Joaquim Augusto Ferreira Barbosa de Melo - Lost in Space

When Esmeralda commented with her friends the irreverence of youth nowadays, some of them had an attitude of greater flexibility and understanding. To Margarida, mother of Cristina, it was necessary to let the youth breathe and lead them to acquire sense of responsibility and self-assessment of their acts as much as possible. In the conversations they had on the subject, this was quite evident.

-Don’t worry, they have to live their age and learn to recognize their horizons and boundaries – said Margarida, (perhaps to reassure her busy lawyer conscience, with almost no time to pay attention to her children).

-I recognise that times are different, but also that life is made of choices at every moment. If by education, we leave children in total freedom, it may happen that their decisions are made without considering the consequences of their actions – said Esmeralda (thinking more as a teacher).

-It’s a risk! I prefer, however, to worry more about building the quality of the subconscious, because it is it that will one day be at the commands of the conscious. If we build a positive subconscious, this will help a lot the acts of the future conscious.

Esmeralda had already heard of the importance of the subconscious in people’s lives, but that would pass her by a little, not so much for the little attention given, but more for her understanding and complexity.

-I’ve always had a hard time figuring out how all this is done – said Esmeralda.

The conversation, from then on, passed to a quasi-monologue by Margarida. From her experience (she felt like fish in water), she developed the theme with such simplicity and depth that, for the first time, Esmeralda realised that after all the subject was much easier and more interesting than she initially supposed.

Not far from there the conversation was another for the kids, dragged by curiosity and stimulated by Mário.

-Hey, guys! Come on! Let’s follow the flight attendant. She’s the one I saw go through a wall! Who knows if she’ll do the same this time?

-Leave the flight attendant alone! - Said Cristina, contradicted.

-I’m not leaving anything! I want to know how she can do that stunt.

Cristina’s protests were of no avail. Determined as he always was, Mário wanted to clear the whole situation, so he followed the flight attendant from a distance. The other kids, curious like Mário, followed him. Cristina felt there was no other choice but to follow him too.

Moments later, the flight attendant walked into a hallway and to everyone’s surprise, instead of using an existing door, she went through the wall as if it was nothing.

-Whoa! How is it possible! – Exclaimed Cristina, followed by everyone, with surprise.

Mário, immediately, and even more curious, approached the site trying to copy the feat he had just witnessed. What was not his astonishment to feel a strong pain in the forehead produced by the clash of his head on the wall while trying to repeat the feat of the flight attendant. Indignant, he went to the door that was nearby and tried to open it by force, but to his impatience, it remained closed. Almost simultaneously they began to hear strange acoustic signals emitted along the wall and, fearing the consequences, they left the place running. However, the surprises would not stop there. When they arrived outside, they noticed that the same flight attendant they had seen crossing the wall was in front of them talking to a group of adults.

-How is that possible! – They all cried out loud and still in a state of shock.

The flight attendant Florbela, noticing Mário and the group that had just arrived, smiled, nodding her hand.

Cristina, who was following Mário closely, looked at her friend noticing his face of amazement and asked:

-Are you all right?

Mário, still stuck to his thoughts, not only did he not hear what his friend had told him, but he continued in an inner monologue: «no, it cannot be! ».

Cristina, finding his attitude strange, took Mário’s arm to tell him:

-What’s wrong with you?

Mário, facing his friend in the eyes, said:

-How can the same person be in two places at once?!

-I don’t understand you - added Cristina, with an apprehensive look.

Mário looked at his friend and rest of his companions and said:

-Don’t look at me like that. So you don’t see that the flight attendant you saw moments ago, crossing the wall, is the same one there talking? How is that possible?!

With the flight attendant was Clara Sobral who, realizing that something strange was going on with the kids, sought to approach.

-Are you all right? Can I help you with something? -Said the doctor, sketching a wide smile.

Mário looked at the doctor without responding, then left in a rush, this time to join his mother.

A short distance from there, Judge Marcelo, Cristina’s father, was talking to some people who had approached to find out about his state of health. As an intelligent person, Marcelo, acknowledged that the physical weakness experienced in the recent period was due to his stubbornness and convictions, but with the application of the apparatus he had a total recovery. Now, with full distance from the events, he recognizes that the kidnappers are terrorists of sophisticated level, so he has to be cautious evaluating first the variables in presence and then plot a plan of response. Better done than said.

Marcelo started by surrounding himself with influential people, adding wills and supporters to his cause. First, he had to call for his cause an old friend, Elsa Ferreira, current Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and former college colleague of his wife who, by chance, was travelling with them. Marcelo, at the first opportunity of meeting, set his plan in motion.

-Hello, Elsa! When do you think we’ll get out of this mess they got us into? - He said as if challenging her.

- I don’t know! Just now in conversation with your wife I told her I don’t remember ever being involved in a situation like this! The most intriguing thing is that the assailant doesn’t show his face or use physical violence, which contradicts everything we know.

-As much as it pains me to admit it, reality exceeds fiction itself.

-We’re going to have to do something, don’t you think? Even if it means mobilizing everyone, showing our displeasure. It may be that the assailant will change his strategy.

The Judge was silent this time, as if ruminating his own thoughts. His wife was following that meeting at a certain distance, so she decided to approach, questioning.

-So have you figured out how we’re going to get out of here? – said Margarida.

-We don’t know where we are, let alone how to get out! – Elsa replied, smiling at cost.

The meeting between these friends was far from the relaxed and happy times of other times. Her frowned brows expressed well the worries and anguish of recent times.

Mário, who was close by, returned to his ancestral animosity for Elsa. Since a long time the kid had nurtured little sympathy for Elsa. One would say a chemical repulsion, difficult to explain and above all to understand. There was no memory that they had done harm to each other, however, Mário couldn’t stand her. All they had to do was be close enough for Mário to declare a total war on his mother’s friend. And, whenever she sought to understand the reason for that attitude he would respond with total silence, moving away as soon as possible. This time it was no different. As soon as he was able, Mário left in a rush to his friends, leaving behind the three adults, once more baffled by that reaction.

Shortly thereafter, Elsa said goodbye to Marcelo and Margarida, taking the opportunity to meet Mário, determined to clear the grounds of so much animosity. As soon as she found him, she followed his footsteps from a distance in anticipation of a conversation. Mário had still well present the images of the flight attendant in the hallway crossing the wall without any difficulty, so questioned his friends about the phenomenon. In such a way the subject was discussed, that the circumstance became an obsession. The corridor became known among them as “hideout”. The group, from then on, followed the flight attendant in the strong hope of seeing replicas of the phenomenon. At one point, Elsa had to leave her subject for a better chance, tired of running around following the kids. Iris, a nine-year-old girl and the daughter of university professors, did not share the group’s enthusiasm, perhaps because she was the last to arrive and did not yet feel totally involved in team spirit. Despite her young age, Iris was a small computer specialist, curious and possessed of an unusual vivacity. With the application of the bracelet on her wrist, she began to have the company of all moments in that device, using an unusual intuitive logic. In a short time she managed to gain access to a growing number of computer options of the small appliance (some of them protected by security levels, which Iris managed to circumvent with computer expedients).