Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado Read Free Book Online Page B

caressing Almiro. Legless managed to hear some words: “my little boy, my little boy.” Legless drew back and his anguish grew. All of them were looking for affection, anything out of that life: the Professor in those books he read all night long, Cat in the bed of a prostitute who gave him money, Lollipop in the prayers that transfigured him, Outrigger and Almiro with love on the sands of the waterfront. Legless felt the anguish coming over him and it was impossible to sleep. If he slept he would see those bad dreams of jail. He wanted someone to appear whom he could torture with wisecracks. He was looking for a fight. He thought of scratching a match on the leg of someone sleeping. But when he looked at the warehouse door he only felt sorrow and a crazy urge to flee. And he ran along the sand, running aimlessly, fleeing from his anguish.

    Pedro Bala awoke because of a noise nearby. He was sleeping on his stomach and he peeked under his arms. He saw a boy getting up and cautiously approaching Lollipop’s corner. Pedro Bala, half asleep as he was, thought it was a matter of pederasty at first. And he remained alert so as to expel the passive member from the gang, because one of the rules of the gang was that they would not admit passive pederasts. But he woke up completely and then he remembered that Lollipop wasn’t anything like that. It must have been a case of theft. In fact, the boy was already opening Lollipop’s trunk. Pedro Bala leaped on top of him. The struggle was quick. Lollipop woke up but the others kept on sleeping.
    “Were you stealing from a comrade?”
    The other boy remained silent, rubbing his wounded jaw. Pedro Bala went on:
    “You leave tomorrow…I don’t want you with our people anymore. You can go with Ezequiel’s people, who live by stealing from one another.”
    “I only wanted to see…”
    “What did you come to see with your hands?”
    “I swear, it was only to take a look at the medal he has.”
    “Let’s have the straight story or I’ll give you a licking.”
    Lollipop intervened:
    “Leave him alone, Pedro. He just may have come to take a look at the medal. It’s a medal Father José gave me.”
    “That’s the one,” the boy said, “I just wanted to take a look. I swear,” but he was trembling with fear. He knew that life for someone expelled from the Captains of the Sands was hard. Either he joined Ezequiel’s gang, who spend all day in jail, or he ended up in the Reformatory.
    Lollipop intervened again and Pedro Bala went back beside the Professor. Then the boy said with a still trembling voice:
    “I’m going to tell it so you’ll know. It was a girl I saw today. She was in the Cidade de Palha. I’d gone into a store with the idea of lifting a jacket, when she came over and asked me what I wanted. Then we started to talk. I told her I’d bring her a present tomorrow. Because she was good, real good to me, see?” and now he was shouting and seemed enraged.
    Lollipop took the medal the priest had given him, looking at it. Suddenly he held it out to the boy:
    “Take it. Give it to her. But don’t tell Pedro Bala.”
    Dry Gulch came into the warehouse during the wee small hours. The backlands mulatto’s hair was disheveled. He was wearing canvas shoes, the same as when he’d come out of the underbrush. His gloomy face came into the building. He passed over the body of Big João. He spat in front of himself, rubbed his foot over it. He was carrying a newspaper under his arm. He looked all over, searching for someone. He grasped the newspaper with his large callused hands, then he saw where the Professor was. And without any thought about the lateness of the hour he went over to him and started calling him:
    “Professor…Professor…”
    “What is it?” the Professor was half asleep.
    “I want something.”
    The Professor sat up. Dry Gulch’s gloomy face was half invisible in the darkness.
    “Oh, it’s you, Dry Gulch. What do you want?”
    “I want you to