Pieces of Memory I

by Fernando Gil Paiva

Once upon a time (when I was 5), my godmother invited me to go to the circus that, once in a while, arrived there in Itumbiara, state of Goias. It wasn’t a huge one, but it was the animal kind. That day they brought a baby giraffe that was very tall, by the way. Then they needed volunteers… My godmother made me rise up my arms and they called me there close to the giraffe. They put a bread in my hand and a gigantic tongue came out of its mouth and I felt it embracing the food. I could just feel that and not do anything else. Experiences – I fed a baby giraffe. Consequences -my hand wet for the rest of the show.

Two years later or so, I started writing in a notebook that I won. Each page was a little story. Sometimes I use to write once a day, sometimes twice a day. More years ahead, I found a story about a lonely giraffe that was envious about the type of food she received in the zoo. And her big question of life: why do lions get the meat while I don’t? Well, something like this. I’ll try to rescue some of these pearls from bygone. And, maybe someday, one of them will appear here by chance.

Sailor clothing for ants to die

por Fernando Gil Paiva

Some people like to kill birds, I’ve never killed. Killing toads, killing lizards, the simple pleasure of watching a life saying good bye to the animal’s body without having consideration about what is to say good bye to the body. It’s ok, I’ve never killed these bigger creatures, and I neither had Elmyra Duff claims, but I had too much imagination with ants.

It wasn’t just the feeling of haunting. When I was eleven, in the backyard of my house there were some really really big-sized ants. This feature use to make things easier when I had to catch them. They started gathering in a “canned food bottle” until I decided that was the time to make some origami.

I use to make one or two paper boats. I use to prepare a big bowl full of water and then, the creation of a previous catastrophe. The boat was in the sea. The passengers, I put them in their places. They rounded the edged place while I was making waves to wet the paper. “Out of the blue, in the middle of a storm, a thunder fell in the boat and a smoke started being seen by the crew”. A little bit later, the boat was on fire and the SOS didn’t seam to arrive. As soon as possible I would be there. It must had the emotion.

“Attention, ants in the sea! Ants in the sea!” And then another boat arrived to rescue them. For the ones that have sunk, there was a thin line to go to the deepest parts of that ocean to do the capture. After a while out of the water, they re-breathed. After playing tricks, I put them back in the bottle, but only the ones that deserved. The most anxious have already died when the fire consumed the paper. If I fell in love with them, I’d just promise to be true, and help them to run away...
(But a small amount).

Tomorrow would be another accident, in or out of the water. The ants were always my best leading players, actors and actresses. They and my Lego® collection, that I’ll talk about in the future.