. As if I were something precious, or dangerous. Or both. And now, even without exchanging a word, something throbs inside me. Something that scares me.

Why do I feel this? Why with them?

I hate myself for it. For feeling things I don't understand. It makes me angry. It makes me ashamed.

At this moment, I notice that the argument between them intensifies, even if contained. Dylan seems to be trying to hold Kael back, and Kael... Kael is a fire about to set everything around him ablaze. My eyes want to escape this vision, but they can't.

PLOFT!

"Ouch! I'm sorry! I should adjust these glasses of mine better..."

The nervous voice pulls me back to reality. A skinny boy, with crooked glasses and a bucket of popcorn half-turned forward, stands before me, his face completely red. Some popcorn is still falling from his shirt.

"Look... I really am a Palermo!" he says, with a somewhat awkward smile, as he tries to wipe the popcorn off his chest.

And, against all expectations, for the first time in a very, very long time...

...I smile.

Not a trained, disguised smile, like the ones I use to calm my father or please guests. But a genuine smile. Simple. Spontaneous. Because of the strangely funny and gentle way of this boy. Because of the lightness with which he exists.

It's as if, for an instant, the world stopped being a prison.

"Ah! My name is Leo," he says, still smiling, as if he doesn't know that the world can be cruel.

I'm going to answer. I feel my voice wanting to come out, for the first time without fear.

"I'm..."

"Maria!" my mother's voice cuts me like a whip. Her hand squeezes my arm firmly. "Come on! We need to greet Mrs. Matilde, girl!"

She pulls me before I can say another word. I turn back, and I see Leo standing in the middle of the hall, still holding the bucket of popcorn, with a confused smile on his face.

But then I notice something else.

The Moraes brothers' eyes are fixed on him. Blasting him.

Not with hatred, but with something that looks like... tension. Instinct. As if he had invaded some space they consider theirs.

My eyes go from the brothers to Leo. And then back to the brothers.

A silent confusion takes over my chest. A changing but dense exchange of glances. As if we were all connected by something invisible, strange, that none of us completely understands.

What is happening tonight? Why does everything seem to be changing?

The only certainty I have is that after this... nothing will be the same.

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