A FEW YEARS AGO
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Brun had a new home, a house tucked inside a huge cliff.
However, soon the doctors and nurses, summoned by his brother, arrived, and occupied the rooms. So, he feared that his house would become another cold lab like old Bernardo’s, which was full of doctors and nurses who didn’t love him.
But then he noticed that he was treated better here and relaxed. Of course, his new home was in a place where it was warm, there were trees and sometimes it rained, which was the opposite of the previous one, where it was always cold and there were snowstorms.
Here, his brother fed him, shaved him, and bathed him. Everyone took care of him, and he was very happy in Broga’s company, however…
“You can feel it too, Brun, right?” the Duplicated Children asked. After so long, they had returned from the depths of the Night Nebulae. And damn, their senses were still sharp!
But maybe if he played dumb...
“There’s no use trying to ignore it, Brun. We know you have felt it too. There’s one last potion out there.”
It was true. And then, every so often, he would run away from home and go looking for the potion. He never found it, though. He picked up its trail; he knew it must be close, but the potion always eluded him.
“You mustn’t go out, Brun,” his brother scolded him once. “It’s dangerous for you to wander around there.”
“Don’t listen to him, Brun,” one of the Duplicated Children whispered to him. “He doesn’t want you to have fun, that’s all.”
“He doesn’t want you to go out with us in search of the potion,” said another; “that’s why he wants you to stay locked up here.”
“Yes, do you remember how happy you were when you went with us in search of the potions? Why not go back to that?”
I was happy, yes, I was, but now that I’m with my brother, I’m even happier.
But the Duplicated Children didn’t understand that, and as days went by, he realized they wouldn’t because they didn’t like Broga.
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“Brun, wake up!”
The Duplicated Children had spoken again.
And upon opening his eyes, the first thing Brun saw was nothingness itself, complete darkness.
He looked down at himself and found himself barefoot and dressed again in one of those loose-fitting gowns that left him bare at the back. Had they returned him to Bernardo’s cold lab?
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He felt a slight burning on the side of his forehead, above his ear. He reached up a hand to see what it was and found that his head was smooth as a ball. Someone had completely shaved it off!
With his fingertips, he touched the part that felt weird; it hurt a little… and there was some bleeding too. Soon, he would gain another one of those supture scars, as that man-nurse called them, the one who always smiled. He already had a supture scar on his head, a very old one and much bigger than this new one, though, one that went full circle on his head and was often covered by his hair. Well, when he had hair.
Dr. Lucy had left that supture, the big old one, the time she’d poked around in his brain, or so the smiling man-nurse had said. But then, who had tried to pry into his brain now?
“Brun, move,” the children said. “Can’t you smell it?”
And that was when he detected a familiar aroma navigating the air, something that was delicious and, at the same time, desperate; something that gave off the smell of fire and wet dirt, something so impossible to ignore that it opened his belly’s doors. The scent of a radiant potion.
He turned in search of it and discovered its source: the only thing that existed in that deep darkness, that monstrous machine that reached up to the ceiling. The potion was hidden inside the computer with many monitors.
“Drink it, Brun!”
Uh-uh, he shook his head. That computer belongs to Broga. If the potion is there it’s because my brother needs it there. Maybe he’s saving it to drink later.
“But Brun, your brother doesn’t—”
My brother is one of us, the potions belong to him too!
“We know, Brun,” the children soothed him. “It’s just that your brother doesn’t need that potion. He left it there for you to take.”
Brun looked at the children, doubtful. The desire to consume the potion was strong, but he managed to behave. There was something that didn’t feel right.
Broga! Where is my brother? he asked, and as much as he didn’t want to, a bit of anguish escaped his voice. So much nothingness around him couldn’t mean something good.
The Duplicate Children became very serious. “Brun, we’re sorry, but Broga has left,” they announced. “He has abandoned the house on the cliff.”
That’s not true, he said, and immersed in the Night Nebulae, he navigated that darkness in search of his brother. Broga! I know Broga was here! he told the children. Where do you hide him?! Where do you hide my brother?!
“Broga has abandoned you, Brun,” the children repeated.
That’s a lie. I don’t believe you, he said, but his face said otherwise. If old Bernardo had forgotten about him, leaving him in that cold lab at the hands of a lot of people who didn’t want him there, and even the children themselves had left once, why couldn’t his brother have done the same?
He expanded his light to illuminate his path, perhaps Broga was hiding in that darkness. The only thing he did was unleash endless terrifying thunderclaps that took a long time to disappear. Didn’t see anyone.
“Brun, if you’ll drink that last potion, you’ll be able to find your brother,” said a Duplicate Child.
Was that true? He turned towards the machine that held the potion.
And suddenly, a voice very far away.
“Brun, stop! Brun, go back to sleep!” the voice ordered, and he thought he recognized it, it was his brother’s voice.
Had he imagined it? It was difficult to tell, so many thunderclaps had left an annoying ringing in his ears that drowned out any other sound.
“Come on, Brun! Take the potion and drink it!” the children demanded.
No! he rejected them. Whether it was his imagination or not, he would obey that voice. The potion is my brother’s and it’ll stay where it is, in the belly of that computer, until he comes back! Brun said. Broga will return for me, I know, and I’ll stay here to wait for him.
So, wrapping himself in the Night Nebulae, he built a kind of mattress of stars, closed his eyes, and slept.