Part 3
Maria Adelaide heard the noise of tyres screeching, sensed danger, something inside of her told her she'd better walk faster.
If only her two friends were with her, Suelen and Ana Bel. They weren't. How could they have been. They had arranged to meet there at the square at twenty to ten. And it was now only half past eight. They might, despite that, have been hanging about there in the square, but they weren't. She had no idea where they could have gone, but this was not important now, it wouldn't help any.
Only haf past eight. The street shouldn't look deserted, it wasn't late at night, all the same it did. Adelaide wasn't absolutely sure whether it was desolate indeed or whether it was her imagination playing a trick on her to make things worse. Although that street didn't use to be busy nights, there was bound to be someone, going one way or the other to all intents and purposes. However as it looked, this was certainly an interval in which there wasn't anyone passing. Why should this damn break arrive exactly now, she asked herself. Murphy's law. She heard one teacher telling them about it the other day in class as a joke. A law that says whenever there is a possibility for things to go wrong, they will go wrong.
The noise of a car coming made her turn around to see the red Buick approaching fast, sure up to no good. She winced, looked straight ahead again, continued walking. A little before the point where Maria Adelaide was, the driver, Oscar, slammed on the brakes, skidded to a halt, past the point where the girl was. She glanced quickly, a meek expression on her face, as inconspicuosly as she was able to manage. She wanted to see and at the same time she didn't want to show that she was looking, an impossible thing to do.
The car started to move again, only for Oscar to brake suddenly once more a few meters ahead. Then he started, ran a few meters to brake again and so on in quick succession. Maria Adelaide was scared, she didn't know what to do.
Oscar was Luciana's cousin, but that didn't mean anything. She had known Luciana all her life, there was nothing anyone could say against her, she was nice, but that didn't tell much as far as Oscar was concerned. Even Luciana might not know Oscar very well. There were all sorts of people in the world. You never knew. Even brothers and sisters could be strikingly different one from the other. The car started again to move, slowly. This time it drove off, turned left at the next corner, the sound of its 255 hp V8 engine dying away.
She walked as fast as she could. A car was coming, she turned around, it was another car, it passed and went down João Acácio street, a place she'd known from childhood, that now had turned into no-man's-land. Again the sound of car coming. She looked. This time it was indeed the damn red Buick. Moving fast. The police patrol cars in this town ought at least to be prowling from time to time, where were they. At the point where she was, Oscar braked, the car skidded sideways one side and the other, almost made a U-turn without making it, straightened out skilfully, braked, skidded and stopped. Like a madman Oscar started it again, then braked again. Maria Adelaide stopped in order not to draw abreast of the car, but Oscar reversed.
'You think you're too good?' he shouted.
Adelaide made no reply, stared ahead, walked.
Mad, Oscar started the car again to brake soon after. Maria Adelaide decided to cross over, saw he was about to back up again. For fear of being run over, she remained on the same sidewalk. The red Buick peeled out. She saw the red tail lights moving away, the license plate 'São Paulo'. She crossed over. There was a moment of respite.
But then the noise of a car was heard once more. The red car again. It had driven around the block a second time. It didn't miss its disgusting tyre screeching with unnerving persistency. The same persistency of a psychopath or of a man who for a few instants in his life was acting like one.
