Free If I Close My Eyes Now by Edney Silvestre Page A

fugitive!’
    The man came to a halt. Both the boys were shouting at the top of their voices. He turned round. They carried on shouting. He stared at them. They were still shouting. He stood with hands on hips, in the attitude adults adopt to get children to obey without having to say anything. He was demanding they be quiet.
    Normally Eduardo would have obeyed, because he was a reasonable sort, and because that was how he had been brought up. Paulo would probably have done the same, not because it was in his nature, but because this was how he had learned to behave, like a wary creature that had the memory of his father’s brutality imprinted on his mind. But together,treated with what they saw as disdainful arrogance, the anger of one complemented the other’s bitterness. This gave them the strength to openly defy an adult for the first time in their lives. They continued shouting.
    A light went on in a nearby house. A dog started to bark in the distance.
    ‘Sshh! Be quiet!’ the man ordered them.
    They shouted louder and louder, calling him a decrepit old man, a lunatic, a crazy fugitive, an idiotic escapee, anything and everything they could think of to insult him.
    ‘Shut up! That’s enough!’
    His imperious tone only made Eduardo and Paulo the more indignant. The words they were shouting no longer made any sense. They were nothing more than abusive roars.
    ‘Silence! Shut your mouths! You’ll wake everyone up!’
    The barking intensified. Now there were at least two dogs, then a third joined in. A veranda light came on at the end of the street. The old man came towards them with surprising agility, fists clenched. When he was close, Paulo took a step towards him, still shouting defiantly.
    ‘ Old maaan! Escaped from the home! ’
    ‘Be quiet now! Both of you!’
    Before Eduardo and Paulo could redouble their efforts, he added in a low voice:
    ‘Please.’
    The kids glanced at each other.
    ‘Please,’ the old man repeated. ‘Don’t shout.’
    Their gesture of revolt had been justified. It had made them feel good, and they weren’t ready to make peace yet. Theystarted shrieking again. But not for long. The old man’s next words and the sincerity behind them made them pause.
    ‘The nuns mustn’t know I climb out every night,’ he begged them.
    He spread his hands and arms, in a clear sign of surrender.
    ‘Please. They’d throw me out.’
    Eduardo had never known an adult plead with him in this way. Paulo, who was more practical, asked the old man defiantly:
    ‘What do we get if we stop?’
    ‘What do you want?’
    ‘Help,’ Eduardo was quick to say.
    ‘To solve the crime,’ added Paulo.
    ‘To prove the dentist isn’t the killer.’
    ‘The dentist. It wasn’t him.’
    The old man gestured for them to be quiet. He pointed all round him.
    ‘I mustn’t be seen. Let’s get out of the middle of the street.’
    They went back close to the wall.
    ‘You’re just a couple of kids.’
    ‘We isn’t …’ Paulo corrected himself. ‘We’re not kids.’
    ‘We’ll soon be thirteen.’
    ‘I’m a retired teacher, not a detective.’
    ‘But you went to the dentist’s house to investigate.’
    ‘We saw you.’
    ‘I only want to get out of this home occasionally. To have a quiet drink and a chat. I’m not sleepy. We old folk don’t sleep a lot.’
    ‘Paulo and I found the body. By the lake.’
    ‘It was covered in blood! Filthy! Stab wounds all over!’
    ‘It can’t have been the dentist.’
    ‘He scalped her breast!’
    ‘He scalped what?’
    ‘Don’t you watch cowboy films?’
    ‘I never go to Hollywood films,’ said the old man, pronouncing ‘Oliwud’ with a strong north-eastern accent. ‘They’re Manichaeist.’
    ‘What does a “Manichaeist” mean?’
    ‘I’ll look it up in the dictionary, Paulo. We want to prove the dentist is innocent.’
    ‘But the husband confessed to the murder, boys.’
    ‘He couldn’t have done it! He’s old! You can’t imagine how big she