WILD BOAR EYE
A novel in twelve episodes
By Luís Carmelo
(transl. Bernardo Palmeirim)

FOURTH EPISODE
(The big fountain)

Six in the afternoon. At the belvedere by the Jade Mountains, Maya and Rui step out of the car. They sit side by side on the stone bench, listening to the distant wind. Everything seems to point to a Hopper painting, such is the special tonality of the wait and languor. Later, without any sign of strangeness, Maya turns to the big fountain full of weird garlands and ivy offshoots and said in a very low voice: “It’s time to change over. I’ll drive from now on.”
Rui conceded. He shook his head like a yoyo on goo, a puppet hanging from a cross where invisible actors tame their fatigue and tension. His candid posture rose up slowly, pulling a handkerchief across his forehead, looking Maya in the eyes: “Ok. Later in the evening, by nightfall, I’ll take over again, then.”
So be it.
Maya set off up the mountain, curve after curve. Light falls and shadows grow long, the wind surges into the dense forest. Below them is the alluvial plain of the great city, an abyss caught between walls and the immense valleys whence holy waters sprout from a colossal spring where four rivers blend, two by two.

(Next episode of Wild Boar Eye: “The truth is the vaccine was certainly not in the best interest of a lot of nicely settled people...”)

Continues