Seated in an old and rough wood chair, already with the varnish consumed by the time, the slim boy, with the deep eyes interred by a ghastly thinness, he spied with undisguised curiosity the old grandfather's serene face, in the serenity of who rests the sleep of the Death, of an immobile body, framed by imposing coffin, black as the darkness of the night, all decorated with the most several flowers, giving an unusual color in the transparent cadaverous rigidity in your shroud.

The old widow Maria cried quietly, as if the weeping could inconvenience the present people in the death watch. She looked, of relance, for the grandson and she was surprised with his fixed glance in the face of the old " diéda " (grandfather's affectionate diminutive, in Russian).

How to measure the suffering of Vania in the face of the grandfather's death? It reflected grandmother Maria, in a mute inquiry. After all, Eugenio was not a truth grandfather properly, because Vania had been adopted with his son's marriage with Olga, the boy's genitor, but in spite of the griefs, Vania liked him a lot and he considered him as true grandfather. It was undisguised his suffering with the unexpected travel..

Perhaps, babuska " (grandmother's affectionate diminutive, in Russian) Maria was the only to understand the grandson's dreams. They were always together and they changed a lot of confidences. He learned with her to speak to her and to pray in Pole, because as all Polish that has self-respect, she was very Catholic. She had an onlooker inherited pastime of the times when she had lived in Russia - she liked to remove the luck in the cards-playing. Excellent fortune teller woman seemed to guess the people's future.

In a certain way, she foresaw that Vania would get married twice and only after the 50 years of age, after the second marriage, he would have a stability in the life, that would opt for the artistic life and later for the literary career; finally that he would become a very rich man. All the forecasts gave right, except for the last. Vania until today, he dreams in being a rich man.

The grandfather Eugenio had gone it slays of a fulminant heart attack, an infarct of the myocardium, that removed him for the life with 67 years old. The most probable cause out the excessive use of the famous cigarettes, mainly in the last two years, when he got to smoke more than two daily cigarettes case, an exaggeration, to who intended to arrive to the centennial of the life, following the genetic traditions of the family. The fatal proof of the crime lied in the stains among the yellowish fingers for the nicotine. In the moment of the infarct, grandfather Eugenio still held his last cigarette among the fingers.

How many people will still be decimated by that merciless murderer of the humanity? When will our government authorities stop being so greedy to the they allow the cigarettes industry to continue expanding herself more and more, gaining voluminous profits, what later is translated in having led percentile in the collection of taxes? Human life is not worth anything else? Is the vile metal more important than the life? They are reflections that appear in our minds, when a dear person dies in consequence of the damned cigarettes, that curse in addiction form, difficult to expire.

Vânia stayed in silence. The people slowly for the room, as if the noise of their shoes could inconvenience for the died man. The boy reminded with clearness the images of a dream, that he had with the old grandfather, in the previous night. He had dreamed that the old man had appeared at the room, but he had not gotten to enter, of the door he waived for the grandson a farewell good-bye.

The boy counted that dream to his parents and they didn't heard him, thinking it was more one his countless fantasies. After insistent appeals so that they went all to the grandfather's house, the parents decided to assist to the boy's request and all went for there. And which was not the their surprise, when they found the old extended on the table of the dining room and the widow crying copiously.Alexandre, the stepfather frightened before the awful scene, he didn't get to babble any word, with the feelings suffocating the heart and the tears dimming the glance. It was visible his suffering before the father's body.

The calm and serene look of the died, no longer it revealed more the serious and the expressions of rage, perplexity or of pain, that the so much boy had known.

His thought flew until a past very distant, in a period in that the boy traveled the first year of the Primary, in a school of São Paulo, located in the Vila Zelina. He liked to cut out illustrations of the magazines and with them to create sceneries for his " plays ". In the absence of the magazines, he was not done of having implored, he took possession of the spelling books of the other children's alphabet " and... he cut out them all. It was a scandal! The grandfather Eugenio, in the parents' absence, had to attend in the school to solve the problem, reimbursing the damages and Vânia returned home pulled by the ear.

Certain occasion, wanting to show his importance for the friends of the school, when he affirmed that he was the only student possessor of a beautiful pulse clock, he ended " up lending " the clock of the old and after exhibiting it for several days and apprehensive of being been hit in the act, he hid it, in such a way, that not even he got to find. The grandfather Eugênio, desperate with the disappearance of the estimate clock (it had belonged to his father), several days he passed seeking and as he didn't find, he finished suspecting of the grandson.

After an interrogation session, Vania admitted that he had hidden the clock in the middle of an immense pile of bricks in the bottom of the back yard. The family passed a whole day seeking in the middle of all those bricks, until that the boy reminded that had placed it below of his own mattress. New ear pull and the famous beating with mulberry tree branch, that had left unforgettable violet marks (sore) in the back side. Surprisingly, after the grandfather's death Eugenio, Vania, now adolescent, ended up inheriting that clock. Perhaps, the old man has sorry of having given such an aching punishment in the grandson.

Eugenio was an old wolf of the sea. Old captain of the Navy Russian Real czarist (white russians) out a noble one failed, fugitive of the famous Russian Revolution of 1917, had a lot of luck in that escape, because he was with trip marked destined for France and to England. Alerted by the friends in earth, that the revolution was ready to burst, he didn't waste time, he gathered the family and some nearer friends and they went to the ship in Petrograde, where his sailors already waited for him, ready to go out to the sea.

They left everything back: properties, pieces of furniture, jewels, money and everything that the nobility had granted them during a lifetime in Russian soil. Faking to turn off the past, they left a luxury life back and they decided to begin other, in new country, without the titles, the luxury and the wealth. Finally, a simple life as the one of any " mujique " (peasant man), in the simpleton meaning of the word.

The ship broke taking a group of disinherited sailors and hopeful of resuming everything again in the old English capital. France, nice to the czarist cause , and considered a second homeland for the refugees of the old Russian monarchy (that spoke French with fluency), it was avoided, for being full of Bolshevik spies. The fugitives wanted to avoid what was happening with most of the czarist men, they be murdered at the countries, where they had refugee, as it was the leader's case Trotski, in Mexico.

Arriving to the port of Liverpool, they abandoned the ship and they left of train for London. Captain Eugênio and yours commanded they came undone of the military clothes and they started to live and to work for they survive, in the humblest conditions. The old captain didn't speak the English language well and he was forced to work as washer of automobiles in the streets of London and later in heavy services in the building site.

His situation got better when, through other Russian refugees, he got to find his old friend, a Russian countess, that later became matriarch of an important family, that immigrated to Brazil. She provided him, and his sailors, new documents and financial means to immigrate for our country and the most important: an employment, although simple, to begin the new life. And it was as soon as him, his family, and most of his sailors for here they came, in search of a new and better life reality.

That nucleus migratory came later to compose the Russian population of several neighborhoods of the Zone East of São Paulo's city, mainly the more acquaintances, as the Vila Zelina, Vila Lúcia, Vela Bela (where Vania was born) and Vila Alpina, considered in the decade of 50, about favorite point of the Slavic people (Russian, Poles, Ukrainian, stonian, Lithuanian, etc).

The old Captain Eugenio, instead of ships, went to command Indústrias Klabin's main entrance, in São Paulo.

The cover was placed, the pale face disappeared and it was only heard just the hiccup interrupting the air, and being diluted by the sadness of the departure. Some men lifted the coffin and they began going in the direction of the street door. An unexpected thought appeared in the boy's mind:

- " Because here in São Paulo doesn't have sea. What foolishness is this, my boy? - Asked perplexed the mother.

- “It is " because " Diéda " Eugenio told me that when one sailor dies, his body is played to the sea. I think the grandpa preferred to sleep in the sea..."

- "perhaps..... but.... we go now because it is later and the cemetery has hour to close " - Reply the stepfather, holding one of the loops of the coffin.

And the old captain's last trip proceeded to the final side-walk, where who goes, he doesn't never come back. He is there in eternal rest in the sacred fields of the Vila Formosa.. To the dear parents that here were it only remained almost the conformity and the longing with my homage, of my " almost grandson ", that here, I leave registered his history.

(Story published in the Select of Verses and Prose, volume 15, for Publisher Bork - São Luiz Gonzaga - RS - 2001

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" THE OLD CAPTAIN "