The next afternoon, Severo Laris bought two tickets to the amusement park.
Friday’s amusement park was not too small or crowded.
However, for many items there were still long lines.
Severo Laris bought one for her and ate it with candy floss all over his sticky little face, like a kitten with a smudged face.
Paula Rouco had a great time, holding Severo Laris’ hand and actively attending the queue.
Big Swing, Roller Coaster, Jumper? thrilling rides everywhere.
He was screaming so loud while riding these rides that he was about to burst Severo Laris’ eardrums.
He’s obviously scared, but he can’t resist playing.
As he rode the carousel, he turned his head to smile at her and Severo Laris snapped a picture of him.
Smiling like a flower, bright as a river of stars.
The photograph has been tucked away in Severo Laris’ wallet ever since.
It is five or six o’clock in the winter evening and it is getting dark.
The Ferris wheel, illuminated not far away, rolls slowly and beautifully.
“Severo, let’s go to the Ferris wheel!”
As he stood in line at the Ferris wheel, Paula Rouco turned to speak to him with her little face cocked to one side.
“Severo, is there something you’re afraid of?”
Severo Laris looked at her with deep, downcast eyes, “As a child, what I was most afraid of was being beaten; as an adult, what I was most afraid of was being poor.”
Now Leopoldo no longer dares to hit him even with drink and is able to earn a lot of money.
What I fear most today is loving but not being loved and losing what I love.
Paula Rouco looked at him with a frown and sighed with pursed lips, “Severo, you have had a bad time, but then I love you.”
The girl even raised her small hand and touched his head.
Severo Laris took her gently in his arms and asked softly, “What are you afraid of, Lita?”
“I’m afraid of the dark, did I ever tell you how I was kidnapped as a child and the kidnappers blindfolded me and everything was black around me and I screamed to my parents and my grandfather, but no one came to save me, probably because I was leaving a shadow, so I was afraid of the dark?”
Severo Laris vibrated loudly in his heart.
I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.
He tilted his little face and let out a laugh, “I won’t be afraid to go to dark places in the future if you stay with me.”
His big hand went around her little head and he squeezed her in his arms, guilt and regret in his eyes.
…
When they climbed into the Ferris wheel, it was completely dark, but inside the wheel there was a slight glow.
The view of the night under the Ferris wheel is breathtaking.
As the Ferris wheel slowly climbed, Paula Rouco said, “I heard that when the Ferris wheel reaches the top, you kiss your lover and you can be together forever.”
Severo Laris chuckled lightly, mocking her naivety, “Where are the rumors?”
“Prove it if you don’t believe me.”
In the gloom, Severo Laris looked at her for a moment, “Then try it later.”
He simply wanted to kiss her.
The Ferris wheel reaches the top.
Severo Laris embraced her and lowered his head to kiss the girl deeply in his arms.
The kiss, hot and passionate, made Paula Rouco’s eyes water slightly.
Severo Laris had come to his senses prematurely and his dark eyes were clear as he looked into the self-absorbed little face, “Paula Rouco.”
“Hmm?”
“Let’s break up.”
“…”
Paula Rouco opened her eyes dazed, unimpressed and even nudged her little mouth and said, “Severo, and you call me naughty, when it’s clear you’re more of a tease.”
Severo Laris said, word for word, “I’m serious and I’m not joking with you.”
“But you just kissed me.”
Severo Laris looked away, indifferent, “Satisfied because I don’t want you to bother me anymore.”
“…”
Paula Rouco’s smile faltered and she looked at him in frightened disbelief, “Did I bother you?”.
“It’s not like that, you’re fine, I just don’t like you anymore.”
At that moment, the Ferris wheel crashes to the ground.
The closed doors of the Ferris wheel opened and Severo Laris blurted out these words before taking the lead with his long legs and getting out of the wheel.
Paula Rouco sat inside, froze for two or three seconds and then chased after her.
“Severo Laris, wait for me while you clear your words.”
Severo Laris is so tall and has such long legs that he has to jog to keep up.
The two men went back and forth, neither man stopping.
Severo Laris took his hand off her as if it were a ponytail, “Paula Rouco, stop bothering me.”
“But you haven’t said why you break up, why you don’t like it anymore, why you’re suddenly like this…”
She chased him, on the verge of tears.
Severo Laris stopped walking and turned to look at her coldly, “In the adult world there is no such thing as why. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it.”
Her little white eyebrow furrowed more and more, her eyes full of aggression, “But I still like you, I don’t want to break up with you.”
She reached out her small hand and tugged his.
Severo Laris slipped the lump in his throat, swallowed his bitterness and pushed her hand away mercilessly, “Paula Rouco, stop it. I’m not going to change my decision out of pity for you.”
She looked up at him, tears rolling down her face, “You said we would always be together.”
“It takes a child to believe in things like promises, let alone the sweet words a man says in the heat of the moment.”
Severo Laris turns and strides away.
Paula Rouco cried loudly, but kept following him, like an abandoned kitten with the luxury of returning to its owner.
Severo Laris tried hard not to look back.
Don’t look, you won’t go soft.
Together, you are not worthy of each other, and since the end result is a separation, it is better to break up before it is too late.
Paula Rouco followed him, crying like a weeping woman, reaching out to wipe away her tears as she persisted in following him.
“Severo Laris, tell me, why did you break up?”
Again and again, that was all he asked.
Severo Laris gritted his teeth and addressed her again, indifferent and thin-skinned, “Well, since you ask why, I’ll tell you the truth.”
“You are too childish, I feel tired with you, like a father taking care of his daughter to take care of you, at first I was interested in you because I thought you were too dumb and easy to fool, just hook my fingers and sleep with me. Paula Rouco, you know so many boys all over school wanted to chase you, I was no exception, but it wasn’t love, it was my I slept with the daughter of The Rouco family, who so many men wanted to chase but didn’t. ”
“But little by little I lost interest, because I already had it, so I didn’t feel the novelty anymore. It’s like a new pair of shoes, you get tired of wearing them after a while. Especially these shoes, which need my constant care.”
“I have a lot of work in my day and I’m too tired to talk, but I still have to return your messages, return your calls and spend time with you.”
“Paula Rouco, I am not you, you have a family and a privileged environment for you to play in, my time is precious and I have to sacrifice earning time even to play with you.”
“I beg you, don’t bother me, I can’t afford to play.”
Severo Laris said the most words, word for word, as a sharp knife pierced his heart, stabbing it with blood and hardness.
His large, misty eyes were full of disbelief, and at the same time overwhelming sadness, as he choked and asked, “Do you want, do you want to say all these things?”
“Yes.”
Snap.
He raised his hand and slapped her hard, hard and forceful.
Severo Laris gets a swerve in the face.
The air seemed to freeze for a few seconds as Severo Laris drew in a cold breath and glared coldly back at her, his thin lips curved into a smile of disgust. “Paula, now that the fight is over, can you stop bothering me later?”.
Paula Rouco stood in the cold, fists clenched and eyes red as a rabbit, until, watching Severo Laris’s back disappear into the night, she knelt down, hugged herself, and cried aloud.