Vultures

[dotinthesky]

We ran towards São Domingos' mountains a few days ago. Ran right past the Pesqueiro João da Vó (John of Grandma's Fishing Place), into lanes that side bucolic farms straight out of Anne of Green Gables' pages.

The Pesqueiro has been shut for a few years now. I still remember when cars would drive all day past our guesthouse on weekends, heading for the Pesqueiro. People enjoyed spending hours there – football games on a grass pitch, beer, country music and all kinds of fish dishes. Then João da Vó's wife discovered he had a second family and a bitter divorce ripped the family business apart.

The Pesqueiro is now home to vultures. They sit on every fence pole, every tree overlooking the still, dirty artificial lake that borders the abandoned Pesqueiro restaurant. They congregate like penguins by the margins, silent and inscrutable.

As we walked past them, they took flight and complained. It felt like a sequel to The Birds. I stopped to take photos which I hoped to later delight my Instagram followers.

On the run back to the guesthouse, my aunt stopped and lifted her arms to the sky.  We looked at the mountains and she said “doesn’t it feel great to be alive?”

Comments

[millionreasons.livejournal.com]

This is lovely. If you don't write something based on your time there, I'm going to fall out with you.

[picosgemeos.livejournal.com]

Thank you - glad you enjoyed it!

I think I'm still processing a lot of it, and as the lawsuit drags on next year I'll probably need writing to make sense of it all and deal with it.

I follow this writer on Twitter who posts a prompt every day and one of them stuck with me. I may use it as a way of talking about this year in the future.

[millionreasons.livejournal.com]

My writing prompt:
The Pesqueiro is now home to werewolves. They lurk behind every fence pole, every tree overlooking the still, dirty artificial lake that borders the abandoned Pesqueiro restaurant.

[picosgemeos.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's a very relevant prompt... that was the direction the werewolf used to disappear to in the olden tales...

[zenithed.livejournal.com]

This is ace. I'm glad you can get some good moments out of all the complication.

[picosgemeos.livejournal.com]

Cheers. I'm trying my best to look past the bad and see some good. Running is helping A LOT.

[zenithed.livejournal.com]

I'm not finding running to be particularly uplifting so far, but I suspect being in the Brazilian countryside rather than London in November probably helps with that.

[picosgemeos.livejournal.com]

You're probably more active than you think, so running isn't increasing your endorphins that much. Whereas I've been practically horizontal this whole year so running is almost a miracle! :-)