A M�gica Chama

Maria Ang�lica Monnerat Alves

Era s�bado de Carnaval. Tardinha...

Os enfeites coloridos, agora iluminados, davam uma apar�ncia irreal � cidade.

O �nibus rodava com dificuldade por entre os blocos de foli�es an�nimos, irmanados em mais uma alegria fugaz.

Sentado atr�s de n�s , ia um casal conversando. O rapaz, eu o conhecia de vista, filho de uma cantora l�rica do bairro. Ela, n�o cheguei a ver seu rosto. Ia para a Tijuca, casa de um parente, talvez. Ele, a uma festa no clube Gin�stico, no centro do Rio.

A conversa agu�ou a minha curiosidade. Come�ou l� pelos lados do Catete, quando ela pegou o 401 e sentou-se ao lado dele. Falou-se de trivialidades, comentou-se a anima��o do Carnaval e ambos se confessaram apaixonados por Direito: ele,  j� formado e ela, quartanista.

Ao chegar ao Passeio P�blico, onde deveria saltar, ele n�o o fez. E passou a se auto-analisar: introvertido, � eterna procura de algu�m que o entendesse. O rompimento recente de um noivado havia deixado marcas, que agora come�avam, aos poucos, a cicatrizar. Ela se dizia c�tica em rela��o ao casamento.

E o �nibus rolava pelo asfalto colorido. E o casal, naquela catarse repentina, t�o paradoxal num dia como aquele!

Ao chegarmos ao ponto final, saltamos logo atr�s deles. Formavam um bonito casal: ele, moreno, bem mais alto do que ela. Ficamos, ent�o, a observ�-los caminhar pela rua Conde de Bonfim, lado a lado, conversando n�o se sabe mais sobre que assunto, ilhas numa multid�o extasiada.

E depois?

Terminava ali aquele relacionamento? Ou ali germinava uma comunh�o maior?

Nunca saberei. Minha observa��o captou, apenas, a imagem final dos dois, a caminhar  lentamente...

J� a minha imagina��o se permitiu ir mais longe, suspeitando afinidades cada vez maiores.

O fato de, talvez, ter presenciado o in�cio de uma integra��o profunda entre dois seres, me comoveu e fez com que refletisse sobre o momento m�gico, inesperado e, paradoxalmente, t�o intrincado, que � o nascer de um casal.

By Bruno Monnerat Alves

The magic flame

It was Saturday during the Carnival time. Afternoon�

Colorful ornaments, now lighten up, made the city look unreal.

It was hard for the bus to get trough the group of anonymous people, together in another swift happiness.

Behind us, a couple was talking. The guy, whom I was used to see around, was the son of a lyrical singer of my neighborhood. I never got to see the face of the girl. She was going to Tijuca, to some relative�s house probably. He was going to a party in the Gin�stico Club, downtown. Their talk made me curious. It started around Catete, when she got the bus 401 and sat on his side. Trivial matters, the joy of Carnival and their love for Law were in the conversation. He was a lawyer and she was in the fourth year.

When the bus got to the Passeio P�blico, where he should get out, he didn�t do it. He started to make a self-analysis: shy and always hoping to find somebody that could understand him. The recent break-up of an engagement had left some scars, that now, little by little, started to heal. She said to be skeptical about marriage.

The bus kept going through the colored road. And the couple, in a sudden catharsis, such a paradox in a day like that one!

At the last stop, we got off the bus just after them. They were a beautiful couple: he had black hair and was much taller than her. So we kept watching them walk on Conde de Bonfim street, side by side, talking about an unknown subject, looking like islands among a crowd filled with ecstasy.

And then?

That relationship would end there? Or there had sprouted the seed of a bigger communion ?

I�ll never know. My observation captured only the final image of the two of them slowly walking�

On the other hand, my imagination, allowed herself to go further, wandering about even bigger affinities.

The fact of, maybe, having witnessed the beginning of a deep integration between two beings, moved me and made me reflect about the magic, unexpected and, paradoxically such complicated moment, that is the birth of a couple.