Unexpected Farewell

The pain Ricardo felt was instantaneous, and he didn't even have time to scream. The box of chickens hit his chest with such force that he didn't notice his ribcage being crushed like a cardboard box being blown up by a powerful punch. He lost consciousness immediately.

At that moment, his mind overflowed uncontrollably with memories of the past. He was seeing his entire life flash before his eyes.

He saw the first time he sincerely confessed his love to a schoolmate when he was eleven years old:

“Dating? With you? No way!”

At a party at the same school about a year later, he saw girls from afar disdaining his appearance after refusing to dance with him:

“That skinny guy? Let him just stand there, no one will dance with that!” - Said one of them.

“Only a blind woman would accept that plucked chicken!” - said another.

At fifteen, determined to change from a loser to the most desired among girls, he sought out exercises and miracle recipes:

“Boy, you're such a chicken, no supplement will be able to handle that. Give up.” - His teacher at the gym gave the unpleasant verdict.

These people will see! I'm going to become a stud and all the women will fight over me! - he said to himself as he worked out on his own in his room, his desk cluttered with vitamins and exercise books bought with his allowance.

There were also memories where his efforts finally began to pay off and he was noticed by the girls. With his inflated ego, he didn't realize that he was treating them just like numbers in his fone list.

His last visions were of the persecution and finally the day he asked Julia to be his girlfriend:

“Okay, I'll do it. Let's see what happens.” - She smiled.

Everything went dark again, her smile being the last thing to slowly disappear.

“Where am I?”

“Hurry up! Get some scissors, cut that costume!” - He heard a strager’s voice.

Ricardo could see himself on a surgery table. Several doctors were standing over him.

“Hey, take it easy with those scissors!” - He shouted, but no one paid him any attention, it was as if he were invisible.

With the costume removed, his chest was sunken to a point he didn't imagine he would be capable of. They opened his chest with the scalpel.

“YUCK, how disgusting!” - He shouted, seeing his own insides, or what was left of them. What he saw looked like a deep bowl of tomato soup filled with pieces of his own bones floating around.

“Chest Wall Collapse, several broken ribs, punctured lungs.”

“Doctor, the heart has stopped again!” - warned an assistant.

“This is the fourth time! Defibrillator! Let's try directly on the heart!”

They tried once. Twice. Three times.

“Go for it, me! Hang in there, man!” - Ricardo tried to cheer for himself, but the worst happened.

“Doctor, there's no more answer. He's dead.”

The doctor in charge of the surgery stopped for a moment, sighed and stretched out his arms so that they could remove his bloody gloves.

“What a shame, such a young man. Time of death?”

“1:52 p.m.”

“Clean and suture the body. I'm going to report his passing.”

“Well, that's it, I’m really dead. It's over.” - Ricardo sighed. He decided to follow the doctor out of the operating room. Before leaving, he looked at his body once more on the operating table, being cleaned, the remains of the bloody rooster costume were placed in a plastic box in the corner. He left.

In the waiting room, besides the police officers, there was almost the entire Deliwings’s cast, except for Alberto's wife and the afternoon shift employees who stayed at the snack bar waiting for news. Leading the group was Alberto, who went to the doctor:

“So, Doctor?”

The doctor looked serious, put his fingers together and gave the saddly news.

“Unfortunately, the patient is dead. Multiple broken ribs. Both lungs were punctured. We suspect that the liver and spleen were ruptured, but we were unable to stabilize the heart to continue treatment. I'm sorry.”

“Thank you, doctor, I'll tell his family.”

As the doctor left, Hermes approached. His eyes were wide as headlights, sweat running down his forehead.

“And now, Mr. Alberto?”

“And now you take over from here.”

“What do I do?”

“Don't play deaf. You take over the rest. Tell his parents and call the cheapest funeral service you can find. I'm going back to the snack bar to see if I can keep the business going until tonight. This funeral is going to cost me a fortune, not to mention the compensation, and losses after losses. The snack bars’s reputation has gone down the drain.

“With all this tension? I don't know if it's going to work.”

“So what? He died and that's it, it's over.”

Ricardo wasn't surprised by the reaction of the two. It was what was expected from two petty people. Marcelo and Camila were sitting on the sofa waiting, visibly sad.

Marilise, oblivious to everything, was in another corner using her phone to check the swelling from the slap with the camera. There was an exaggerated bandage on her face covering the injured part. But there was one person missing.

Julia came running down the hall. She was still wearing her store uniform, which was messy and had dirt marks on it.

“Where is he? Where is he?” - Tears ran down her eyes, renewing the previous marks. She was supported by the police officers. Marilise thought it best to stay further away as a precaution.

“He's dead. And you have other problems to solve!” - Alberto replied, harsh as always and pointing his finger at her.

Julia collapsed on the floor. The bad feeling that had been eating away at her chest since she arrived at the diner and heard what had happened finally had its end. Despair finally took over her.

“RICARDOOO! WHY DID YOU GO TO DIE! AHHHHH!!!”

One of the police officers helped her sit down and tried to calm her down, but Alberto was still not satisfied.

“There's no point crying now! Until earlier you were running after that idiot with a knife! You hit my daughter who was not at fault at all! You'll answer for all this at the police station, and I hope you rot in jail!” - He threw the last shovel of lime when he saw his own daughter turn her face with a strange expression. Disconcerted by her reaction, he fell silent.

“Sir, take it easy, tone it down, we're in a hospital. We'll do whatever needs to be investigated at the police station, and the guy's testimony needs to be respected.”

“What's up? Are you going to side with this crazy woman? It's your duty to arrest her, do your job!” - Hermes really wanted to finish his boss's words, but when he saw the police officer's eyes almost flashing, he took a step back.

“You're speaking to an authority figure! Lower your voice while you can, or I'll arrest you for contempt. Let's all go to the police station right now!”

Alberto's plans to reopen the snack barr, if it hadn't been decided before, was now completely canceled. Only Hermes stayed to contact a funeral service and Ricardo's parents, relieved at least not to have to spend the rest of the day holed up in a police station.

Watching everything, Ricardo felt sorry for Julia, but she was unable to hear him, and she didn't even manage to punch Alberto in the face when he tried. His fist only went through the head of the ignorant ex- boss. Resigned, he began to think.

“And now, what will happen to me?”

The answer came soon after. He felt his vision darken and, not knowing how to react to it, he just gave in to fate.

When he realized, the place arond him had changed completely, but he realized it was no longer the hospital, but a room that was a little too big to be a room in a house, with long wooden benches and flowers scattered around.

He tried to pull from his memories to see if he had been there before, but when he saw the coffin with his body right behind him, he understood. It was his own wake.

“Wow, how much time has passed?”

At that moment, several people entered the place, one by one or in pairs. He soon recognized his parents in front, with heavy expressions and tears running down his mother's eyes.

Right behind them, a few more relatives appeared, former schoolmates, almost all the employees of Deliwings’s - Hermes in front, but not wanting to be there - with the exception of Alberto, his wife, Marilise and not least, Julia.

Has she been arrested? Damn Alberto!

To his surprise, several girls he had had his adventures with also showed up, about 12, but none of them showed any signs of crying despite their sad faces.

“I don't know if I'm proud that they came here or if I'm upset that they're not crying. Well, I did my best, after all. It's a shame I can't apologize to them.” - He was content.

Rites performed, tributes said - Hermes's being the most theatrical possible, much to the dismay of his coworkers - People gradually left the place and the body alone. After everyone had left, Ricardo noticed that someone had entered through the other door of the chapel. It was Julia.

“She looks terrible, she even looks thinner. And it's all my fault, I know that and I'll never be able to fix it again.”

She was wearing less tidy clothes than the other girls, but in black, as the occasion required. Ricardo didn't understand why she hadn't entered with the other people.

But he noticed that she had dark circles under her eyes and marks on her face from someone who had cried recently. He went straight to the coffin, which was still open, and leaned over this body.

“Oh, man, Ricardo… you left without even having the chance to see the gift I gave you. But I managed to get it. Marcelo got it from your closet for me. Here it is.”

He took a silver necklace from the wrapping paper, on which hung an ornament in the shape of a stylized bird of an undefined species. He opened the hook and put the necklace around Ricardo's neck.

“There you go. My grandmother owns a little shop that sells mystical items, many of which she makes herself. She says that it brings protection and luck to those who wear it, but now we'll never know, right? Take it with you, okay?”

“…”

“I wish it was all a lie, that you were by my side. I wanted to see you apologizing to the other girls, asking for forgiveness, trying to change... even if you weren't with me anymore, I'd rather see you alive and well.”

“…I'm sorry.” - Even though he couldn't hear, Ricardo replied.

“But now you're gone. Your body is still here, but soon they'll take you to the crematorium. Everything you once were will end up inside a damn box.”

“...I'm sorry.”

“But, you know? If there really is life after this, I'll pray that you can come back and be happier, no matter what. If there's someone up there, may they be kinder to you next time. Rest in peace, okay?

“I didn't want it to be like this.”

“Oh, I almost forgot to tell you what happened after all that. I was fired, but Alberto went back on his word and didn't accuse me of the assault. Camila told Marilise’s mother everything she knew about her, so he had no more arguments to accuse me.

“Go for it, Camila! And serves Marilise right!”

“Mr. Gilmar lost his truck, but since he had insurance, he's already gone back to work and is helping me find another job. You know those breaded foods you were going to fry? They were spoiled, a lot of them.The confusion and that explosion ended up attracting the press and the health department "suddenly" decided to show up.”

“Alberto had to pay a huge fine and the diner got a badly spoken off, it's going to take a long time to recover. Camila now has another job and is much calmer.

Well, that's it. You're gone, but everything got sorted out somehow.”

Julia leaned over the coffin once more, this time her lips touching Ricado's cold lips. Even though he was watching everything from the outside, he could somehow feel her warmth.

“I love you, you crazy man. I'll never forget you.”

He felt all the tenderness she had for him that she never really valued. He didn't want to leave without telling her in his own words, even if she couldn't hear them.

He approached her face, trying to return the kiss, and his transparent lips touched hers.

Julia was startled and turned her gaze to where there shouldn't be anyone. A tear ran down her face, a smile broke out. She could see him!

“RICARDO!”

But there was no more time. A bright light was beginning to pull him somewhere. In time, she managed to hear his last words:

“Be happy, Julia. I love you too!”