The nights come earlier and earlier in the final days of autumn.
As night fell, Nilson brought the food to the table.
Micaela was in a good mood all day, relieved to know that Carlos wasn’t going crazy looking for her all over the world, and she began to look frequently at the front door in the afternoon.
Micaela washed her hands and sat at the table, looking at the dishes there; chicken soup, cassoulet and fried lotus root.
Nilson’s skills are getting better and better, and each dish looks delicious.
Placing the bowl of soup in front of Moya, Nilson whispered:
-Soup first.
Micaela had no objection, slurping the delicious chicken soup with crunchy lotus root….
Nilson looked at the woman, the red date handkerchief hiding the marks that looked hard to him….
Moya’s heart was written all over her face.
It was the best day she had had in days because Carlos was here, they could stop worrying about each other, and he would be back soon….
Nilson’s heart was full of bitterness, but he couldn’t help but let his heart soften at seeing her happy, even if it wasn’t her fault….
After watching her cut several pieces of lotus root in a row, he reached out and pushed the chicken towards her.
-The food has to be balanced, you can’t just eat one dish, you get tired of chewing the lotus root and you don’t eat anything else.
Micaela froze violently, Carlos had said exactly the same thing before….
That time in Fracimon Nation, he knew she had eaten half a dessert too much, and the next day she asked that restaurant to send her a meal with a few desserts too many on purpose….
Nilson looked at her face and guessed she was thinking about Carlos again and felt a little bad:
-At first you didn’t like lotus roots, it was only when Tia Yerma brought you to my house as a child and you ate the roots I cooked that you started to like them.
Micaela looked at him with surprise and some disbelief.
Nilson explained:
-You don’t like lotus root because you think the silk threads look like spider webs.
Micaela paused slightly, feeling as if, what he was saying was, well, true, and so far she had been a little annoyed by the silky lotus root threads in her soup….
Nilson opened the conversation.
-I was from Echave City too, I lived next door to your house, when Villa Echave wasn’t as grand as it is now, and I would run to your house whenever I could, and my friends would laugh at me because I would only play with you, but I was undeterred and still came to see you every day.
A slight warmth flooded Nilson’s body and the corners of his lips twisted as he remembered his childhood.
-But I know everyone is jealous, jealous that I can play with you, take etiquette classes together and learn piano together….
As Micaela listened to his words, a sudden blur of images came to her mind and those childish voices echoed in her ears:
-Shy face! Nilson likes Moya!
-Nilson likes to play with girls!
-Nilson is not a man!
-Moya plays with Nilson every day and wants to marry Nilson when she’s older!
Her heart beat a little faster as she looked at Nilson in front of her and muttered unconsciously:
-Nilson?
Nilson looks stunned, a gleam emerges in his eyes….
Nilson was so overwhelmed that he put down the chopsticks…..
-Moya you, did you remember?
Those memories are so distant that Micaela was also hypnotized and the doctor said that the probability of her remembering things from her childhood was extremely low, but she, just like that, remembered a lot of vague memories…
What Villa Echave was like then, what her father was like, what her mother told them when she lied to her and her adoptive father about leaving Jinyun for Salamonsa, and, in front of her, Nilson, it all came back to her memory, all in disjointed pieces….
More and more memories flood the brain….
Part of her childhood memories are all of Nilson….
His handsome boyish appearance also becomes more and more vivid in the mind, and then he overlaps with the person in front of him….
They played together and learned to play the piano together. He didn’t like playing the piano, but he insisted on learning it even to be able to communicate with her, often discussing techniques with her and smiling with a satisfied face every time he reached a high level:
-I did it, is there a reward for Moya?
Micaela put down the chopsticks, frowning slightly, with her hand resting on her forehead, a little dizzy, those strange and familiar memories, without warning, rushed into her brain, she felt a little overwhelmed for a while….
She had been in Salamonsa for so long without remembering anything of the past, and now, suddenly, it was coming back to her memory….
Both her grandmother and her mother had told her that she and Nilson had been very close as children, but at that time she was filled with hatred for Nilson and his recklessness in bringing her back to Salamonsa, and now, as her childhood memories came back to her, she suddenly felt a bit of affection for the man….
Yes, that’s what it feels like, Micaela suddenly brightens up….
-Moya, Moya, don’t think that if you don’t feel well…
Nilson stood up, looking a little uncomfortable and extraordinarily anxious, turned around and grabbed her wrist….
If anything happens to Moya in this shithole, she’ll kill herself….
Micaela exhaled, withdrew her hand, looked at Nilson, her childhood friend, and spoke slowly:
-I finally know why Sonia hates me so much…..
Nilson paused slightly and looked at her at….
-Because she has loved you since she was a child…..
The childish reaction may not prove anything, but one cannot be wrong to feel such hostility in the time spent with Salamonsa after returning to her….
Nilson frowned, tried to calm the rapid beating of his heart, looked carefully at Micaela, saw that she was no longer uncomfortable and that the pallor of her face had just receded and returned to redness, and only then felt slightly relieved, sat back down and said:
-But I only liked you when I was a child.
Micaela feels a little uncomfortable and picks up a spoon to drink the soup.
-Do you know what it’s like to be confessed to by someone you consider a brother?
Monte de Piedad…
Nilson’s heart shrank and, without much enthusiasm, he asked uncertainly:
-Do you really, really remember everything?
Micaela nodded, a little incredulous.
-More or less, all the impressive things I should remember. It’s amazing, the TV shows are so clear that they have to hit you over the head with a stick to get your memory back, and I remembered everything so suddenly.
No, actually it wasn’t sudden, there were many times in the last few days that she looked at his smile and it felt inexplicably familiar….
It might actually prove the saying that some things are not forgotten, they just don’t come to mind for a while….
Thinking about that last image that had just come to her mind, Micaela blushed slightly, it turned out that her bond with Carlos went back to that time as well….
How nice it would be if Carlos would also remember the memories that belonged to them….
Thinking about why Carlos forgot that memory, Micaela has a few more mixed emotions about the Nilson in front of her….
Nilson looks at Micaela, she really remembers his childhood, calling him by his childhood nickname, but he’s not happy…
He had how Moya could remember him and the depth of their relationship, but now that he did, her reaction was not what he wanted…
-Moya, I really don’t want to be your brother.
Micaela paused a little and looked at him.
When she was little she used to call her brother, but he didn’t allow it and corrected her for a long time, that’s why she called him Nilson like the rest of the kids….
Half-heartedly, Micaela said firmly:
-Nilson, whether or not I remember my past with you as a child, my feelings for Carlos will never change.
A flash of pain in Nilson’s eyes….
Micaela bowed her head and ate in silence, and Nilson finally stopped saying anything….
After eating, Nilson made her the usual hot water and took her to the bathroom.
Micaela finished showering, washed her clothes and freshened up, glancing from time to time across the courtyard, thinking that Carlos should be here soon too, shouldn’t he?
A drop of water from her dress dripped onto her collarbone and she took a step back, suddenly remembering that Nilson’s eyes had rested on her collarbone in the morning and unconsciously touched it again, no pain, no nothing….
Then she remembered with a start that the night before, Carlos had rubbed his neck against hers….
Micaela’s face turns red in reaction to what you see here….
Did Wilson give her a handkerchief because he saw it?
So, had he really guessed that Carlos had arrived here last night?
Micaela bit her lip and looked back into the courtyard before going back inside.
Nilson had boiled water and was loading hot water into the kettle.
-Nilson, did you know Carlos was here?
Nilson’s movements paused, half-heartedly, before he put the kettle down, covered the kettle of hot water and turned to face that way.
Moya’s long hair is pulled back, revealing a delicate collar, a few broken strands of hair hanging down, adding a bit of feminine charm, pink round-necked pajamas of coral velvet, he still saw the snow-white collarbone with a speck of red markings….
She wore a wide black jacket over it, and Moya’s belly wasn’t too big and still zipped up, looking pregnant.
-Yes.
He admitted it so dryly that Micaela didn’t know what to say for a moment, and a little jolt rose in her heart that he had guessed that Carlos had found this place, and yet he had acted so calmly all day and had no intention of taking her anywhere else….
A sudden strong light shone into the house, in and out, Micaela and Nilson were startled, it was the headlights and they both guessed it, Carlos was coming!
Micaela turned around and went out, followed by Nilson.
A white car stopped in front of the courtyard, with the lights off and the engine off, and parked there quietly.
The corners of Micaela’s lips turned up and she couldn’t help but quicken her pace, only to be grabbed by Nilson’s arm behind her.
Micaela turned and saw that Nilson was also looking at the car, with a cold gleam in his eyes.
-Moya, this isn’t Carlos.