Blood-drenched Beard

The party is on the deck of the sushi bar, and there is hardly anyone there. A hip-hop duo is rapping in the corner of a veranda that has been made into a dance floor. The music is really bad, and there are eight men and two women dancing and talking on the veranda. He takes a look out back and finds a meticulously designed Japanese garden with rock arrangements, a fountain, a lake inhabited by a small gang of carp, and a stream. Three girls are drinking in silence at a table in the garden. That’s the extent of the party. He orders a beer and is given a warm can. He is hungry, but there is no sign of food. Bonobo orders a mojito and goes to talk to someone on the dance floor.

He goes back to the Beetle parked near the entrance and lets Beta out. He returns with her to the restaurant and sits in an armchair on the front veranda. Dirty glasses and empty cans left on the tables indicate that a lot of people have already been there and gone. Beta sits next to the armchair, and he stares into the surrounding vegetation to forget the monotonous vocals of the rappers, who don’t seem to have the energy to keep up with their rhymes. His cell phone rings. It is Laila, a former student from Porto Alegre who is now his friend. He doesn’t find out why she is calling so late because the roaming charges gobble up his credit in seconds.

In his mind he starts putting together the training session he is going to give his students in the pool tomorrow. Meanwhile two men walk onto the veranda talking in low voices, with furtive gestures, their heads hunched down between their shoulders, and it is a while before they notice he is there. They stop talking when they realize they have company. One of them has peroxide-blond hair, and he is almost certain it is the guy who was with Dália at the Pico do Surf the night they met. Peroxide-blond hair is common around here, but the guy gives him a long stare. He begins to feel threatened.

Do we know each other?

The blond guy just stares at him and doesn’t answer. He is younger than him, twenty-something, and has obviously been snorting all night. He looks for some other feature to help identify him in the future. He has a shark tattoo covering one whole side of his left calf. The two friends abort whatever they have gone there to do and go back into the restaurant.

He waits a few minutes and goes to look for Bonobo. There is no sign of him. There is no sign of almost anyone. The three girls in the garden have disappeared. The rappers have stopped singing and are talking to the few survivors gathered around the deejay. He leaves the restaurant and sees Lockjaw still parked in the same spot. He puts Beta in the car, closes the door, and goes to the bathroom. When he walks out, he bumps into Bonobo in the corridor. He is accompanied by two girls.

Where you been? slurs Bonobo, completely off his face but still standing, an experienced drunk. I’ve been looking for you for ages. This is Liz, a really good friend of mine, and this here is Ju.

Bonobo and Ju are in the middle of a conversation dripping with terms such as soul, impermanence,

and vanity. Liz looks as if she is just along for the ride, accompanying her friend. Neither of them seems drunk, and he isn’t really sure what’s going on but senses that it must be obvious.

Bonobo’s bed-and-breakfast is near the sushi bar, and in a few minutes Bonobo’s Beetle and the girls’ red Parati are driving up a steep, narrow driveway between bamboo fences that leads to a well-tended property with a large two-story building and two smaller cabanas behind it, all built with a combination of bricks, mortar, and wooden logs, with green Portuguese roof tiles and glassed-in verandas. A sign over the front door says BONOBO’S BED-AND-BREAKFAST, and on the adjoining building with French windows another sign says BONOBO’S CAFÉ. He climbs out of the Beetle with difficulty. He scratches his forearm on a rusty corner of the door and tries to remember when he had his last tetanus shot.

Bonobo opens the door and tells them all to make themselves at home but asks that they try not to make too much noise because there are guests in one of the upstairs rooms. Downstairs is the reception desk with a cozy sitting room and access to the kitchen, a guest breakfast room, and another room with an engraved wooden sign on the door saying BONOBO’S BEDROOM. It isn’t long before Bonobo and Ju go into his room. Ju is from Brasília and has large breasts, and that is all he has had time to find out about her.