Ana Oliveira Part 3

“Did you wake up, ‘Daisy’?” Marta teased, setting a steaming white cup of coffee in front of Lucah, who was nibbling on a slice of what looked like corn cake.
“Wow...” I murmured, walking still dazed to a chair on the other side of the table and clumsily sitting down. “Lucah... How did we get home?”
“I brought you guys,” he said, his mouth full. I narrowed my eyes, noticing for the first time that he was dressed casually, in red floral shorts and a white T-shirt. “I didn’t drink, you know.”
“Oh, right!” I acknowledged, accepting the warm coffee mug Marta handed me.
“Eat, dear. There’s corn cake, my little baby’s favorite!” Marta said, kissing her son’s head. “It’s fresh.”
“Oh, Marta, I feel nauseous. And I can’t remember anything after the fourth shot of tequila...” I said, sipping the coffee. “I think I need some dipyrone, a bath, and twelve hours of sleep...”
“Good idea...” Lucah said, laughing. “You’d better start with the bath since you threw up all over my car yesterday!”
“What?” I asked, really noticing the sour smell coming from my romper.
“Dear, you don’t remember anything?” he asked, looking confused.
“I’m telling you... The last thing I remember is taking the fourth shot of tequila.”
“Well, basically Jonas went crazy first, started singing in front of the singers, and you and Luana decided it would be interesting to grab the microphone. I don’t even need to continue, do I?” he said, making Marta laugh while shaking her head. “Then we were kindly asked to leave the bar...”
“No?!” I asked, shocked, looking at his animated expression as if he were narrating an adventure.
“Yes, dear! You guys were wild! And to top off the night, you ended up vomiting all over my car...”
“I only saw the part where you and Luana were competing to see who could crawl to the rug first!” Marta said, turning red with laughter.
“God! I can’t drink...” I murmured.
After discovering the humiliation of the previous night, I took a bath and spent the entire day sleeping. When I finally regained some of my dignity and decided to go find dinner, the scene I saw warmed my heart: Marta, Jonas, Lucah, and Luana were sitting around the living room, eating popcorn, drinking soda, and smiling. My mother-in-law’s look at her older son was filled with so much love that it seemed to shine.
Jonas was leaning against his boyfriend’s chest, wrapped in a fluffy blanket since a cold front had arrived in the city and was expected to stay for another week. I settled next to Luana in one of the gray armchairs.
“Ana, I’m glad you’re here. I’m telling the boys that I created a Tinder profile,” Marta said, smiling as she showed off her phone. “Now I’m finally going to find a date.”
“Mrs. Marta, I’m going to be worried...” Lucah said, scratching his head, reminding me immediately of Josiah, who used to do the same thing when he was nervous. “You need to be careful with these internet things, Mom...”
“Oh, come on, let her!” Jonas chided.
We spent hours looking at the potential matches Marta had on the app while laughing. I don’t even know how we ended up spending the night listening to Katy Perry and dancing on the living room rug, with the playlist playing on the TV. It was fun seeing Lucah dancing, relaxed, leaning against his boyfriend’s chest, pretending the TV remote was a microphone. He knew all the songs and looked so happy... Even Marta joined us, laughing and pretending to know the songs.
When I woke up the next morning, I received a call from Jow saying he loved me and that he wouldn’t be able to come the following week. I was sad because I missed him terribly and wanted to kiss him, smell him, and sleep cuddled up to him... But I understood that sometimes it was hard for Josiah to visit because his routine at that school was exhausting.
I remember asking Marta about what Josiah’s father had used to make him take up that career. She didn’t know either, and my boyfriend, being as stubborn as ever, always refused to answer our interrogations.

The week flew by as I managed my routine between college studies, my writing career, household chores, and outings with Isabela... My friend was being quite stubborn; when I told her about Lucah’s situation, Isabela sulked and said that just because he was gay didn’t change the fact that Josiah saw something on his computer. I repeated Lucah’s arguments to Isa twice, yet my friend insisted on believing Jow’s version until proven otherwise.
I was helping my mother-in-law prepare dinner, chopping tomatoes for the salad, when I felt the conviction that I needed to talk to Josiah about everything that had happened. I would tell my boyfriend everything about the weekend, and he needed to understand that Lucah was a nice and respectful guy, and that he needed to separate things. It was impossible for me to see his brother the same way he did. And there was Jonas, who was very fun and with whom I had grown to enjoy spending time.
My mother-in-law missed Josiah but was cherishing the moments to have Lucah around, as he and his boyfriend were coming for dinner that night. We had prepared a beautiful yellow-themed table setting, and Marta had made a delicious shrimp stew. The surprise of the night was Jonas missing the gathering because he had to switch shifts at work, as he was a nurse.
The night was cold, with the sky looking grim as it poured relentlessly over the city. Luana, I, my mother-in-law, and Lucah stayed chatting in the backyard, drinking hot chocolate and talking about life.
“I used to love bathing in the rain!” Marta said at one point. “Josiah, when he was a boy, I had to scold him because he would run outside in the rain, and he’d often end up catching a cold.”
“That’s right...” Lucah agreed, smiling, with tiny wrinkles forming at the corners of his eyes. “Jow would wander in the rain, with his little feet bare, getting them dirty and then spreading mud all over the house. I had to pick him up to prevent Dad from seeing him and punishing him…”
All smiles ceased when Lucah said that. I noticed his eyes welling up, and Marta immediately took a deep breath. I looked at the steaming white mug in my lap, thinking of my boyfriend, who had been so mistreated by that cruel, wretched father!
“We could take a rain bath now...” Marta suggested, making us exchange glances.
“In this cold?” Luana asked, but seeing that Lucah and I were considering the idea, she shrugged. “Okay, I’ll put on a bikini because I’m not going to get my clothes wet…”
And, turning her back on us, my friend skipped into the house. Marta and I decided to go along with Lu’s idea, and soon we ran outside into the rain. I felt like a child, spinning around as the water streamed over my body. It was incredible how refreshing the rain could be.
It was cold, and the icy water soaked through my white bikini and the rest of my body. I felt the droplets landing on my face and smiled. I looked at Marta, seeing her in a trance, arms outstretched in a red swimsuit, makeup smudged, smiling up at the sky. Lucah shook her, hugging her from behind.
“You’re the coolest mom anyone could have!” he said, twirling her around as if they were dancing.
That moment, with Lu, Marta, and my brother-in-law, dancing in the rain, made me feel happy. Really happy, like when I was a child, before everything fell apart.
We ran back into the house, wetting the porch as we grabbed towels to wrap around our bodies. I collapsed onto the outdoor couch, my heart pounding with excitement as my mother-in-law gently settled beside me, then held my right hand in hers, giving me a satisfied smile.
We ended the night drinking wine, not worrying about changing out of our wet clothes. I lost count of how many bottles we went through that night. But everything felt so perfect, so... silent in my head. There were no intrusive voices, no depressive feelings, just a sense of completeness. I watched Luana talk about her first boyfriend, her first sexual adventures, making us laugh uncontrollably at how it all turned out to be a disaster.