The morning woke up cold and dark, with a blanket of fine drops musically scattered over the meadows. The animals took shelter, except Aramo and Xurde, who in fasting headed to Hazada, crossing the forest. The odors were released with the soft moisting of all matter. The earth became softer and so did their hearts, that rejoiced in every bird that fluffed its wings, every worm that sank into the earth and every pearly spider web along the way. Xurde smiled as much as they had cried yesterday. Aramo remained in the same heavy calmness that characterized them, but they felt their body was light and their joints airy. The walk was short, just crossing a couple of streams and climb a hill. There, in another corner of the forest, presiding over a magnificent cliff overlooking the entire valley, was Hazada.

 

They entered the house shouting “Hello! Hello!" warning of their presence. It was very early and no one answered, so they went into the kitchen and got ready to prepare breakfast for when the four people left in Hazada woke up. They took out some fruits, put a ready–made dough in the oven, heated water and some herbs, boiled and mashed enough vegetables for six people, and sat down for breakfast.

 

Xurde asked Aramo to tell them more about their birthplace and how they had came to realize that they were the spirit of the group, and how they had released themselves from that role, and what places and people they had gotten to known afterwards. In reality, in the three years that Aramo had spent in Rueda, they had barely communicated with Xurde. At first, because Aramo did not feel a great connection with children, and later, because they identified with Xurde, and did not want to influence them. Only now that they were leaving had Aramo approached Xurde, because they wanted to advise them well, for them to be happy.

 

For Xurde it was an important moment, because they felt that their body and their soul were changing very quickly, and they needed to engage in new relationships and ways of knowing their surroundings. Xurde felt that they belonged to a tradition. They even felt that they had some kind of mission, and that obviously made them uncomfortable, because this crashed with their way of understanding the group, whose existence consisted of nothing more than feeling pleasure and respect, detaching from things and people, and continue moving towards humid and temperate zones. This was what most people understood as an ethical behavior. However, Xurde was more radical, and like Aramo believed that we had to think about the purpose of all this.

 

–Who is there? –Fofe had heard noises in the kitchen.

 

–Hello! Hello! Fofe? We are Aramo and Xurde, from Rueda.

 

Fofe looked into the kitchen with their eyes half closed (they couldn't see very well).

 

–Aramo? But who is this youth that you bring with you?

 

–Hello Fofe, I'm Xurde, from Rueda, don't you remember me?

 

–Xurde….Oh, but how many rains have passed since the last time we saw you here! If you didn't lift more than a meter off the ground! And now look, you are almost one head taller than me! I still remember when you were born, the commotion that was made. We were about to bring you to live in Xada! But Rueda didn't let us, of course. Ha ha ha! Let me hug you! But creature, where are you? You never go to any party, you don't go out to walk, we don't even see you in the regional assemblies! Why?

 

Of course it was the most exquisite politeness to ask direct questions in Quilcué, to which it was polite to respond in the same way.

 

–Because I don't really like leaving Rueda, Fofe. I am more of a hermit person, and I like to stay in my house. I have the gift of absorbing others’ suffering, and this drains almost all my energy.

 

–That's what they say, right? That you are the spirit of Rueda Hahaha! –Fofe laughed looking at Aramo with pride when they saw that the young people in Quilcué were gifted of judgment and peculiarities –. You'd better do like Roane, who was born in Xada and yet has always managed to get everyone's emotions completely out of their body! – They laughed – Thank you for preparing breakfast. You have come to see Roane, of course. Lately, every day we have visitors! It seems that in the region no one believe that Roane is going to die, because everyone comes to see it firsthand. I get it... Roane is an institution in Quilcué. When they die, an era will die too, and therefore also the place will die a little bit... This place. Everything will start to change faster – they paused and their head rose towards an imaginary horizon –. For When you're my age – they said, looking with some sadness at Xurde –, Quilcué probably will no longer be more than a pile of forest.

 

–Isn't it beautiful to think about it?

 

Feles entered the kitchen with a very active and awake attitude, greeting vigorously. Feles, furthermore, would soon go to live in Rueda, so Aramo and Xurde’s visit took on a particularly intimate tone. Xurde immediately noticed their great sadness but they tried not to show it in their body attitude so as not to increase it.

 

Hazada was in a state of logical deterioration for a house its size. In recent decades it had been progressively uninhabited. During the time when they enjoyed great physical vigor (they had been a portentous body), Roane had strived to maintain the large house despite its age and the ever–increasing unoccupied surface area. They had cleaned all the rooms frequently, had treated the wood of the furniture and had aired and washed the fabrics. But in the last five years no one in the house had the strength or the desire to maintain a space designed for about fifty people anymore. It smelled strongly of humidity, there was a lot of dust, and almost all the rooms were closed, giving Hazada a certainly dark and sinister look.

 

Roane and the rest now occupied the rooms next to the kitchen and the dining room, between the study room and the entrance of the house, on the ground floor. The other three floors were practically empty. The elevator was unusable. For the past several years, other people had been coming to do the planting and harvesting. Nevertheless, the areas in use were in good condition, and Fofe, Ceres, Feles and Roane did not abandon themselves. Fofe and Ceres had only not left because they felt indebted to Roane, who had received them when they arrived at Hazada not so long ago, about fifteen and twelve years respectively. But they were looking forward to the closing of the house so they could go live in better organized more lively houses, to enjoy the end of their lifes to the fullest. As for Feles, the truth is that they had focused so much on Roane that for the past few years they had barely thought about the spatial aspects of their life, but they now also realized that they needed to get out of Hazada as soon as possible. Even if this meant that Roane had died, the house felt heavy to them. After almost two decades living in Hazada together with Roane, they were tired of Quilcué and felt as if they were Xurde's age, with all of their life ahead, to travel around the planet again, learn more languages, know more people and landscapes. But even though they thought they didn't have much time for anything of that, and although Roane's imminent death was the thing that hurt them the most in the world, their desire to continue traveling seemed very strong. They were aware that the strength of their bond with Roane had not been able to break their soul detached from things, and they felt that their passing through Rueda would be a simple formality.

 

–It was true what they said, that you had changed a lot in the time that we didn't see you! –Roane was happy to see Xurde. The last time had been at a Full Moon party when Xurde and Roane still went to them –. Come here, come, come, sit on the bed, I want to see you well. I am very excited that you come to see me, because I know you are like me. You want to stay in Quilcué. I don't know if you remember, but since you started walking you came to Xada a lot, and I took you through the forest and I taught you the names of the plants and animals, and the songs of Quilcué, and the both of us had a great time.

 

–Of course I remember, Roane. You taught me to love this place.

 

–Now they say that you have become the spirit of the group. But let me tell you one thing. People love to say that they have a spirit in the group just to be able to forget about their problems and their sadnesses, and to not think about the past and not even in the future. Don't let them turn you into the spirit.

 

–That's what I told them too–, Aramo supported.

 

–Well, well told! Because people like to target those who are younger taking advantage of their inexperience. Do you know how people from ancient times called that?

 

–No, Roane.

 

–They called it the scapegoat. When those savage people still ate other animals, they sacrificed them at festivals, just as we now prepare our Full Moon Feasts. And this sacrificed animal took with it the evils of the collective. But they also did it with some people, whom they considered responsible for the conflicts that existed among the rest, and they went so far as to expel them or even to murder them for it... But then they missed them, or even said that they were their spiritual guides! Can you imagine a more hypocritical attitude? They came to create complex religions with all this, just to free themselves from the responsibility of dealing with their own freedom. And that's why we sometimes forget that our way of life is carefully planned, as if those who act as spirits of the group were, in fact, responsible for it. But no one is responsible for anything other than contributing to the crop cycle and provide the rest with the decisions and comforts that are at their disposal. But of their emotions and their conflicts, no one has to take care, Xurde. And you are young and you must travel and have fun just like the rest.

​

–I appreciate your words, Roane. But as you will understand, coming from you, who have never spent long periods away from Quilcué, they are hard to believe.

 

–Ha ha ha! You are right, Xurde, you are very right! Excuse my old age, I already not even believe in the principle of non–contradiction. Ha ha ha! –They laughed for a while before catching back their breath.

 

–It seems that you are leaving too, Aramo.

 

–But how does the news reach Hazada so quickly, Roane? If I just announced it yesterday.

 

–Oh, our network of informants is extense, now that everyone is anxious that I die before it starts to get too cold to throw a big party.

 

They laughed again. Roane spent the entire morning making them laugh with their superlative sarcasm and their fine irony. Then they went to the kitchen and ate, after which Roane asked to be accompanied for a walk through the meadows adjacent to Hazada. It had been months since they have left the house, and they barely got out of bed. Perhaps this was their last walk.

 

The same fine morning rain and the same gray sky continued. It was Roane's favorite weather.

 

–Let's go to those meadows that are on the other side.

 

They went. They walked for just over an hour to the other side of the hill, from where other small valleys and a beautiful gentle river could be seen.

 

–Look! A herd of cows! –Ceres exclaimed. It was strange to see them. They were drinking in the river, about ten individuals with spots of different colors. The small human group greeted the group of cows, who responded with a distant “moooo!!” that reverberated on the slopes of the mountains.

 

– To think that we enslaved these magnificent animals for millennia –Roane shook their head –. Let's go back home already.

 

It's starting to get dark.

 

The group returned in silence to Hazada. Xurde couldn't get the beautiful gaze of the cows in the distance out of their head. Roane asked to be put on a respirator. At least to spend the night. They didn't want to die yet. Feles moved to their room to accompany them in their last days.