Josias leaves Octavio's room and goes to the entrance. He finds Melissa typing and Adrian sitting in a chair near a shelf, reading the newspaper and listening to music on his walkman. He nods to Taco's song "Putting on the Ritz."
Josias gets furious when he sees his rival idly, with nothing to do. Romualdo didn't assign him any task? He approaches and slaps Adrian's head, trying to rip the headphones off.
Adrian's walkman is of a better make and newer model than Melissa's. That's why Adrian is scared and afraid of the functioning of his device. He carefully removes the headphones and strafes Josias with his gaze. "Hey, watch out, this walkman is new!"
"And which money did you buy this walkman?" Josias asks sternly, drawing Melissa's attention.
"Not everyone has a careless father like yours!" Adrian insists on poking at Josias's wound, his father's absence, "I feel that deep down you are jealous of me, so you try to stay close to my father, wanting to stea
Moments after Josias inspects the work, he approaches the room where the second bedroom will be. Uélton was resting from lunch sitting on the cardboard stretched out on the floor. A battery radio played "Always Something There to Remind Me", by Naked Eyes. Uélton didn't know English, but the music reminded him of the girl who helped him with the stairs.Milton went after Josias and reported the needs. "It's necessary to check the company you buy the cement from. Our guys are complaining that it's not coming in the same quality as before. We don't want a wall to fall or a plaster to crumble.""Don't worry, Milton," Josias assures seriously, "I'll talk to Romualdo and let him know we need the best materials.""Is it true, sir, that we will soon be building houses in Sunset Village?" Milton asks with his eyes shining. His dream is to build rich people's houses.Josias smiles from the corner of his mouth. "It's good that you guys are looking for
Pamela is at the supermarket checkout, checking out customers' purchases with her grim-faced. Customers don't risk starting a chat for fear of pissing her off even more.Wallace walks and approaches her. A supermarket watchman is on alert, remembering the attack."Pam, why were you late today? Do you think you managed to go unnoticed? Jorge was screwing my patience." He speaks harshly."You need to stop being afraid of Jorge." She responds with a shrug.Pamela is so nervous that it let her bewildered. A package of frozen chicken cost $5.20 and she typed $2.50 into the cash register."He is now the manager of the store. If before he had supervisory powers, imagine now!" Wallace speaks in awe."Jorge cannot fire any employee at his pleasure." Pamela keeps adding up the wrong prices for the goods. The lady is startled when she discovers that her purchases came out cheaper than she thought."Have you been wandering around somewhere else?"
Adrian knows that Josias was in the driving class. Josias's desolate, weary face betrays that he was terrible once again. "What's wrong, couldn't you keep the engine running for fifteen minutes? You're going to end up ruining the car's engine and the School Driver will charge you for the repair!"Josias approaches Adrian with slow but intimidating steps. "What else is missing for me to punch you?""It's missing the fact that I could sue Silva Constructions for assaulting a simple employee. The Labor Court will love to hear about it.""We have money to pay any compensation and we have Igor Bento as a lawyer.""Ah, but there's also my father!" Adrian always touches Josias's wound, "He's going to love knowing that the boy he so admires assaulted his real son."Josias stops and takes a deep breath. He doesn't want to lose Moacyr's favor.If Moacyr learns that Josias punched Adrian, he might be furious and decide to report him to the loan shark!<
Josias shakes his head regretfully. His voice came out weak and dismayed: "I can't, Octavio, I can't against this guy." "What's so deterring you from seeking justice?" Octavio insists firmly. "The guy is powerful. That's it when I ran away in 1980. Three years went by and no one did anything, imagine what he must be like now?" Octavio ponders, "Well, his house looks like it's from Europe Garden, and he'll probably be Sunset Village's first resident." Josias has a start and shivers. "We can never let the shameless choose our company!" "And how will we know if we don't even know his name? I've only seen him once or twice myself, I wouldn't recognize him if he appeared in front of me today." Josias heaves a sigh. What a difficult situation! Octavio gets up. "Let's go out, cool off a bit. You need it." Josias looks at him piously. "It's true. I hope he doesn't find me." Octavio chuckles. Sometimes Josias's fear is so irrational that it's funny. ****** Pamela comes home from work
After admiring the landscape, Octavio gives Josias a ride back to his house. Josias is in awe of Octavio's promptness at the steering wheel."Dude, you make everything look so easy...""Maybe because it's easy," Octavio replies, "Wouldn't it be the case that you were out of your mind?"Josias ponders for a few seconds before answering: "Not just the loan shark issue, but there are many things involved with the company. We have five construction sites and this morning Melissa scheduled a meeting with another client for tomorrow.""That's the problem. When you're behind the wheel, you can't let your mind wander with so many distractions. You need to focus." Octavio advises him."I'll try it in the next class.""I'm warning you, buddy: you'll just relax when you resolve this issue with the loan shark. I believe that if everyone in the neighborhood joins forces, we'll get rid of that bad guy.""That's what Mr. Moacyr Barbosa always says."
Josias begins to explain to Officer Mendes why he took so long to report the moneylender: "The matter, Officer, is that I was so terrified that I ran away from Rainbow Garden, hid in Happiness Slum, and spent almost a year wearing only sweatpants. I had just come out of the bath when I heard the invasion and the shots. I never got to see my father, if he was still alive, if he died in the hospital, I didn't even show up at the funeral."The officer shakes his head. "I'm so sorry, young man. But even if you couldn't report this crime, you could have come to us when you were feeling better, not after all this time.""So you mean there's no way out?" Josias opened his eyes wide and his voice faltered."Calm down, it's not like that." The officer at least gives a slight smile to reassure the complainant, "I can even file the police report and take it to my superior, but I'm already saying that, because so much time has passed, it will be very difficult to investigat
Pamela is at the Hospital, waiting in the same room where she was admitted when she had her leg operated on. But she's just sitting on the bed, having memories in her mind."If only I hadn't been run over..." She whines through clenched teeth.Doctor Silvana appears with a white envelope.Pamela quickly gets up: "So, doctor! How do I look? Do I have cancer? How long do I have?"Dr. Silvana suddenly weaves a friendly smile, and warns her in a friendly tone, "You'll live to be ninety if you keep avoiding stress and strong emotions."She holds out the envelope. Pamela takes it abruptly, pulls the leaves out, and flips through them with wide eyes. No, no cancer or sexually transmitted disease! She is free! (yet...)"But doctor, then why did I pass out?""Because of stress. That's why I recommend it: beware of strong emotions. Are you reading novels or watching soaps too much?"Pamela rolls her eyes. "My mother is addicted to soap o
Uélton explains the situation in his good-natured way: "Guys, this is the beauty that stirred my heart. Do you know her, Stacy?""She's my cousin, Natalia Simmer." Stacy proudly responds.But Natalia turns whiter than she already is: "No, Stacy, don't say my name to that smart flirtatious!"Too late, Uélton extends his hand: "A pleasure, Natalia. Uélton Freire."Natalia doesn't shake his hand. "Your hand is all covered in dust.""Bones of the craft," Uélton laughs after repeating the saying.Stacy says goodbye to her boyfriend. "I just came here to introduce you; we're going to the bakery.""See you later, honey," William responds and the two kiss goodbye to each other."Nice to meet you, William," Natalia says goodbye, "Stacy talks a lot about you."The two girls walk away. Uélton is looking distant, distracted, with a very silly face.William snaps his fingers in Uélton'