His wanderings through the streets of the metropolis of Pará, sometimes under heavy rain in a hot and humid climate, at other times under the scorching sunlight that burned his aging skin, darkened by the dense temperature that mercilessly punished him during that miserable pilgrimage. It was a burden of despair and many bitter memories of the past. As well as a filthy bag over his shoulders, full of various junk found in the garbage scattered throughout the path he used to pass. He gathered everything that seemed useful, according to his crazy ideas, feeding on the remains of food found in the bins located in front of the beautiful houses, where he would certainly never enter.

He recognized that he had no value as a person, he was a penitent already resigned to the poverty in which he had lived for a long time. That night, like so many others, he decides to sleep in one of the several existing squares, to give his tired body a rest on the cardboard he carried inside the dirty burlap bag in which he kept his few belongings, he was not the only one to wander around those sides, the streets were full of beggars.

 Therefore, it was necessary to share space with others, sometimes even using brute force to intimidate the most dangerous and separate a small space for yourself to find rest. The government created popular restaurants that sold a meal for less than two reais, a very affordable amount for those who had nothing. At noon, there was a long line of hungry people to buy a dish made, paying with coins received from alms.

 They were given to them by those who passed through the narrow streets of the city center, there gathered dozens of beggars who also wanted to quench the hunger that ate at them inside. Despite this, more than a plate of food was still needed to help him and the others who lived inhumanly, thrown out into the open like sewer rats, unclean and unhygienic, due to the abandonment in which they found themselves. What these poor devils really needed from the authorities was a policy plan that would allow them to have good quality shelter, food and medical care and that would be guaranteed permanently.

 Not just momentarily. Whenever he satiated his hunger, he went in search of new alms, it was a daily routine, he spent the whole day from side to side with his hands outstretched to anyone, begging for help. His resting place was the well-known square called Republic, located close to the shopping center, between the avenues President Vargas and Assis de Vasconcelos, surrounded by several skyscrapers and vast vegetation, most of which are tall mango trees.

At that time full of ripe fruits that served as food for people like him, forgotten by society. There, dozens of poor people spent most of their time together or individually, consuming alcoholic beverages. Chatting away or simply in confused daydreams of a confused mind.

 Numb by the effect of alcohol. Sunday was a good time to collect many coins. Several people walked around the place and sympathized. It was really a sad situation in which the bastards lived and helped them as they could. The cold winter afternoon prevented the sun from appearing and the heat did not dare bother. But the cold was persistent in making him shiver and wanting to keep warm at all costs.

What was impossible for someone in complete abandonment. That he didn't even have new and clean clothes to use, sitting in a corner watching the swaying of the trees around him. He saw the world go round between sips of strong drink, remembering the beginning, how it all started. Luís Gustavo was the eldest son of a riverside family.

Coming from low A****n, one of the many islands on the banks of the A****n River and his childhood as the seventh son of an illiterate fisherman who only knew how to cast his fishing nets over the water to collect schools of fish and feed the family, he was miserable.

Fishing was the father's routine. While the boys harvested açaí from the many existing palm trees around the island, they who, like him, grew up like wild animals and adapted to wildlife. They knew nothing about modernity, the cultural poverty in which they lived was extreme. It was true that he was not hungry, but the food was watered the same things every day, there once lost, they saw something beyond the usual fish with wild fruits, and chicken.

When he turned ten, he ran away from home, hitchhiking on a fishing boat, arriving in the capital. Where he spent all his adolescence. He worked at Ver-O-Peso, the largest and most important free fair in Latin America.

 Mandatory stop for large vessels and easy access to the inhabitant’s tourism. A place where a fearless boy worked hard to survive amid all kinds of dangers. Including criminals, drug addicts and traffickers. In that place he was lucky to meet Naomi. A wealthy businesswoman who used to visit the place once a month. Accompanied by your private driver and two security guards, to buy fruits, vegetables and fish.

She learned to admire that little boy who was always very helpful and met his needs with diligence. She felt sorry to see him in that sad situation, living practically in the open. Sleeping on the empty stalls of the market. When they retired in the late afternoon. Every time I went there, I saw him dressed in the same weather-worn shorts.

Wearing a Hawaiian-type sandal, whose heels were already corroded by too much wear and a red T-shirt. Stained and with some tears in sight. With immense compassion she proposes to the boy that he move in with her, which he gratefully accepts the opportunity. He had studied at the island's little school, while living in low A****n, he learned to read and write. But only the basics, nothing that qualified him to start his studies in the capital without a selective exam.

 However, everything started to work out. With Naomi's support and knowledge, he was engaged at all costs in the fifth grade of the first grade. From where he could progress in studies until he reached college, which was actually his biggest dream. In the room she received from her adoptive mother there were all kinds of toys, she took care of her appearance. He gave her new clothes and shoes and everything a boy her age needed to be happy.

As she had no children in the two previous marriages, she was a very wealthy widow and wanted to find an heir. He should keep all his assets, take over his properties and continue his empire, and he saw this possibility in him. The poor boy, who was born on the banks of the A****n River and had the audacity to flee to a distant place and lived for a long time among strangers, finally had the chance of his dreams before him. To win in life and become an important man, luck smiled at him and opened his arms to him. It came to him in the form of many opportunities and he would certainly use it.

Well, at least that's what I had in mind. Despite so many ways to have fun as any teenager would do, he spent most of his time locked in his room. Studying for the exams of the private school in which he was enrolled. It was indeed very dedicated. At the end of each year, the result was always positive, his approval was always guaranteed, to the pride of the one who bet everything on him. Upon completing eighteen he completed his complementary studies and faced the entrance exam. He registered as a candidate for a vacancy in the most important medical, law and engineering schools in the city.

He did not want to take a preparatory course, he felt prepared to face the exams, and so he did, to his surprise he was approved. It passed first in all higher education institutions. In the three chosen areas, and it went to his head in such a way that he was unable to bear it. Instead of celebrating the immense achievement, he would lock himself in the room and from outside you could hear his screams. He was maddened, exclaiming the same sentence he spoke as soon as he saw the result.

Euphoric phrases for his approval. Madness was the prize for such a victory. Even with the many efforts to try to remedy the sad situation, nothing could be done to change the mental imbalance that occurred over the young man, he who tried so hard to properly take advantage of the opportunity that fate decided to give him. He could have reached the peak of his luck. Shine like a shooting star, get on the podium and lift the cup like a winner. But he was prevented from experiencing the greatest moment of his life.

It seemed that he was really cursed to be nothing important, destined to be a nobody, a failure. He was the son of a riverside fisherman who was born and raised by throwing his net in the waters of the A****n River, resigned to his poverty, with misery hovering around that old rotten shack. And partly consumed over time. In part, by termites and moths, without being bothered by their uselessness as a human being. He was the type that contributes nothing to human evolution.

 Now he has become as useless as his father, completely mad. He was admitted to the most renowned hospitals for treating the mentally ill in the State, under the supervision of the most renowned specialists in the field, however, all efforts to cure him were in vain.

   — We are sorry, but nothing can be done to at least remedy this situation.

 The brain membrane has been disrupted and neurons are unable to function properly, causing paralysis in much of the brain. Unfortunately, the patient's condition is irreversible

   — But is there really nothing that can be done to try to change this terrible state of health, of my son, doctor?

   — I am sorry to tell you that here in our country, there is nothing that can be done

 Naomi felt a deep love for Luís, as if in fact she was his biological mother and she would not give up on him that easily. Following the guidance of the medical team, he left with him to the United States in search of a miracle, but he did nothing. When they returned, she ordered all the mansion's employees to keep the boy's real health in full secrecy, and so it was done. Luís, in his early youth, had an irreversible disorder that led him to live in complete darkness. Trapped in deep mental confusion.

His intelligence succumbed to the darkness that blinded his whole understanding. He completely lost track of reality. He started to live in an unreal world, stopped in time, the moment he read his name at the top of the list of those who passed the best and most popular courses. All at major universities in the region. His neurons could not withstand the electrical discharge of the strong emotion he felt.

And his brain seemed to have reached its maximum charge. Something broke inside his head he spent all the time seeing or hearing confused voices and figures. He spoke to himself and gestured as if someone really was his listener, the large covered space located in the center of the square had been built more than a century ago to beautify that place, but decades later. It ended up serving only as a refuge for the shirtless who did not have a roof to rest from their daily labors.

After begging for bread outside. And that was where he lived, his home, his home, because he lived like a mangy dog, repudiated by everyone around him. The whole situation was pitiful. But he, like all the others who lived in a similar way, did not even realize the deplorable state h or in the beautiful garden that completed the mansion's luxurious decor.

It was located on Avenue Bras de Aguiar, a noble neighborhood in the city. Always accompanied by a nurse exclusively to assist you in any emergency, as well as for your exclusive company.  The professional took his shift with another daily. All attempts to keep the patient in a clinic specializing in the treatment of mental illness have been exhausted without success. Since the patient did not show any improvement and, in most cases, he fled the site without anyone noticing.

This, which led Naomi to decide to keep him on a tight leash at home and accompanied twenty-four hours by people specialized in that type of service. Several years have passed since that tragedy occurred in the socialite's life. She dreamed of having an heir to leave all her assets. Coming from an important part of society, people from extreme social levels, former men and women of unparalleled economic power.

He bet on that dying man all his hopes, now unsuccessful. Naomi Luanna Guimaraes Velasco, was heir to two of the most important families in Pará. From the times when all economic power in the Northern Region of Brazil revolved around the rubber cycle. Their ancestors were owners of large sums of land where rubber trees were cultivated. Trees from which the latex is extracted, in the form of a very pasty milk, and from it the so coveted rubbers were used to supply the growing Brazilian market, as well as other international markets.

Becoming the biggest exporter of that product, immensely enriching the well-known "rubber lords", a title given to the great owners of rubber plantations. His wealth and prestige were widely known both in Pará society and throughout the country, where he owned several companies. Through which he moved millions of reais and multiplied his assets even more. However, despite all this power, it could not be prevented that such disgrace would destroy his home. Reaching the one he adopted as his future successor. She was a woman of many possessions and aptitude for business.

But with no luck in love and in everything related to the heart. Still in his youth he lived a stormy passion that was scorned by the family. And she suffered bitterly the pain of separation under the threat of being disinherited and losing, because of that, the right of succession in her parents' vast empire. e was in. He lay on cardboard, staring at nature directly in front of him and seeing old memories in the form of images that no one else could see. Because they were only his, they were engraved on his troubled mind and for him they were all real.

And he continued to watch them, passing like a movie. The psychiatric hospital's dark room was his resting place after leaving the place of martyrdom. The narrow room, filled with torture equipment, was feared by most patients with severe mental disorders. They, who, even though they were mad, clearly knew how terrible the pain of the electric shocks they received from nurses by doctors' ordinance, as treatment for what they called demonic manifestations.  

Naomi, who, before giving up on him, interned him there in the hope of curing him, almost goes crazy when she sees him in that situation. Not all the money in the world seemed to be able to cure him of that damn disease. At that moment, she realized how much material goods sometimes do nothing. And in that particular case, he felt powerless. Because none of his resources are sufficient to save his son. That madness. For she loved him immensely, even though he was not a seed of her guts. In the months that followed, he just vegetated, spent all the time he was awake sitting in some corner of the house.

After being forced into pain to give up the great love of her life, she devoted herself completely to studies and then to the administration of inherited goods. Locking yourself in a world where love was forbidden or something disgusting. Her second great love was epic and it happened after she met that poor boy. A survivor who even came from humble origins struggled to stay away from all the perversity that existed on the streets of the big city.

Especially living close to people with bad character. That ranged from pickpockets to the cruelest criminals, addicts and drug dealers who circulated daily at the Ver-O-Peso free market. The postcard from Belem does Pará. She loved him as a son from the first meeting. Admiring your commitment to serve spontaneously and always with a broad smile to customers.  The same ones that usually thronged in front of the fruit and vegetable stalls there. He helped traders to serve their products to interested visitors to the fair in exchange for food and some change. Everyone admired him for watching him struggle daily to survive honestly. And not committing serious crimes as was often the case for other minor offenders.

That because they did not want to fight, they assaulted and even physically attacked many who passed by, even with the frequent action of the police, this practice was constant. When you asked him to come to your house? Then he asked her to accept being his son, the happiness he felt when he heard a yes in response was immense. He thought to himself that he would finally have secured his succession, since he had not married. It was the last Guimaraes Velasco, after that the lineage would come to an end.

Luís has since become the long-awaited heir to the traditional Velasco family and his legacy would be to continue the legacy. To the important name of that generation of great entrepreneurs. And everything would have gone as planned if he had not succumbed to profound madness, however it happened and nothing could be done to the contrary, not even all the resources used were able to bring him to his senses. Who knew that young man who looked healthy, had an enviable physique?

Assisted by the best doctors in the most expensive health plans he would come to present such a mental weakness. To the point of not supporting the emotion of an unexpected achievement like that. During the time that several treatments were done, nothing brought the desired answer. The necessary result for the purpose of reverting the sad state he was in. Many resources were spent without any improvement in his clinic.  They gradually made the adoptive mother lose hope of seeing him restored from mental faculties again.  Luís was admitted to a specialized clinic in New York City, in the United States, where Naomi had many contacts and had been a client for many years. Staying for a long time, returning from there without any significant improvement. This failure largely diminished Naomi's hope for a possible recovery.

With that, he decided to give up the sick person and set out on a new attempt to find an heir to continue the legacy he received from his parents. After all, despite her more than fifty years of age, she still had an enviable physical and mental health. There would still be plenty of time for that purpose. As a measure to get rid of the current problem, the poor devil was finally admitted to the public hospital Julian Moreira.

 Reference in psychiatric treatment. However, in a violent way, based on electric shocks and terrifying psychological pressures. The businesswoman's insensitive decision was due to the fact that she did not want to be criticized by those who criticized her. They commented on the type of adopted child, they denied it. They did not think it was ideal to serve as heir to all their immense wealth. In the opinion of the rest of society.

 The ideal would have been to give that opportunity to one of the many orphaned children in the various orphanages scattered throughout the city. And not to a kid found on the streets. She educated him correctly, preparing him to leave nothing to be desired when it comes to taking over business. His main goal was to prove to the critics that his choice would have been the right one and that everyone was wrong. Seeing the protégé's sudden madness ruin all his plans was terrible.

Furthermore, there is a risk of demoralization in the face of those who eagerly awaited to laugh at their imminent failure. All of this made his pride and duty to defend the good name of the Velasco speak louder. Taking her to take drastic measures to get around the situation. So, she chose to remove him from the scene, inventing a huge lie for his disappearance and locked him up in a madhouse. Without the protection of the wealthy businesswoman and left to the care of strangers who cared little for her good.

Luís started to be treated in a violent way as were all the other lunatics. However, that same year of state elections a new government was installed. And many changes have been made in various sectors of public administration. And in the area of ​​health, it was no different. The first measure to be taken by the new ruler in order to guarantee the economy was to authorize the closure of the hospital. Where dozens of mental patients were kept in private prison. Dismissing a vast number of civil servants.

Throwing into the streets the disoriented who, because they do not have family members with financial or psychological conditions to deal with such individuals. They remained wandering aimlessly through the streets and avenues of the city. It has become common to see them scattered everywhere. On the sidewalks and gutters, alleys and corners, like abandoned dogs and with no one to worry about the damn fate that awaited them each new morning. With the changes that have also occurred in the state penitentiary system, from which countless detainees have been released. Violence in the city has increased considerably.

And with that, the routine habit of changed radically. Thus, people like Naomi who belonged to the elite of society stopped exposing themselves. They stayed away from places considered dangerous, and that included the old Ver-O-Peso fair. Where Luís spent part of his adolescence and luck smiled at him, leading him to be richly graced with the opportunity to be adopted and achieved a huge achievement, the same one that for not supporting melted his brain. Therefore, it became impossible for the two to meet.

Since she circled the city in her luxury cars, while he wandered around like a poor devil, with his filthy bag over his shoulders, full of the garbage collected wherever he went. Instead of the old linen clothes, he wore filthy rags. The odor was unbearable for the nostrils of those who approached him, instead of the expensive perfumes he simply had the rot, of the damp teeth moistened in the sweat of his body without any hygiene. In its filthy appearance, the true face of misery could be clearly seen.

As well as all the poverty that followed him closely, nothing remained of the beauty he possessed as a young man and lived in wealth. With the perks that luck chose to help you. Until, due to bad luck or the irony of fate, he was deprived of the right to continue enjoying such stewardship. The madness that came suddenly over that unfortunate one came at the very moment when he intended to give his protector a reason to be satisfied. Happy to have adopted you.

This would be his glory day, which he would never forget. But, contrary to his expectations, he ended up forgetting everything. Who he really was and what he did throughout his existence until the moment he lost his mind? Thrown out by Naomi and then by government officials who had no intention of continuing to spend public money on unbalanced people like him, he lived in the open.

He was more of a dying man taking up space in the vast square of the square, where several times he traveled alongside the one who welcomed him. When I was still a child full of so many dreams and hope. It was the end of the afternoon, the heavy rain passed and only the drops of water that leaped from above the green grass in front of him remained. Falling over the trees and sliding through their leaves, accompanied by a cold wind that boldly bothered him, even though he was lying down.

At that time, on the filthy floor of one of the many other centenary bandstands existing in that place, the republic square was very old and dated to the beginning of the twentieth century. There were many monuments that were scattered throughout its length were beautiful. They dated from the times of Portuguese visitation in the region. Its history bears the mark of several battles and fights. All against those who tried in vain to conquer those lands. Before he was finally taken by the madness that ended all his dreams.

The poor devil who was now begging along the paths of the beautiful city of mango trees had been an excellent scholar. And he knew the origins of his people like no other.He loved Pará, his homeland, the exuberance of its vast vegetation, rivers and typical foods that nothing could compare. The people of Pará can be seen as true warriors, overcoming countless adversities. Managing to survive countless lists and reach the present times successfully. Having fallen in love with his roots, he had already prepared a work to be published shortly after his graduation from the three colleges he intended to attend.

He wanted to acquire academic degrees and practice professions, but he would have literature as a hobby, where he would write his novels and short stories, highlighting where he was born. One more objective went down the drain, as it would never achieve this goal. His brilliant mind would be consumed by madness and would be lost in the vast dark of empty thoughts. His neurons were disconnected to the point that he was no longer so sublime. Lying in complete discomfort on filthy cardboard. With his gaze fixed on the infinite he could contemplate; blurred images were almost totally undefined.

 Lost between reality and the darkness of madness that hung over his confused mind. Very numb by alcohol, with distorted ideas, coming from a very distant past. The memories came and went suddenly. They were lost in the shadows of an obscure mentality, attached to the unreal. To a world of fantasies and details that his disturbed imagination created and prevented him from perceiving the terrible situation in which he found himself.. He was a walking dunghill, what little was left of what was once, certainly could not bear to face at least a little of the real that surrounded him in an imperceptible way.

His beard and gray hair hardened by the large amount of accumulated dirt, due to the few baths taken. Good hygiene was rare during his penances during the days spent under neglect. Since the doors of the psychiatric hospital closed. The afternoon finally says goodbye. And in its place comes the night with its mysteries. And like a lost soul he moved from side to side. With uncertain location, under intense serene that appeared after the downpour that fell hours ago. Flooding the lower parts of the poor neighborhoods and creating mud puddles on the deserted streets of people of good nature. The night darkness facilitated the action of the bandits and there were many assaults there.

The victims were almost always people unaware of the danger of circulating at an inappropriate time in a square full of idlers. Looking to get some change to support the damn addiction to which they were slaves. From teenagers to adults, everyone was addicted to drugs. Police action has become insufficient to even intimidate them. The less it represses crime that just increased, the more and more. He saw everything and thought of doing nothing to defend anyone, even under the effects of the madness that prevented him from reasoning correctly, he was smart. He understood that in order to live on the streets without being harassed by criminals, it was necessary to adapt to the law of silence. If you pass for blind, dumb and deaf.

The night is gone and a new morning begins in the same routine as always. His walking slow. Carrying the old burlap sack over his shoulder, he seemed to carry all the weight of the world upon him. The promenade on the long square was full of dry leaves and fruit. All very mature, falling from the trees with the strong wind blowing during the dawn. With the ripe mangoes he could eat, it was his breakfast provided by God, free and juicy. The artisans had already arrived at the site. They prepared their stalls to sell their craftwork. They were necklaces, bracelets, rings, clay vases and many other trinkets that they created.

 They sold to passers-by who spent mainly on weekends and holidays. Periods when many events took place in that place to distract the population, usually idle with news. A large stage was being built to soon receive singers and artists from the land who would perform.And they would do their free shows as a form of entertainment for the public, all free. While none of it started and after satiating his morning hunger, he withdrew from there and headed towards the streets of commerce in an attempt to beg the alms that would later circulate.

 Doing your usual weekend shopping. A short time later I was already sharing space with dozens of other beggars. Running out of coins on the busy street João Alfredo, on the corner of Santo Antônio. Where street vendors and visitors flocked among the crowded stalls and shops. Full of consumers because of the promotions and low prices they had, their preference was to settle in the same place and place on the floor, right in front of them. A bowl so that those who passed would sympathize and throw some change in it, as they believed that it should not disturb and it worked very well. At noon, sometimes under almost unbearable heat, at other times under threat of rain.

He usually gave up begging and went back to his old place of refuge, Republic square. And that Saturday was no different, he returned at the same time and in a hurry. Because I still wanted to beg among the participants who would be there. Watching the singers, making their presentations. Dozens of people watched and applauded the show, while he and several others asked for any form of help. Everything was valid, even the smallest value of the offered currency was acceptable, nothing was rejected.

However, among the crowd of spectators were the thieves covered with evil intentions. With the intention of stealing the belongings of the unseen and, usually, the final balance was always quite pompous. At five in the afternoon, under heavy rain, the onlookers dispersed. The festivity ended and only its monuments remained in the middle of the square. The trees that danced in the wind, the green grass and partly trampled ...

 The wooden stages set up hours earlier for artists to present themselves to the public and many other miserable people, who like him tried to take shelter under the various bandstands scattered throughout the place. The rainy region, even in the summer, had a defined time for the rains to fall. The population is already on the alert about this. At three o'clock in the afternoon, every day, it happens. It occurs in any season of the year. For this reason, it is a fertile and productive land.

 Leaning against the rail that surrounds the place where he sheltered from the strong storm that fell in the last hours of the day. He contemplated the void through which the many waters flowed.And in a confused reflection he tried to understand something more about what was before his eyes. However, without being able to define exactly what was concrete or abstract. That brilliant mind was chained within a nearly dead brain, he could not find the strength to describe the terrible evil that happened to him.

As an irrational being with little intelligence, he looked at so many things and seemed to see nothing or understand, he was perplexed by what only his dark imagination allowed him to see. The vision eroded by the decline of age and because of the health shaken by the mistreatment, he sometimes lacked. It was common to stumble and fall during the long walks he used to do in search of survival. The shredded knees were the perfect proof of the extensive pilgrimage made to stay alive, although it makes little sense to him, even less to the world around him. It was just a stray.

In his wanderings on that Sunday morning, he didn't dare stop in front of the buildings and skyscrapers located around the wide square. Because they had a tight garrison and the guards prevented any beggar from approaching the luxurious condominiums. In an attempt to disturb the residents with their miseries. On one occasion he suffered aggression from one of them and he just didn't get beaten to death because popular people intervened and saved his skin. So, since then, he tried to stay far away from that place. The avenue that passed right next to the square, and carried the same name as it, ended its long journey on the banks of the Guajara River.