Page 213 of Seasons of Love
"Never mind that in order to see Vítor there, this person had to be in a gay bar, too. I don't know if they lied about where they saw the kiss happen or what. I just know that this person told Vítor's father who then beat him up so badly he ended up in the hospital."
"Jesus." I'd heard this story so many times before, and each time it made me want to be sick. For all the stuff my stepfather had done to me, he'd never hit me. Although now I wondered if he had whether I'd have tried to protect my brother from a violent man rather than assuming his abuse was solely directed at me.
"What happened in the hospital?" I asked.
"I don't know. Uncle Mário wanted to visit Vítor, but their father was against it. At the time they were quite interdependent and Aunt Teresa was pregnant."
That stopped me in my tracks. "Teresa had a baby?"
"It was a high-risk pregnancy. Sadly, she lost the baby shortly after." There was a little sadness in David's voice as he shared his aunt and uncle's story.
"They didn't try for babies again?"
"They did, but it never happened."
"Okay, so Vítor was in hospital and Mário couldn't visit. When did he run?"
"I think Vítor had quite severe injuries but nothing life threatening. He was in hospital a few days and then one day, he was gone. Uncle Mário was devastated. He started looking for his brother, severed ties with his dad, and rented a little property just for the three of them, but then Aunt Teresa lost the baby."
In a short time, the young couple had cut ties with their family and lost their brother and their child. The story hit me harder than I had expected. I'd already been feeling on edge when I'd decided to come to the café.
"Excuse me for a moment." I looked for the door I knew led out the back of the building. My hands shook as I struggled to open the door. The sunlight outside was too bright, but it didn't matter because my eyes were closed and all I could see was the image inside my head that was causing my panic. The image of the last time I'd seen my brother, not knowing it would be the last.
"Tiago! Are you okay?"
A pair of small arms came around me and a calm voice told me to take in a breath and hold it, then let it out. I kept doing it until the buzzing went and I could breathe better. That's when I realized Teresa was standing in front of me. Her hands went from rubbing circles on my back to wiping my tear-covered face.
"I'm so sorry," was all I could say. "I'm so sorry."
"What are you sorry for, my dear?" Her voice was calm and soothing, much like my mother's had once been. I shook my head to stop myself from talking because if I let out all the pain in my heart, I was absolutely certain I would crumble into a million pieces.
"Come on, dear. Let's go inside."
I got up and followed Teresa to the table where she'd placed the coffee and custard tart I'd asked for earlier.
"I'm sorry about that. I guess I wasn't expecting Vítor's story to hit me so hard," I confessed.
"You will find your brother, my dear," Teresa said, squeezing my hands reassuringly. There was a part of me that doubted it. Sadly, that part was getting louder with each month that passed and I didn't find Afonso.
"Tell me about Vítor. What was he like?"
Teresa smiled. "He was a gentle person, so kind and honest. You could read him like a book. He would try so hard to show a brave face when he was upset, but we could see through it." Her eyes saddened. "I think that's why he became such an easy target for his father. When Mário wanted to be friendly with me at school, Vítor got close to Paula to help his big brother. They became best friends. I always wondered if they'd eventually get married because they were inseparable, especially after Joel's mom left to live in America."
"What kind of things did he like?"
"He always carried a drawing pad with him. He liked to draw things that caught his eye, people, buildings, the world around him. He was so excited to become an uncle."
Teresa's voice left her and tears ran down her face. It was my turn to put my arms around her.
"Aren't we a pair?" I said, trying to inject some humor. "Let me have this coffee before it gets cold, and there's no amount of tears that will stop me eating that custard tart."
She wiped her tears and smiled.
I didn't know what I'd expected when I came to the café to talk to David about Vítor, but I definitely hadn't expected to have my core shaken to the ground.
After twenty-eight years, it would be very difficult to find Vítor, but I'd be damned if I wasn't going to give it my best try.
Coloring with Filipe was the therapy I'd needed after the day I'd had, and I promised I'd take him to the zoo in the next week or so before he went back to school. His excitement was one of the highlights of my week, the other being the man that had starred in all my dreams in the last week, even though he ran away after giving me the best kiss of my life.
