Two women, two versions that do not agree on anything. Both are in love with the same subject and both are rejected at the same time, but with different goals. Such pieces put together an unusual puzzle. One wanted revenge and the other wanted to create a facade, both equally bad choices, so harmful that they could cost a man his life.
That man is Roberto. I have to tell you, you cannot go through life like Roberto, waiting for miracles to fall from the sky. Our protagonist. Roberto Acadia, a tall boy with bushy eyebrows and a look on his face as if the misfortunes of the universe had sunk into his soul. He was one of those people you saw on the street and felt sorry for. You didn't want to be next to him for two seconds because you felt his aura of unhappiness.
Roberto's routine was simple. He would get up without smiling, just with a blank look on his face, and stare at the ceiling for about 5 minutes until he decided to get up a ritual. Then he would go to breakfast, but he would do it alone because he was the only occupant of the rented apartment. He would eat in the silence of the living room, the only thing you could hear was the chewing of his jaws. He always left early in the morning, before the sun rose. Likewise, he had to leave for work at four in the morning. Although it may seem boring and monotonous to describe Roberto's life, you must know how indispensable it is to the development of the plot.
From there, the boy would go to the mayor's office, where the squadron leader would arrive two hours after everyone else and assign the cleaning zones. Roberto was in charge of cleaning the streets when the others littered them. He worked from morning until the end of the day. When he finished one sector, he had to move to another. He had little time for lunch. Although everyone avoided Roberto, and he worked alone, the boy had one talent, and that was he was very hardworking. Whatever task was given to him, the boy said yes and did it well. The bad thing was that these were jobs that no one else would do.
If they had to clean the square because some vandals had covered some parts with feces, they would send Roberto; if they had to pick up the trash from a big event organized in that sector, they would send Roberto. They knew that the place would be spotless, and the credit would go to the mayor's office.
But one day, two strange things happened. Both were like a domino effect. Roberto's first order came from the mayor himself.
Mayor Orlando was a stocky man with a beaver face that made him look like an alcoholic, but he was not. He was, however, a gambling fanatic. That day, the mayor walked around the square, inspecting the condition of the place. He saw poor Roberto sweeping the spotless floor by himself.
"What is this citizen doing alone, cleaning the square? Where are the others?" he asked.
The supervisor explained the situation. He also stressed that Roberto was the best cleaner he had ever had. The mayor did not care about the boy's peculiarities, what mattered to him was his cleaning performance. Maybe after the mess he had with his maid, he could replace her with the boy, his wife had been very specific that she did not want any more women in the house. After five days without anyone to clean, the house looked like a dump. Unexpectedly, young Roberto was hired to work at his mansion that very afternoon.
Roberto found himself escorted to the mayor's mansion by the corrupt mayor's bodyguards. As always, he was asked if he would help the mayor with his problems in exchange for more money. Roberto's response, very discouraged, was an affirmation that he would tackle the task that very afternoon.
Before he started, the boy's clothes were changed, he was dressed up, and even his haircut was changed. The excuse for all this was as follows:
“If you want to work with the big boys, you have to look like the big boys.”
That's when the second strange thing happened.
Roberto's clothes had been changed and he looked completely different. Although he still had his face of pain and sorrow, the only two women in the house thought he was a very handsome boy. They watched closely as Roberto transformed the house into a real mansion. In a single afternoon, the boy did what five servants would have done. The place was unrecognizable.
The mayor's wife and daughter were delighted not only with the handsome young man, but also with his talents.
When he returned, the mayor marveled at the boy's skills, but did not notice his wife's eyes darting around the boy, nor that his daughter was dressed too sensually for a simple routine dinner. The mayor, unaware of the situation, invited the boy to stay and live with them; the idea may have been planted by the wife and supported by the daughter.
A few simple decisions changed everything in poor Robert's life. That night, the mayor's wife and daughter met in the hallway. They were on their way to see the young man, both ready to demand a task that any boy could hardly refuse.
"Where are you going, Anna?" said her mother.
"To fetch some water, mother," and Anna slipped away.
Dear Mother was the first to enter, but she did not expect Roberto to be uninterested in his task. For the first time in his life, he said no to a requested assignment. The mayor's mistress did not expect such a refusal and left the room thinking of a Machiavellian plan to get him out of the house. As soon as she left the room, Anna entered. And the same scene repeated itself. Roberto refused the offer, he was immune to Anna's beauty. She, unlike her mother, insisted on trying to seduce him, but seeing such discouragement and disinterest, he fell even more in love.
The young Anna, unlike her mother, devised a plan to make the young Roberto her own.
The next day, Roberto wanted to do what he always did in the morning. But everything was different. There was too much noise in the house, people were waking up outside. He wanted to brush his teeth, but it was not the same toothpaste, he wanted to have breakfast alone, but he did it accompanied by the mayor's guests. There were too many mouths chewing at once.
Back to the two women. They approached the mayor with their gossip. The woman said that Roberto had tried to insult her and wanted revenge, while Ana said that she had lost her virginity to Roberto and might be pregnant, so the boy asked for her hand in marriage.
As soon as the mayor found out, he sent for the boy to find out the truth of these statements. All he got was the simple answer that the boy had run away. This adds credibility to the women's stories, otherwise who would have fled their fate under such circumstances?
But Roberto was not a happy man. He had only left because the routine he was accustomed to had ceased to exist when he set foot in the villa. He longed for solitude, he wanted to feel the silence every morning and to be alone with his thoughts. Furthermore, he left the mess that had been assembled, not knowing that for the first time, by saying no, he had caused such a disaster that could have repercussions in his life.
Some may think that Roberto was found and killed by the mayor, but the harsh reality is that he was lucky. Luckily that he never realized how close he had come to death. At first, the Mayor had let the rumors of his wife's earlier infidelity go, suspecting that it was just a ploy to get her attention. As for his daughter, he did not believe a word of it because she had a history of being capricious and a liar. So he left everything as it was.
He did issue a release order for Roberto, an order the supervisor received but never carried out, simply because he always needed someone to do the dirty work on the streets.
Cover and Banner made in Canva; Separators made in photoshop