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José Maria Vieira Mendes
“T1”

CHICO Can I sleep over tonight?

ALBERTO What?

CHICO We need to get moving. To go places. We need to get out, walk, get out, talk to certain people in a certain way. It’s by understanding one another that we talk. Can I?

ALBERTO You can stay, yes.

CHICO (closes the front door and lies down on the couch) The fact is I like being here. I like you. I like this couch. One day, I’m going to end up liking this house more than my own. It must be the smell.

ALBERTO What smell?

CHICO My house talks. But, here, you don’t hear anything. My house has disappeared. My house has fled. It grabbed hold of its things and ran off. It’s disappeared. I should do the same. Hey, I met Sara. She’s not bad.

ALBERTO So, you’re a night watchman now?

CHICO I quit. Even before I started. Off my own bat.

ALBERTO That was quick.

CHICO (sitting up) It was an experience. That’s what people say: it was worth it because it was an experience. The experience of having been fired by myself even before I took myself on. And all before it even happened. And all inside this circle that begins in me, passes through me and ends in me. Huh?

ALBERTO Great Experience.

CHICO Things are sorting themselves out.

from se o mundo não fosse assim [if the world were not like this]
b. 1976 Portugal
© Instituto Camões, 2007