Pitch a fit

January 17, 2013

Who are these people and what am I doing caught in the web of their lives?

Joao is hiding under the kitchen counter so the insane bread vendor won’t see him and insist he purchase her airy baked goods. Who am I to hurl grimaces in anyone’s direction due to their silly behavior or fear of facing an uncomfortable situation? Hysterically shouting “Paulo” (this crazed seller calls Joao by a different name each time she comes to the gate) and waving to me encouragingly from behind the vine crowded fence out front. The frizzy haired woman sporting a disheveled outdated floral print dress grips a crumpled box and refuses to give up. I suggested quite firmly as I step out the door, that he is not interested in her products. Her plastered ear-to-ear grin implies she has no clue her bread is tasteless and lacking nutrition not to mention spendy. Joao spouts complaints until she is well out of sight beyond the dip of the eave.

As The World Turns continues as I discover only today that Dono suffers from Munchausen Syndrome that is a psychiatric factitious disorder wherein those affected feign disease, illness, or psychological trauma to draw attention or sympathy to themselves according to Wikipedia. Her facial pain is another issue or so one of her physician’s suspects. Wow, I had no clue!

Theo hurled screams, as the story goes, and thrust himself wildly over the passenger rail as Denise hauled him towards the small aircraft to leave his father for a ten day vacation at a resort outside of Sao Paulo. Theo’s separation anxiety was a shock to all of us and jutted in our faces and apparently came out of nowhere. Joao seems stunned and uncertain as to how to react to that unexpected and violent behavior. Obviously these past few months of preparation for a shift in their lives (Dono leaving the house for six months to a year-the determined length of time quite another new piece of the saga) has greatly affected everyone involved all the way down to the kids.

Mosquitoes rush in yet I welcome the cooler evenings and subsequent breeze from the open screen-less windows. Burt’s Bees Insect Repellent has been my bedtime buddy since I left Sao Paulo for the farm October 8^th. Cheers to a sensible, citrus drenched and practical companion.