Lucas smiled at her handiwork. The gilded throne she had created with little to no effort was one of those things that said "It went to her head" and "She got drunk with power".
Literally. Written on the top and on the sides. Lucas was that kind of person; if no one was around for her to joke about, she'd do so about herself and to herself.
"Mmm. Nah. Not my style."
The throne changed into a comfortable and sleek office chair, one that had no legs and floated in place. In front of it, an equally floating transparent glass desk without legs. And topping it all off, a computer with a floating screen and an oddly futuristic keyboard.
"Now we're talking..."
Her cell phone rang.
"Hello. Oh, hey, Robert! How's things? Ohhh, that one part about the trial you hadn't told me. You had? Geez, sorry. Bit absent-minded here, yeah. So, how did it go? Good. So only a fine and the repairs? Okay, I'll help you out with both... I do owe ya, ya know. Yeah, but... Well, okay. You wanna pay for the fine yourself, it's cool. Yeah, I understand you feel the need to face consequences and so on. I mean, I don't, ever, but if you do, it's cool. Can I still help with the repairs? Splendid. Also, I'm taking you shopping for vests, if you're free and willing. You are? Great. Call Sam to see when he'll get there to help with the bell and I'll restore it to... Okay, say, do you want me to restore it to brand new or to... Right. Yeah, makes sense. The value is in it being an antique. Right. So, very old but without any effects from the fire. Hokay. Anyways, call Sam and check if we go out now or later for the new vest thing, will ya? No problem at all, Robert, you deserve it and more. See ya."
The reader is encouraged to add in his or her mind pauses and context-friendly replies in this conversation.
Her cell phone rang again after a while.
"Yello. Ah, okay. So you called Sam? He'll be there at noon? Okay. We got time to do some holed-vest-shopping then, right? Okay, find somewhere nice and secluded."
The reader is, once again, encouraged to add in his or her mind pauses and context-friendly replies in this conversation.
Robert blinked for a few seconds at being asked to go somewhere secluded.
Ah. - She thought - The moon. She wants to create a portal.
As if answering to her thoughts, one appeared in the alley she was now in. Robert stepped through.
"Heya, Robert! How goes?" - Lucas smiled. As if it were nothing. Here she was, standing on the Moon, by the side of what looked like a basalt mansion of sorts. Denial of a good event, maybe? Or she had yet to grasp the things she was now capable of? Robert realized - as she caught herself thinking those things - that she herself might have been in this state to be so calm. Robert had heard of people that, upon winning the Lottery, behaved as if nothing had changed for a few days afterwards.
It had yet to dawn fully on Lucas. Can't blame her. - Robert thought - It has yet to dawn on me fully....
"I am well, Lucas. I am pleased to notice you are as well." - Said Robert, deciding to give it time.
"So, it's off to my city for the vests?" - Said Lucas.
Robert nodded. "Lead the way..."
People from outside Brazil sometimes have a tendency to believe the country is a sparsely-populated, rural, tropical paradise of sorts where every city is by the sea.
The laid-back people of this fantasy are not in a rush to do anything but bask under the Sun (not an activity to undertake lightly these days) and play magnificent soccer.
Sexy and luscious ladies with Carmen Miranda hats or dressed as if it were Carnaval (the former was made up in Hollywood, and Miss Miranda has been deceased since 1955; the latter makes as much sense as unchanged Americans always dressing as if it were Halloween) populate this kind of fantasy, and the parrots, snakes and jaguars roaming through the streets in said revelry somehow never eat the hats of said ladies, nor the ladies themselves.
The natives speak Spanish, the cars look like something from the 50s, and the buildings look like something from the 80s - the 1880s.
Finally, the capital is either Rio de Janeiro or Buenos Aires (a bit down south... more... more... yes, go a bit west and cross that national boundary... Now back to south and a bit to the east... Aaaaand... There you go, that's the capital of Argentina. BrasÃlia, not Rio de Janeiro either, is the capital of Brazil. No beaches there, either. Not even close).
So it goes. Such is the belief of some people.
Now, Robert had more or less been one of those people (though, to be fair, she didn't believe in the hats and knew the capital wasn't Buenos Aires) until a few days ago, when she first met Lucas. She then began to think of Brazil as not being all that underdeveloped and having some fairly big cities, but nothing too big except for, say, São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. She ascribed to Lucas's city a population of a few hundred thousand people, tops. Big, but not all that big. Somewhat crowded, but not all that crowded.
Robert by now was fairly sure her estimates were a tiny bit off. If one replaces 'a tiny bit' with 'way'.
"Meet my city, Robert. Belo Horizonte has nearly two point four million people in the city proper, and some four point five million or more in the metro..." - Said Lucas, a hint of pride showing.
Robert was also fairly sure that if it weren't for Lucas pulling her back or holding her back a few times, she'd have been run over by now.
It was a bustling, quite modern city. The 'wildlife', as in any big city, was made up mostly of pidgeons and the occasional stray. Some of the streets were covered from above with tarps, it seemed, to protect people from the Sun, allowing humans to go around in those streets and remain human.
"Isn't this a bit dangerous?" - Said Robert, looking up - "What if people get hit by a stray ray or there is a hole?"
"People were quick to learn to watch for these things." - Shrugged Lucas - "Of course, not all leave their houses, even with the tarps, but the ones that do are willing to take a small risk in exchange for being able to move around during the day. Plus nobody really takes responsibility for putting up the tarps, neither do they claim it's foolproof. So, no lawsuits."
In one of those streets, an earth elemental talked to a normal human at a bar, drinking and discussing something or other. The earth elemental had a blue shirt with a round crest with the Southern Cross on it. The human had a black and white striped shirt with another crest reading CAM on it. Lucas talked to them for a few moments, and they seemed friendly enough, though it was clear they didn't know Lucas. As Lucas and Robert left, the two barflies kept talking.
"I was asking if my team is playing tonight. I root for Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, or Southern Cross Sport Club, Cruzeiro for short." - She said - "The blue shirt." - She added.
"Do changed and unchanged interact like this here?" - Said Robert. In the US, at least, she remembered, changed and unchanged were a bit more separate.
Lucas shrugged. "Brazil is one of the most mixed countries in the world. While there are people sowing mistrust or plain racists and so on, most people adapted well to seeing friends changed and so on. There will be jokes from all sides of the changed barrier, though. Self-effacing or not. And there will be attempts to somehow take advantage of one's change. We are a fairly ingenious people, Robert, if I do say so myself. Comes with the whole 'only recently ceasing to be a third world country' thing. There's an expression for it, 'Jeitinho brasileiro', or Brazilian Fix." - She smirked - "And here we are. There are some other ones close by, too."
The two had reached a fairly big store reading "Shopping Evangélico", which Lucas translated for Robert as "Evangelical Shopping Mall".
"In we go." - Said Lucas - "I talked to the owner here when checking if they had a vest with a hole. Took the liberty of mentioning your looks, but made sure not to mention just who you were, so as to keep your privacy. She took it in stride, so don't worry about your looks. Her name's Fernanda."
Robert nodded.
"I see you have been doing some research. Thanks." - She then smiled lightly - "There is no need to go through such lengths or to thank me for that prayer forever, though, Lucas..."
Lucas blushed.
"Come to think about it, it oughtta be a bit annoying to be on the receiving end of my fawning, I suppose. It's just that, well, for you it may have seemed like a fairly small effort, but, for me, it meant the world... I'll try to cut it down after I fix the church, but don't expect me to forget your help anytime soon."
"Duly noted. Our debt shall be repaid if you ever, say, save my life." - Said Robert with gentle sarcasm. - "Oh, wait. You already did."
Lucas giggled. "Love it when you're sarcastic. You really manage to get that deadpan thing going for a moment, what with your formality and all."
The two went in.
