FEVER

Part 2

The sound of the door makes the boy guarding the motorbike turn around.
"So? Did you take it?" he asks with a hint of anxiety in his voice.
Phinks sighs, kicking a rock.
"Stuff costs money here. How much Uvo do you have in your pocket?"
The mulatto-skinned boy widens his big green eyes bending his neck towards him.
"I hope you're joking!" he is amazed "Obviously I don't have any, no one our age has!"
"As I've imagined..." sighs the blond.
He scratches his head and looks at the square, worried.
"So what do we do?" urges Uvo's voice, now calm again.
"She says that instead of money he accepts a barter. Anything."
"And what do she need?"
"She didn't tell me, but I thought that if she were dealing with herbs, she could use a new pestle, maybe even a small one, like the one nannies use to make mochi."
Uvo curls his lower lip and frowns.
"And do you know where to find it?"
"I've never even been here, how do I know!"
"Then we'll find him, you'll see. I hang out down here sometimes, but we have to hurry. We will surely find something in the vicinity, follow me."
The bazaars walk among the stalls, accompanying the motorbike.
Suddenly they come across a carpenter's shop. Displayed on empty wooden crates are lots of wooden objects, including pestles of various sizes. Under each creation a coupon with a number.
The two look at each other, still exchanging a look of doubt and uncertainty.
"There's a lot of money here, they're not like us." whispers the smallest.
"Already. Nice mess." look at the bigger one.
The two exchange a lost look. Behind them passes a cart drawn by lowing oxen.
"We look like two idiots, standing here, Uvo, what shall we do?"
"I don't know, I don't know, let me think!"
"You said you knew the place, maybe someone can help us."
"Well... I don't think so for things like this..." He murmured, glancing around guiltily.
They let two women pass by who observe the products on display and touch them before putting them down and continuing their tour.
Looking at them, her jade eyes suddenly light up.
"But... maybe..." he murmurs, turning his head towards the sun.
He extends a hand as if to calculate something by extending the fingers horizontally.
"How long ago did we leave?"
"About an hour... We have to move, what are we going to do."
The mulatto boy's green eyes fall on a wooden pestle.
He raises them up, captured by the sound of a voice: the merchant warmly greets a lady, beautiful in appearance, and the man talks to her posing.
Then, again, his green eyes fall like magnets on the pestle. Next to it, an abandoned and worn-out jute bag.
"Phinks" he mumbles, motionless, his mouth moves barely perceptible and fast "Take that bag"
"And what do we do with it?"
"Shut up and do as I tell you: just take it. Hurry."
The blond grabs the worn bag and instinctively hides it behind his back.
The two remain motionless staring at the banquet while the fat gentleman of the shop chats happily with the lady until he notices them and gives them a dirty look.
"Well, what do you want?"
"We are watching!" the little blond guy replies instinctively.
"Bah, get out of there. So battered you make customers run away." the merchant replies and turns to reconnect with the woman.
The two exchange another look, this time more eloquent.
"You don't want to..."
"Put it in and let's go."
"Uvogin...!"
"In and go!!"
Phinks languishes watching the feast, hands don't move.
So it's a moment. Uvo slips a hand behind him, grabs the yuta and opens it, as he turns he heels the object which ends up straight in the bag and they disappear walking briskly, turning the corner.
"What we have done?" the little blond asks in anguish.
"What was best thing to do." replies Uvo frowning, walking resolutely towards the infirmary.
"Go. Gave it to her, take medicine and let's get out of here before someone chases us. Hurry!"
"Hurry, hurry, always hurry and anxious!..."
The blond enters, puts down the worn sack containing the wooden pestle with a lugubrious and embarrassed air, his face bowed.
"Here you are. Please give me the medicine."
An astonished sigh comes out from under the veil with a net, then the shadow of a smile.
The woman bends down and takes the medicine and a metal box of ice.
"Take. Keep her in here, but be careful, keep her wrapped up in that sack. Even in the cold you can burn yourself."
Phinks eyes fill with tears as he lifts his face, puts his hands on the box.
"Thank you." she sobs. "He has no idea what we had to do about that."
The woman carefully takes the wooden pestle (with the sheet still attached), from her sigh it seems she is laughing serenely.
"Hurry now. Have a good trip. Heaven protect you." the woman greets him, accompanying him to the exit.
Opening the door Uvogin turns his head impatiently
"So you have it?..."
The woman freezes at the door, the blond man gets on the motorbike while the older one scrutinizes the veiled figure in front of him. Under that veil a sigh of surprise, while the boy closes his eyes to better observe her.
"Hey! There they are!" shouts a voice not too far away.
"Shit. Here they are!" Uvo mutters, snapping his head towards the noise, he starts the bike with a bang and gives gas. As he is about to leave he shoots a frowning glance at the old woman.
"Thank you." he just says "And you hold on tight, now you can really fly!"
So saying he starts full throttle while the trader and two other men throw themselves in pursuit. The woman steps in front of them, stopping them with a wave of her hand, hiding the pestle with her long flowing sleeves.
"Gentlemen, stop, what are you doing?"
"Those two petty thieves stole a 700 Jenny mahogany pestle from me! They will pay dearly!!" the merchant yells beside himself.
"Sevent- ... !"
"Yes, it was one of the most valuable products, cursed!!"
The woman smiles, uncovering her face reveals an elderly face, delicately reticulated with wrinkles around the eyes, gray hair and a sweet smile.
"Maybe you are looking for this?" the woman asks calmly, uncovering the mahogany pestle.
The merchant and the two men widen their eyes.
"Lady!" the merchant clears his throat "Do you realize that in doing so you are deliberately declaring yourself an accomplice in a theft? It's rather embarrassing to see but..."
"Absolutely not." she smiles.
By undoing the bag hidden in one of the large pockets of the apron, he pays the price of the pestle by placing each coin in the palm of the man's hand, amazed.
"Here, it really seems to me that the problem is definitively solved, right? I think each of us can now return to our occupations."
The trader pockets the money, with a sign of reverence the other two also say goodbye and silently go back to their shops.
"I owe two hundred Jennys." the old woman thinks cheerfully, covering her face again as she returns to the shop a few meters away. «Better to mark them immediately, Uvogin seemed to really need them»