Pelo caminho

Pelo caminho passou por nós uma rapariga gótica, com um daqueles vestidos compridos e arqueados, à dama antiga, com arames por dentro. O vestido era preto, os seus cabelos negros, e ela usava longas luvas até aos cotovelos. Enquanto caminhava o vestido balançava, e ela transportava no rosto uma expressão muito séria e abstraída dos olhares alheios, maravilhados com a sua peculiaridade.

- Did you see that? – perguntei ao Marco.

- Yeah, amazing!

- Do you think she just traveled in time?

- If she did, do you think she came from the past or from the future?

- Both, simultaneously. – respondi. – But she looked as if she didn’t see us, or anybody else. She looked as if she wasn’t here.

- She could be a ghost, you know?

- Yeah, she could definitely be a ghost. She could also be a vampire, but that’s too obvious.

- Maybe there was a momentary cross between dimensions and we could all see her but she couldn’t see us.

- Yeah! It looked like that!

- Maybe this is a dream and she was a dream figure.

- Absolutely! And this afternoon has been as perfect as a dream. I mean, it’s like there’s nothing we can say or do or see that doesn’t seem like it’s coming out of a dream.

- And we can’t stop talking, can we?

- No, I guess we can’t.

- Wanna go to a second hand book store?

- Is it big, with corridors full of books?

- Of course.

- I like those book stores. They’re full of ghosts.

- Really?

- Yeah, that’s one of their favorite places to hang out. And libraries. You can feel them in the libraries, sitting next to you, and reading books in the corridors, five centimeters above the floor. I have a ghost in my house, you know?

- Do you?

- Yeah, his name’s Gil. He hides things from me as a way of communicating. He needs attention.

- Wow! And how do you know his name? Or that it’s a he?

- Oh, I just gave him a name from a song. I don’t know, I just feel it’s a he. He’s been around for years, you know?

- Really? And how do you know it’s a ghost?

- I don’t, I just like to believe it, that’s all. Maybe it’s true, and then he's happy because I acknowledge him.

- Is that what he wants?

- Yeah, I think that’s all he wants. He’s friendly.

- How did you notice him?

- Well, things started disappearing... spoons, for instance. Suddenly, all my spoons we’re gone. And a girlfriend of mine had told me once that her spoons we’re disappearing. She told me that it could be a ghost. And then, when she left Holland, my spoons started vanishing. I thought maybe I inherited her ghost, and I welcomed him into my house. Now I have too many spoons. He slowly returned them, after I bought new ones.

- That’s funny.

- Yeah, and through the years I started speaking to him. Once I was looking for something in a hurry, and I got really pissed off and shouted at him. And, immediately, what I was looking for just appeared. I mean, I looked at it and I saw it. Then I got a bit shocked and felt guilty for shouting at him. I was touched with the whole thing. I thought he was a really sweet ghost. And, another time, I wanted to test if asking him for missing things would work again, but I thought maybe I was pushing my luck, so I was kind of hesitating, but finally I asked him about something I couldn't find, and immediately I saw it again. So then I was kind of sure there was something going on in my house. I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t need to know, it just gave me a nice feeling.

- That’s cool!

- It’s whatever you want, you know? You can choose to believe whatever you want. And you’ll probably never be sure of anything, but as long as it makes you happy, it’s worth beliving in it, right?

- Guess so!

- And sometimes, the more you believe in things, the more they happen...

- Yeah, just like in dreams!

- We should watch Waking Life together.

- You think so? But you’ve seen it twice.

- I would like to see it again.

- Yeah, I would like to see it again too.

- We should rent the video.

- I guess we will, then.

- I guess we already did.