quarta-feira, 7 de agosto de 2019

Βραζιλιάνα μου γλυκιά (Minha Doce Brasileira)


              Βραζιλιάνα μου γλυκιά
                     (Minha Doce Brasileira)


ΠΕΤΡΟΣ ΑΝΑΓΝΩΣΤΑΚΗΣ.



ΜΟΥΣΙΚΗ.ΓΙΩΡΓΟΣ ΖΑΜΠΕΤΑΣ. ΣΤΙΧΟΙ.ΧΑΡΑΛΑΜΠΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑΔΗΣ.

                           Tradução  e adaptação/ Μετάφραση και προσαρμογή
                                      Gilson Marcon de Souza


Στη πάμπα ανθίζουν λουλούδια

κι ακούς της αγάπης τραγούδια
με δάκρυ και αίμα γραμμένα
για σένα, για σένα, για σένα


As flores florescem no campo,
E você ouve músicas de amor
Escritas com lágrimas e sangue
Por você, por você, por você.

Χιλιάδες καρδιές σε ποθούνε
και θέλουν μαζί σου να `ρθούνε
γιατ’ έχεις τ’ άπαλό σου χάδι
στον κόσμο το πιο `μορφο μάτι


Milhares de corações te desejam,
E eles querem estar com você,
Pois suas carícias são as mais doces,
E os seus olhos são os mais lindos do mundo

Βραζιλιάνα, Βραζιλιάνα, 
Βραζιλιάνα μου γλυκιά, 
Βραζιλιάνα, Βραζιλιάνα, 
μου `χεις πάρει την καρδιά


Brasileira, brasileira,
Minha doce brasileira,
Brasileira, brasileira,
Você tem meu coração.

Για σένα τραγούδια θα γράψω
κι αν κάποτε φύγεις θα κλάψω
τα λόγια τους θάναι θλιμμένα
για σένα, για σένα, για σένα


Eu vou escrever músicas para você.
E se você partir eu vou chorar.
Serão palavras tristes
Por você, por você, por você.

Χιλιάδες καρδιές σε ποθούνε
και θέλουν μαζί σου να `ρθούνε
γιατ’ έχεις τ’ άπαλό σου χάδι
στον κόσμο το πιο `μορφο μάτι


Milhares de corações te desejam,
E eles querem estar com você,
Pois suas carícias são as mais doces,

E os seus olhos são os mais lindos do mundo

Βραζιλιάνα, Βραζιλιάνα, 
Βραζιλιάνα μου γλυκιά, 
Βραζιλιάνα, Βραζιλιάνα, 
μου `χεις πάρει την καρδιά


Brasileira, brasileira,
Minha doce brasileira,
Brasileira, brasileira,
Você tem meu coração.



quinta-feira, 14 de abril de 2016

O Macaco, a Raposa e o Impeachment






Gilson Marcon de Souza

    O alvoroço na entrada do ônibus não permitiu que Vulpy desanimasse. Ainda que sua prima Foxy não interviesse naquela situação embaraçosa, mesmo assim ela teria insistido em continuar a viagem. Ela achava que tinha o direito de prosseguir mesmo sem os vinte e cinco centavos para completar o dinheiro da passagem.
            “Eu não estou mendigando para viajar de graça,” vociferou a raposa Vulpy, com o olhar colérico e com as mãos na cintura, pronta para dar umas boas cotoveladas em quem quer que se atrevesse a impedir sua entrada.
            “Eu disse que amanhã eu pago esta droga de vinte e cinco centavos. Eu tenho o direito de viajar, pois pago impostos e essa tarifa é uma afronta. Ninguém tem o direito de me impedir.”
            “Calma, Vulpy, calma,” tranquilizou a prima Foxy, abrindo a mão e apressando-se para separar algumas moedinhas que havia retirado de um porta-níquel.
Foxy havia estranhado a celeuma na entrada do ônibus e não hesitou em correr para socorrer a prima aflita.
Vulpy não se sentia envergonhada por não ter uma moedinha de vinte e cinco centavos; ela achava que não deveria sentir-se diminuída, pois todos deveriam ter acesso a um transporte decente, limpo e rápido para trabalhar.
“Não fique nervosa, Vulpy, tome os vinte e cinco centavos e vamos sentar no nosso banco, como de costume. Vamos logo, eu deixei minha mochila no banco de sempre para guardar o nosso lugar.”
Vulpy respirou fundo e tentou se recompor.
“O outro cobrador sempre me deixava pagar no outro dia, Foxy, às vezes ele até deixava eu descer pela porta da frente sem pagar, e teve uma vez que até pagou do bolso dele, quando havia um fiscal por perto.”
Mas, Vulpy, como você tem passado depois do lance das uvas, você parece estar mais magra e suas olheiras estão maiores ainda do que da última vez.
“Nem me faça lembrar, Foxy, parece que tudo degringolou de vez.”
“E como estão todos, e seus irmãozinhos e a tia?” indagou Foxy, franzindo os lábios, como era seu costume. “E como você está indo na faculdade. E seu emprego?”
“Uma coisa por vez, Foxy, mas eu mudei minha vida depois que entreguei aquele pacote,” respondeu Vulpy, sentindo-se vitoriosa e aprumando-se no banco.
“Pacote, mas que pacote?”
“Espera, espera, você está fazendo muitas perguntas de uma vez,” protestou, Vulpy, respirando fundo e tentado se recompor, “vou começar do começo.”
“Então me conta como você está indo na faculdade,” insistiu Foxy.
“Eu tive de parar depois que fui dispensada do meu trabalho, Foxy. Além disso, eu tentei de novo conseguir um financiamento, mas o site do governo estava lento demais. Eu insisti muito, mas a operadora interrompeu minha franquia bem na hora que eu ia enviar os dados,. e dai ferrou tudo. Eu só tenho uma opção de internet; além disso, o sinal oscila muito porque não tem uma antena de celular muito perto.
“Mas Vulpy, então agora você está sem trabalhar e estudar?”
“Então, Foxy, meu patrão teve de fechar as portas da loja de tecidos — ele não aguentou a carga dos impostos e o movimento caiu —  então ele teve de despedir todos os funcionários. Não só ele, Foxy, mas mais da metade das lojas daquela rua fechou as portas. Mesmo assim, eu estou me virando, fazendo biscates e cortando cabelos da vizinhança.
“E como você está fazendo para sobreviver e cuidar das crianças e da tia?”
“Espera, Foxy, deixa eu tentar organizar meus pensamentos; quero te contar tudo antes de o ônibus chegar no seu ponto.”
“É melhor, Foxy, respire um pouco e organize suas ideias. Você tem a tendência de encher linguiça e fazer suspense,” asseverou Foxy, com ar de riso.
“Agora eu estou aprendendo a ser mais sucinta; agora eu consigo seguir uma linha de pensamento lógica depois que eu entrei para a política. Estou aprendendo a fazer discursos,” orgulhou-se Vulpy, levantando a cabeça e coçando o queixo, com certo ar de jactância.
“Não me diga, você agora está na política?”
“É, Foxy, quer dizer, eu comecei como cabo eleitoral do macaco Chitão.”
“Mas você é de um partido de esquerda ou de direita?”
“De esquerda, mas o segundo partido mais importante é de direita.”
“Eu não entendo isso, Vulpy, como pode um partido de esquerda ter um partido de direita na mesma chapa?”
“Ah, eu não sei explicar isso, é que é colisão, daí pode.”
“E a chapa da oposição, de que linha é?”
“Lá é o contrário: eles são de direita, mas estão coligados com um partido de esquerda.”
Foxy coçou as orelhas e franziu os lábios, tentando entender, mas desistiu depois de alguns breves segundos.
“E o que você tem de fazer?”
“Tinha, Foxy, agora acho que não vão mais me querer por lá, mas quando eu estava na militância, eu tinha de organizar comícios, distribuir pão com mortadela e tubaína”
“E por que não vão querer mais você por lá?”, indagou Foxy, inclinando um pouco a cabeça para o lado e novamente franzindo os lábios.
“Por causa do lance do pacote, né?”
“Ai, meu Deus, mas que diabo de pacote era esse?”
“Espera, eu já te explico. Uma vez eu cheguei e a casa e estava uma bagunça. Minha mãe estava sentada na cadeira de rodas, cabisbaixa, girando um polegar em torno do outro. A Licinha estava com um olhar tão triste! O Joãozinho tinha feito xixi na cama, porque o banheiro é externo e ele ficou com medo de sair à noite no quintal e pisar na água do esgoto de novo. A pia estava cheia de louças pra lavar. O Paulinho não tinha levado o lixo para a rua de cima, porque o caminhão de lixo não passa na nossa. A Chiquinha estava com as fraudas toda suja, e o Juninho estava chorando de fome.
Foxy abaixou a cabeça e desta vez mordeu os lábios em vez de o franzir.
Eu fiquei com raiva por causa de toda aquela bagunça, mas achei que deveria perguntar a cada um o que estava acontecendo. Comecei com a Licinha. Estava com raiva dela, pois ela deveria organizar as coisas na minha ausência. Depois fiquei morrendo de dó, tadinha!”
“Por que, Vulpy?”
“Porque ela me disse que achava que estava com alguma hemorragia, Foxy”.
“Que horror, Vulpy!”
“Mas não era nada de grave; é que ela ficou mocinha e eu tive de explicar essas coisas de raposa pra ela. Eu só me senti culpada por não ter explicado esses lances pra ela antes,” comentou, Vulpy com ar distante e olhos parados.
“Depois quis saber da mamãe. Ele ficou meio pensativa. Não queria me deixar mais preocupada, mas disse que transferiram o Paulinho para uma escola mais longe, pois iam reestruturar a rede de ensino: agora é mais uma despesa de ônibus. A mamãe estava triste porque o projeto da nova creche não saiu, e a Chiquinha ia ficar sem creche. A mamãe também estava preocupada com os mosquitos da dengue, pois ficou sabendo que o bebezinho da sobrinha dela pegou zika e nasceu com microcefalia. Ela estava sem os remédios para a pressão alta, porque o posto de saúde estava fechado e não tinha mais remédios. Também estava triste por não ter legumes para levar para a merenda da escola.
“Como assim, Vulpy?”
“É que a diretora da escola pediu que cada aluno contribuísse com algum legume para a sopa, pois a merenda não estava sendo suficiente para todos os alunos.”
“Entendi, mas continue...”
“Então, dai perguntei pro Juninho por que ele estava chorando. Ai, Foxy, me cortou o coração. A tristeza que eu senti tomou lugar da raiva!”
“Que aconteceu?”
“O Juninho estava chorando de soluçar. Perguntei o que ele tinha. Ele me disse que estava com fome e queria muito experimentar uma pizza. Ele disse que nunca tinha comido um pedacinho de pizza em toda sua vida e queria tanto experimentar. E disse que queria um ovo de páscoa também e refrigerante.
Foxy ouvia tudo atentamente, mas não se senta encorajada a falar nada. Não sabia o que dizer e limpou os olhos lacrimejantes.
“Eu não sabia o que fazer. Então me lembrei de um pacote de pão de forma velho, de umas fatias de mortadela que havia sobrado do comício e tive uma ideia: resolvi juntar tudo que tinha. Havia alguns tomates passados, um pouco de orégano e óleo. Então eu coloquei tudo numa forma. Coloquei as fatias de mortadela por cima, um pouco de óleo e salpiquei com orégano.  Aí  me lembrei da caixa de uvas que tinha ganhado e de umas barras de chocolate que meu namorado tinha me dado. Eu derreti o chocolate e despejei nas uvas. Ficou tudo redondinho e parecia um montão de ovinhos. O Juninho olhava tudo com aqueles olhinhos vermelhos. Parecia uma pizza de verdade e ovos de chocolate pequenos. Já estava escurecendo e quando tentei acender a luz, o Paulinho disse que tinham cortado e energia por falta de pagamento.
“Deve ter sido uma noite tumultuada, Vulpy.”
“Nem me diga. Eu tive de me controlar pra vencer a minha raiva. Eu estava chateada porque não consegui sair com meu namorado.
“E por que você não pôde sair?”
“Porque minhas roupas estavam meio molhadas. Não deu tempo de secá-las direito no varal e ficaram bem úmidas. Fiquei com vergonha de sair com aquelas roupas molhadas e mal cheirosas. O caminhão de água não passou durante a semana e por causa do racionamento e eu tive de reservar água para o banho das crianças e para a comida.”
Foxy, continuou ainda pensativa e encorajou a prima Vulpy a prosseguir:
“Mas o que tinha no pacote, que estória é essa?”
“Já te conto, deixa eu terminar com o assunto da pizza. Bom, como não tinha energia, eu pedi pro Paulinho acender um toco de vela e colocar uma tábua no vão do barraco pra não entrar vento. Ficou faltando o refrigerante. Então eu tive a ideia de colher alguns limões do barranco do quintal e fazer uma limonada. Eu coloquei dentro de uma garrafa de tubaína e joguei um pouquinho de bicarbonato.”
“Por que isso, Vulpy?”
“Pra formar um pouco de bolhas e o Juninho pensar que era refrigerante.”
“Nossa, você é mesmo uma raposa muito matreira!”
“Não é isso, Foxy, eu não sou espertalhona, quer dizer, eu tenho de ser assim pra sobreviver, né? Quando a gente sente fome a gente faz de tudo...”
“Eu entendo, Foxy, eu só estava brincando. Foi mal...”
“Bom, todo mundo comeu. Rimos bastante e quando eu olhei pro lado, o Juninho tinha dormido na cadeira. O rostinho dele estava plácido e sereno. Ele dormiu de barriguinha cheia e com o rosto tranquilo, achando que tinha comido pizza de verdade, ovos de páscoa e refrigerante. Dai eu o coloquei na caminha dele, o cobri bem. Dei um beijinho no focinho dele e disse bem baixinho: Meu anjo, algum dia eu compro uma pizza de verdade só pra você, eu prometo!’”
“Você deveria ter me avisado que estava passando por necessidades, Vulpy, você sabe, eu também sou uma raposa pobre, mas a gente sempre dá um jeito.”
Vulpy abaixou a cabeça e não quis demonstrar que estava se sentindo, fragilizada com a situação. Ela sempre preferia lutar e ser criativa para enfrentar as situações adversas.
“Mas, e o lance do pacote, Vulpy?”
“Bom, naquela noite eu fui dormir muito pensativa. Fiquei me lembrando daquelas palavras do David Luiz depois do jogo da copa de novo e não conseguia dormir. Fiquei pensando como o macaco Chitão era falso. Ele não cumpriu nada do que havia prometido nas eleições. Nada de escolas, creches, esgoto, água, posto de saúde, asfalto, eletricidade, moradia e segurança... Daí comecei a ver como ele havia mentido e enganado tanta gente com aquele palavrório todo, aquelas micagens, aquelas caretas e piruetas, aquelas cambalhotas...
“Mas você não tinha votado nele, Vulpy?”
“Só na primeira eleição, mas depois fiquei com raiva de ter votado nele.”
“E como você continuou trabalhando na campanha dele?”
“Porque eu acreditava nas ideias de justiça social, igualdade, oportunidade para todos e via que as pessoas eram sinceras. O Chitão até me ofereceu um cargo de assessora.”
“Sua espertalhona, aposto que era por causa das promessas dele...”
“Ah, Foxy, eu fiquei cansada de ver tanta gente cega. A bicharada toda parecia estar enfeitiçada, hipnotizada. O Chitão prometeu mundos e fundos pra todos os bichos. Disse que não ia faltar milho para as galinhas, banana para os macacos, cenoura para os coelhos e até capim para os jumentos. Aqueles bichos eram muito ingênuos, Foxy. Até aquela cegonha cretina e vingativa estava lá, toda metida, exaltando as “qualidades” do Chitão. Quando ele falava, a bicharada toda delirava.
“É, mas também você deu sopa pra cegonha e serviu num prato, lembra?”
“Dei mesmo, ela merecia, mas depois eu conto essa história...”
“E o que você tinha de fazer como assessora do Chitão, Vulpy?”
“Bom, além de eu organizar os comícios, eu tinha de resumir as notícias e fazer relatórios. Eu aceitei esse cargo, porque era a única maneira de eu ficar de olho naquele macaco cínico. Foi aí que eu fiquei muito desconfiada do pacote e bolei um plano.
“Mas o que tinha nesse, pacote, raposa de Deus? Fala logo!” impacientou-se Foxy, novamente franzindo os lábios e colocando as mãos no peito.
“Então, Foxy, era um pacote pardo, com o papel mole, dava pra sentir um pouco o que tinha dentro; tateando dava para perceber que tinha alguns clipes de papel... Eu achei que tinha algo muito estranho nesse pacote, porque o pessoal do partido pediu pra eu o levar diretamente para o Chitão o mais rápido possível e não deixar cair nas mãos de ninguém absolutamente, principalmente do pessoal da imprensa.
“Será que eram dólares?” indagou Foxy?
“No começo eu achei que era dinheiro ou drogas, sei lá, mas não era nada disso, era muito pior, muito pior, Foxy,” respondeu, colocando uma das mãos na cintura e balançando a ponta das patinhas.
“Tá, Vulpy, mas o que aconteceu, conta logo, que já está chegando a hora de eu descer.”
“Bom, é claro que eu percebi que não era coisa certa. Então eu peguei aquele pacote e fui levar no jantar comemorativo pela vitória da reeleição do Chitão. Dai eu bolei um plano. O Chitão estava num salão cheio. Todos estavam comemorando, e o pessoal da imprensa estava cobrindo tudo. O Chitão estava numa mesa no mezanino. Ao lado dele tinha uma fileira de balaústres de madeira. Então eu cheguei perto dele, dizendo bem alto: ‘Senhor, senhor, tem uma encomenda aqui, disseram que era só para o senhor abrir, que isso pertence somente ao senhor e que ninguém mais pode mexer.’”
“E dai, e daí, que ele disse?”, impacientou-se Foxy, com os olhos arregalados e os lábios franzidos.
“Dai ele fez uma coisa que jamais deveria ter feito, Vulpy, jamais, jamais!” enfatizou Vulpy com os olhos vermelhos de raiva.
“Que ele fez, que foi?”
“Foxy, ele disse: ‘Cala a boca e fale baixo, sua cadela!’”
“Ele te xingou disso, meu Deus! Eu não queria estar por perto”
“Você sabe como eu fico indignada quando alguém me confunde com uma cadela, Foxy. Você sabe como isso me enlouquece. Eu não sou uma cadela, eu sou uma raposa, raposa...”
“E daí, que você fez?”
            “Quando ele disse isso, o sangue subiu pela cabeça. Eu senti as veias do pescoço incharem e meu coração disparou. Então eu fiquei ensandecida e pensei rápido. Foi aí que eu estendi o pacote para ele pegar. Quando ele estava segurando o pacote, eu fingi que escorreguei. O pacote se rompeu. Dentro, havia um montão de papeis, envelopes e notas fiscais. Aquilo  tudo voou pelo salão. O pessoa da imprensa começou a pegar tudo.”
            “E o que havia nesses papéis, Vulpy?”
            “Era relacionado com o lance da carne.”
            “Que lance da carne, menina? Fala logo que eu já vou descer,” insistiu  Foxy, levantando a cabeça e olhando para fora do ônibus.
             “É que o Chitão tinha usado um frigorífico pra lavar dinheiro e financiar a campanha dele com verba ilícita.”
            “E o que aconteceu depois?”
“O Chitão ficou apavorado, sem saber oque fazer; tentou recolher os papéis caídos, mas eram muitos. Então eu olhei bem pra cara dele e disse ‘Você finge ser nosso líder, mas sequer consegue cuidar de si mesmo!’ Enfim, Foxy. Agora estão falando em inpeachement e em outras eleições.”
“E o que você vai fazer agora, Foxy?
“Agora eu estou pensando que não vale a pena perder amizades por causa de posições políticas. Cada pessoa tem o direito de ter a posição política que quiser. As pessoas são sinceras. Enquanto os políticos ficam fazendo conchavos e tramoias e se dão bem, a gente fica brigando e perdendo amizades. Eu acho que a gente deve combater a corrupção em todos os partidos e em todo lugar.
“É, faz sentido, Foxy. Eu concordo com você. Mas você desistiu da política?
“Não, mas agora eu estou em outro partido.  Lá é muito legal”, Foxy, eles dão coxinha pra gente,” disse com um sorrisinho mefistofélico.
“Bem, Vulpy. Preciso descer. Meu ponto já chegou. Mas onde você está indo com este outro pacote?”

“Vou comer umas coxinhas na sede do partido novo e levar este outro pacote pra eles.”

terça-feira, 1 de dezembro de 2015

ME PHOBEISTHE (The Frog and the Hare)





Gilson Marcon de Souza

The dark room with grimy walls and plaster boards detaching from the cement pillars, gave off a characteristic odor of mold and mildew. The continuous smoke of burning tobacco amid hundreds of cigarette butts permeated the entire environment, tunirng the thick air into an acid and suffocating atmosphere. The fug of smoke and burned tobacco could even hurt the sensitive nostrils of whoever dared to enter that smelly and infectious environment.
A wet cardboard plate, lying on the cold ground and covered with some musty and threadbare pillows, served both as a bed and a sofa. It was there that Ranny slept, ate and worked. It was there where he spent most of his time laid back, reading a book, science fiction preference, but also quantum physics, string theory, parallel universes, standard model, subatomic particles, near-death experiences, out of body experiences, vampires, goblins, elves, modern superheroes, manga, anime and particle accelerators. Ranny, however, felt extremely frustrated for not knowing enough math, especially the equations, without which he could not work on his new project and perfect himself on the C ++.language
              Ranny did not feel totally satisfied with his projects, except for the success he had been achieving in memorizing so many alphabets as he could. He had memorized the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Cyrillic alphabets, not to mention thousands of Chinese ideograms, cuneiform characters, Egyptian and Maya hieroglyphs. In principle, he did not find much use in learning these writing systems, but over time he realized that this knowledge could help him tolearn these languages ​​and was confident that this intellectual exercise certainly was already helping him as he progressed in his algorithm to develop a both intergalactic and interdimensional search engine. So far, the preliminary results and customized filters were in his favor.
Ranny was a hyperpolyglot and could communicate with several friends around the world via Web. That is what he enjoyed doing in the hours he was not working as an online trier of games and video games. He just did not like to wait for the answers of his virtual counterparts. He felt extremely awkward to let people waiting for several minutes for the answers. He thought they should turn to red, or rather; they should leave their nicknames in red, if they were not willing to chat. Let them stay red, signaling they were busy, or yellow, if they were absent. He just hated it and decided to delete all his virtual friends who did not follow such basic rule of chat etiquette.
His dream was to buy a virtual reality glasses and be able to test the 3D gaming environment, but he would have to save many bitcoins from the websites that offered small tasks in order to get one.
Ranny felt hungry; he needed to eat something before leaving, because he had already planned a tour to the store of  electronic gadgets several weeks in advance. He had been planning it meticulously: which streets should he take; which corners should he avoid; in which dark alley should he hide himself in case he was observed by some person; what should be the best escape route in this case, and even which clothes should he wear. Weeks of planning. Nothing should go wrong: he could not be seen by anyone at all. So he set aside a black overcoat; a striped suspender; a t-shirt, also black, with no pattern that could draw attention to it; a pair of boots, similar to that of the cowboys and long shorts, enough to cover his slender legs right below his knees, but showing his shins.
He was somewhat stooped, perhaps by years of activity at the computer and already with a little protruding abdomen, but his legs were still strong.  He was not a lover of hiking, but as a child he liked to practice jumps. He even won a medal for the first place in high jumps at school and another medal for the second place in long jumps. It is true that he cared about his health, so he decided to cut some pizzas and burgers and to keep on practicing jumps, even indoors.
Close to be twenty-two years old,  he thought he should start caring for himself; so he decided to cut some carbs and eat more protein and keep practicing jumps - quit smoking and drinking coffee, chips and snacks would come later.
The house, or rather the den where he lived, worked and ate, was full of wirers, so that one of the tasks that preoccupied his attention the most was to carefully separate the web of wires of that true tangle of cables, tips, plugs, sockets, extensions. He did not understand this mystery, that is, as he got up to answer the phone or go to the bathroom, when he returned the wires were already full of knots and loops  ̶  completely entangled. Sometimes he even imagined that the wires and cables had own life and tangled purposely just to let his boring life even more difficult. There were dozens of them: wires of the batteries, of mice, of keyboards, of earphones, of video games, amid so many other cables and adapters of several types. If he did not arrange them in the most perfect order, it would be impossible to identify correctly which device such cable or wire belonged to. So, sorting out and separating each end with its respective equipment was a tedious but necessary task.
Ranny did not want to go through the inconvenience of having to go out to buy a new cable or wire to replace some one that could have been ruptured by any unexpected twist. A broken wire implied a new foray into the streets, and Ranny employed every effort to never ever have to leave home. But this time it was inevitable: a full soda glass had fallen across the keyboard and just did not damage the internal components of his notebook thanks to the precise jump he made, holding it precisely before all that liquid spilled all over and made an even bigger mess. But there was no way out: the solution was buying at least one external keyboard to continue his work. Besides that, it was already in his plans to buy also a laser pointer.
Ranny was eager to reproduce the double slit experiment and needed a laser emitter. He could not understand why on earth the waives did not collapse when someone was observing the experiment in the videos he had seen. It should not be this way: if there were somebody observing, the standards should be of particles and not of waves. That intrigued him and he would be thoughtful for hours. He needed to understand this process because he had managed to intercept several words in his search engine. He knew that his algorithm was working, since the results were within a logical pattern and followed a binary code. All he had to do was assigning a sound for each symbol that was being formed, and he was close to unravel that. The program he had developed to try to assign phonemes, vowels and consonants to binary codes worked a few times, and he had noted patterns that indicated a logical sequence of a language, but he was intrigued because, like in the double slit experiment, he could only get a message when he was observing the experiment, and it never occurred while his program was running by itself.
It was time to leave; the store would be closed, but Lepo promised to be there to keep the boxes of electronic products on the counters, even after the working hours. All Ranny had to do was knocking at the door and identifying himself. Lepo had given his word that he would be inside the store to arrange the goods.
Now Ranny needed to eat something. He was hungry. He needed to eat something and urinate. Ranny never left home if he did not do that. He went to the toilet and made sure he had urinated completely. He could not help expelling even a drop of urine - he just could not. First, because he did not want to endure the embarrassment to urinate on his pants if he went through some kind of threatening situation; second, because he did not want to infect anyone with his urine.
There was not any slice of pizza left over at all. There was no package of crisps and snacks either. This problem was not so important, since he could order those stuffs through the smartphone or the Internet without having to leave, but he needed to eat something. Ranny stepped back, put on his ninja hood and his sunglasses and almost fell down when he stumbled on the RPG board. He regained his balance, stared at the wall and jumped abruptly, however precisely, and turned back, rubbing his stomach with an air of satisfaction and with his maw half open, still swallowing half a cricket, whose shrill wings stopped quivering and waned until the whole bug was totally swallowed and Ranny not even chew it. It was his lucky day, because with two or three jumps, he managed to capture an inattentive moth and a juicy brown cockroach with his huge distended tongue.
He was feeling almost ready to leave, and then he walked to the door, put his hand on the rustic wooden bar of a strong, well-equipped and firm latch, and yanked it several times. He would put his hand on the well-locked door latch, force it and return to the starting position again. The door did not break open until he remembered of an extra shim he had firmly tucked under it  ̶  but a force seemed to push him back. He tried several times, crisscrossed his fingers in front of his lips, took a deep breath for several seconds and rehearsed a new departure, but turned back to the computer: he had this idea of trying to leave the program running once more while he was gone. He glared his eyes on the screen and typed in a search field: "message to mankind."

Ranny was an accomplished typist, and the answer came almost at the same speed with which he was able type, but in a helical pattern resembling a DNA strand, although with binary sequence pairs only. Ranny felt a chill going through his spine. It seemed to be a clear message this time. Now he just needed to enter the codes in his program and wait for the conversion. Suddenly, thousands of zeros and ones began to frantically dance on the screen, until finally a sequence of what seemed to be a pair of words was forming. It did not take a long time for Ranny to understand that it was a language.  He just had to enter the result in a phoneme library, and the outcome finally appeared before his watchful eyes: ME PHOBEISTHE.
A mixture of curiosity and satisfaction almost made him forget that it was time to leave and he could no longer delay his egress, but his thoughts were almost all dedicated to the meaning of  those terms that had just appeared on the screen of his computer. Ranny wanted to light a cigarette  ̶  he always did that as a celebration rite whenever he felt he had made some achievement, such as beating an opponent in a game or RPG or finishing any major program, like writing a book or a website review  ̶  but there was no more cigarettes. He rummaged through the pockets of various clothes and tried to find a cigarette lost somewhere, but all he could find was a rather moldy and wrinkled butt, however he did not hesitate to light it and took advantage to deeply inhale some smoke that cigarette piece could still produce.
He was eager to continue his research; all he had to do was entering the terms in a common search engine and assesing the results. He no longer could wait to leave. He was extremely punctual and did not tolerate even seconds of delay. But he still had time to close several windows on the screen of his computer, including multiple sites exhibiting cosplay and hentai images. Ranny looked at some hentai pictures with hungry eyes, but he decided that definitely was not time for lustful thoughts.
As soon as he finally could open that massive door, his heart raced, he felt cramps, tremors; his face began to sweat, his hands were shaking and his lips lost color. Ranny thought about aborting his plans, but if he ever did that, he could not proceed with his research. It seemed his skull sides were being crushed by an unbearable pressure. His temple seemed to be compressed by a tremendous force. Ranny had the impression that every time he left home he was shrinking, or else people were growing. He felt sick and anxious, and if not for a shred of self-control he could still gather, he would have thrown up at the very moment he set foot out the door.
The anxiety he was feeling would have given rise to a terrible sense of panic, had he not relied on the bit of control over his emotions, but every time he left home he felt he was losing more and more power over his feelings. The scope of the external space, the street lights, the headlights of the cars, the treble bangs seemed to be distorted in a flurry of disconnected sounds and images in a tapered twisted vision. He seemed to have lost his peripheral vision and all he could see was a trail of elongated and blurred lights amid a deafening roar, but what led his almost indomitable phobia to the limit were the people: they were threatening. Ranny was terrified of them. He was scared of being stepped on, kicked, mocked; but if he could choose, he would prefer to have the feeling of rejection and indifference, though it also hurt him.  Anyway, he would rather be ignored by them rather than being observed in his activities. Ranny felt difficulty performing any task if he felt someone was watching him. So he carefully studied the way he should tread to avoid having to ask for information or directions.
Ranny breathed a bit and tried to be as fast as he could, preferring to go through darker places and close the alleys, lanes or pathways, sneaking behind road signs, bins, bus stops or any other obstacle that could serve as a possible hiding place. Having breathed was of some help, and Ranny strode interspersed with precise however winding jumps. He preferred to follow his route obliquely, jumping from one corner to another to avoid coming across anyone.
He was almost arriving at Lepo's store of electronic trinkets, but he decided to stop behind a bucket of debris to breathe a little more before entering, but that was not a good idea. Ranny almost fainted when he felt something rubbing up his back and a warm and wet sensation running his ​​neck. He turned back terribly scared to see what it was about and could see a huge face with exploring eyes and a huge tongue dripping a thick, sticky saliva. Ranny had time to see that it was just a curious dog that had licked the entire length of his spine and sniffed all his body with an inquiring and cold snout. Ranny would have urinated right there if he had not done that before leaving home, but he managed to dodge from that wandering and stray dog, which seemed more to satisfy his canine curiosity than causing him any harm. It was not difficult for him to jump to a safer place, leaving that nosy and inquisitive animal to find the way from which it was led astray.
He was, in a way, relieved for getting at this stage. He was close to getting in. He wanted to light a cigarette, but there was no one, and that would also expose himself all the more. He was worried about not having cigarettes, since he would never go into a bar to buy them. But his concern gave way to some relief when he passed his hands to his chest and could grope the volume of a pack of cigarettes still closed in one of his pockets. His idea of ​​leaving a pack hidden somewhere just in case worked out. Maybe some nicotine would give him some encouragement to go on. He lit a cigarette and dragged it so eagerly, that in less than a minute he had smoked more than half of it and felt satisfied, dismissing the rest of it and speeding up to knock at the door quickly.
Ranny was rehearsing what to say; he did not want to act as a fool. He cleared his throat and coughed and wanted to adopt a posture of someone who knew exactly what to buy. He did not want someone else to think he was stupid, indecisive or hesitant. He just wanted to buy what he needed, get out of there as quickly as possible and return to his refuge.
It did not take so long until Lepo opened the door, but his effusive welcome did not make him feel calmer ̶  on the contrary. Ranny knew Lepo only by the internet chats and had never seen him in person. He froze when he saw that it was a hare. His heart raced, his breathing became short and panting. Air was lacking and again he began to sweat. His face was on fire. Ranny could not control himself and his whole body trembled. He wanted to control  himself, but when he saw that it was a hare, he deeply regretted having left his house; he wanted to take a step back and go away running or jumping, but  he was frozen, motionless, petrified. He could not express himself and was speechless. He was always disconcerted whenever he first met someone.
Lepo was a tall and strong hare. By the tone of his muscles, one could easily conclude he was an young athletic guy and a lover of exercises. His well-maintained brown hair  was also an evidence that Lepo was a young guy who cared about his outlook and was somewhat vain. Lepo was a lover of everything related to new technologies, pop culture, adventure films, science fiction, comics, and RPG. His reddened eyes widened, and his pupils dilated when he saw Ranny’s state of panic and dread. Lepo hastened to bring him in, pulling him hard, since he imagined he had been mugged or was going through some health problem. By his panting and gasping breath, he imagined he could be suffering from an asthma attack and then tried to welcome him.
Ranny just could not speak. His cloudy thoughts and wheezing left him prostrate, just trying to breathe and recover.
"But what happened to you, man?" asked Lepo, with great expression of concern, trying to find  any seat to accommodate his virtual friend, with whom he had exchanged hours of online conversations, but whom he had not yet personally met.
"Have you been robbed? What happened?"
Ranny could not summon the strength to speak.
"Calm down, buddy, breathe a bit, sit here and relax. Whatever happened, you are okay now,"  Lepo said in a firm and friendly voice.
Lepo’s sweet, soft and gentle voice made Ranny recover some force and feel encouraged to come in and be seated.
      Ranny wanted to buy everything he needed quickly and get out of there as quick as possible.
"Sorry, Lepo, I was not feeling well; I was surprised with a dog that appeared along the way," he tried to hide.
"I understand, these dogs live in the wild and are usually meek. They are always looking for some leftover food."
Lepo could talk naturally in a voice so warm and soft, which could leave Ranny calmer. His tone was relaxing. Lepo was a tall hare, with firm and calm gestures, the same age as Ranny. His gentle and welcoming attitude was soon making Ranny feel more at ease. But what calmed him down a bit were the electronic equipment. Ranny was gradually calming down and was distracted with several of them. He would have them all if he could.
"Would you like some water?" asked Lepo, placing both hands back and leaning close to Ranny. Lepo looked at him carefully, lowered his face and tried to see if Ranny had suffered an injury. His watchful eyes let Ranny somewhat embarrassed. Lepo watched carefully, from top to bottom, as if searching him with his eyes.
"You have several games, right Lepo?" asked Ranny, feeling recovered, but refusing the glass of water.
"Your store is very well organized!"
"I have a bit of everything. I don’t have the best products, but they are good items. I need to have goods that meet both the pockets and the wishes of the people. If I have expensive things, nobody buys them."
"But how did you manage to organize this store, Lepo. You're still so young! "
"You know, Ranny, at the beginning it was very difficult: no one would help me. I started selling things in a bag until I asked my parents if I could use this old garage. At first they did not want, but later some things happened and they had to change their mind."
"What things, Lepo?"
"Oh, never mind, Ranny, I don’t want - and I don’t like -  to remember that period that was so difficult and full of darkness to me, forget it."
Ranny's thoughts were still confused, and he hardly remembered what he wanted to buy. He thought for a moment and remembered the keyboard.
"Oh yes," he stammered, "I'd like to take a very soft keyboard," he was keen to stress, "and also a... also a... ah, yes, a laser pointer."
"Anything else, Ranny?"
"If I could I would take more things, Lepo, but I am short of cash."
"And what else would you like to take?"
"I think you might not have one. I always wanted to have virtual reality glasses, I’d like so much to have one of those glasses," Ranny sighed, searching all the shelves with his eyes and watching all the products on display: consoles, video games, smartphones, monitors...
"Wow, man, you have a whole collection of Star Wars action figures!" Ranny Sighed.
"Yes, and I also have many  Lord of the Rings toys."
Lepo thought for a moment and said:
"Would you like to have a virtual reality goggles?"
"Yes, but I still have no money to buy one," he moaned dejectedly.
"Ranny, you can have my collection of action figures and my toys too. I like them very much, but I know it will be in good hands if you keep them," Lepo said, with a lost look and his voice a little choked. "I'd really like you to stay with them..."
"I do not know if I can accept them, Lepo, you must have collected all of this with great effort and care."
"I know, Ranny, but I also need some more room here to put other goods, and I know they will be in good hands. Right, Ranny, here is the keyboard, the letters are large and the keys are soft. You told me you have tired vision, and this mechanical keyboard has large letters. It is the last one I have. I do not have a laser pointer, but I have this keyholder with a well-focused laser."
"That’s perfect, Lepo, that’s exactly what I need."
"It is for your double slits experiment?"
"Yeah, Lepo, I need to better understand this experiment - If anyone has ever been able to understand it."
"So, why do you need to understand this, Ranny, what does this have to do with the search engine you are creating?"
"I don’t know, maybe this will help me to understand. But a similar phenomenon occurs with my experiences," he replied thoughtfully.
"What do you mean, Ranny?" Lepo Insisted, placing a chair closer  to Ranny and struggling to understand.
"I mean, when I'm at the computer, watching the experiment, I get some result, but if I move away from it, I can’t get any result."
"And have you got some results?"
"I got a few, but I was not sure if it was a coincidence or some sort of interference. But today I'm sure I got a message. "
"And where is the message from, Ranny?"
"I do not know about that yet, but certainly from some corner of the universe or from another dimension."
"How interesting, Ranny! You know, I always say that the universe speaks to us all the time, through everything: maybe a song, a flower, a still lake, an animal, the sound of rain and even by a person," he joked, “except I think it speaks softly, and we have to pay close attention to what it’s trying to say. But I'm curious to know what message you received.”
"Before I left home, Lepo, I tried again, and  there came out a strange message."
"What message? Tell me, dude, tell me... "
"The message was: ME PHOBEISTHE."
"And what does it mean?" Lepo asked, widening his eyes, rubbing his chin and ruffling the two huge ears.
Ranny noted the Lepo’s interest and replied, watching the movement of his long ears:
"I still don’t know, Lepo, it doesn’t seem a strange expression to me, it looks familiar, but I don’t remember seeing anything like that in the languages ​​I know. I put those terms in some regular search engines, not mine, and I had no time to see the results. I will do this as soon as I go back," said Ranny, pausing.
"Unless ..." he thought for a while, "I should transliterate those Latin letters to several other alphabets. That's it, Lepo, I’ll do that right away when I return."
"So tell me what you find out. Now I am curious. "
"I will, Lepo. If I can make it out, you will be the first one to know."
"Ranny, I want to show you something, man. I think you'll enjoy it".
"What is it, Lepo?"
"You want a virtual reality goggles, right?"
"Yes, I have always wanted one, Lepo."
"So, man, you can make one yourself."
"How is it, Lepo?" Ranny got interested.
"Look, you can download a template yourself, cut a cardboard plate and insert the lenses. Then you will be able to play games in a virtual reality environment: everything in 3D. Also, just imagine: you will be able to travel throughout space, inside the human body, see theaters and museums and interact with people - everything virtual. "
Ranny was very thoughtful and became interested in the proposal.
"Wait, Ranny, I have a mold downloaded here, want to try to make one?" Lepo asked, making a sign with his thumbs up and rubbing his hands. Lepo bent down and picked up a folder, took some papers, scissors and glue and put them on the counter.
"Would you like to try to make one, Ranny?"
"How is it?"
"You just have to cut along the dotted lines and then paste and fold everything. It's a piece of cake."
Ranny scratched his head and thought for a moment. He considered it a viable proposition and began the task by cutting a cardboard strip, but he began to tremble and gave up. He was nervous about being watched. Ranny fumbled and nearly spoiled an entire strip. Lepo watched him with compassion, but did not help him, though. Instead, he encouraged him to continue.
"Come on, Ranny, you can do that, just be careful to cut along the dotted lines," Lepo said, with a voice almost monotonous.
"But don’t we need lenses, Lepo?"
"True, but I want to give you the lenses, Ranny, don’t worry. Once we are through, we can insert the lenses and everything will be ready."
Ranny felt challenged to finish the job, but was surprised with Lepo’s kindness and became suspicious of his intentions. He just didn’t understand why Lepo was becoming increasingly gentle and thought maybe he was just trying to sell some more products.
"So, you mean I’ll be able to interact with people without having contact with them? That would be too good, too good! "
"Yep, Lepo, you can create an avatar, you can chat with anyone from anywhere in the world, and also play games."
"I would like so much to be able to interact with people in this way, Lepo, I dream  about that; that's all I want," Ranny sighed with a distant and lost look.
"Why do you want to interact with people in this way, Ranny?"
"I think I can trust you, Lepo. You are a nice guy. I think I can open up to you."
"Sure you can, Ranny."
"You know, Lepo, I'm afraid of people, I fear, I panic, I have a real phobia. I just can’t interact with them,” Ranny said with his eyes filled with tears.
"Don’t you like people, Ranny?"
"That's not it, is not it. Actually, what I feel for them is a mixture of love and fear. It could be summarized this way: a strong desire to be accepted and a strong fear of being rejected by them. So if I had one of these glasses I could go anywhere virtually. I could talk to people, interact with them without worry."
Lepo leaned back in his chair, rested his face in his right hand, inhaled all the air he could and thought for a moment. He did not know what to say.
"Have you always felt like this, Ranny, have you always felt this way?"
"Well, when I was a kid I didn’t like team sports. I didn’t like to engage in activities with other guys. I preferred things I could do alone, like riding a skate board, flying a kite, jumping, reading… these kinds of things, but I didn’t feel so afraid. People thought I was weirdo and played tricks on me. They called me crazy toad, fromunda cheese toad, buster toad and liked to kick me. But I didn’t care too much about that. I just got upset when they called me toad. I'm not a toad, man, I'm a frog!"
"I know what that's like, Ranny, I am also upset when people call me rabbit."
"But when I was growing teenager, and started to understand more things, I was very sad because of an episode."
"What  was it, Ranny?"
"Once, I was practicing jumps on a trampoline, then a guy came up to me, interested in what I was doing. He wanted to learn how to jump and wanted to talk and make friends. He approached me with no fear, and we were just talking. Then his mother came over and said some things that hurt me a lot. After that I became very sad and more restrained."
"And what did she say, Ranny?"
"She started to yell at him and said: 'Son, walk away this  filthy toad! Don’t you know that this creature is poisonous? Don’t you know if he pees in your eyes, you'll go blind?'"
Lepo merely jiggled his head from side to side in disapproval; his eyes filled with tears, which he tried to wipe away, rubbing his eyes with both hands and turning his head a little to the side.
"After that," he continued, "I began to think that people did not like me at all.  I was convinced that I might be indeed poisonous. Then I began avoiding people and thinking about that. I thought I could harm them with some kind of venom I might have, and at the same time, I thought people could also do me any harm because of my poison. So I was afraid to do any harm to them, and afraid they’d treat me badly." Ranny tried to explain, confused in his thoughts and embarrassed with the words.
"What nonsense, Ranny. First, you are not a toad, you are a frog. Second, frogs don’t have venom."
"Maybe I am a kind of a poisonous frog, Lepo. But even so I could still go out and interact with people. Then, there was a third thing," Ranny said with a wistful look and a miserable face. His aspect changed and an expression of distress and prostration transfigured his appearance.
"I guess I should fold this mark, right, Lepo?"
"Exactly, Ranny, this is the last folding; Now just paste it, but let's insert the lenses," said Lepo, scratching his face.
"I just have a doubt about the position of the lens, Ranny; I don’t know if there is a lens for the right side and  another for the left one, but let's try it anyway; if that doesn’t work out, we reverse it."
 Once the device was ready and well adjusted, Lepo fit the smartphone into the slots and adjusted the apparatus on his nose and began to cry aloud, "Wow, wow, its working, man, how nice, what an extraordinary thing; it’s as if you're there!”
"Let me see, let me see, man." Ranny said with excitement, with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Wait, you need to install a program on your phone," Lepo said, taking the mobile phone from Ranny’s hands and typing several words and pressing a few keys with only two thumbs and in an unbelievable speed.
"Ready, Ranny, now you can look."
Ranny adjusted what appeared to be a square cardboard box on his face and began to turn his head from side to side. He looked up and to the ground, bent his head and dodged his body, as if he were about to be hit by some artifact.
"It's too cool, Lepo, that’s extraordinary, what a beautiful setting! It appears to be an abandoned house or a castle! Look, man, I can see a book on a table! Look, man, there is a cliff and a garden outside there! You can see the sea and a ship. Now I'm in a spaceship and I can see the planets and the galaxies. Man, a comet has just passed by the ship!"
Ranny and Lepo spent several minutes astonished with the result and testing several virtual scenarios when Lepo put the experiment back on the counter and said:
"It's yours, Ranny, I'm glad to hear that you liked it and that it will make your life happier."
"Thank you, Lepo,  I don’t know how to thank you, that's what I’ve always wanted."
"But what was the third thing that made you more upset, Ranny?"
      Ranny swallowed hard and tried to find a line  of thought while watching Lepo’s restless ears.
"When I was about sixteen, almost seventeen, I heard that many hares were depressed and sad; many of them were jumping into a lake. So I was thinking about that. Once, it was dark and I was passing by the lake when I saw a thoughtful and sad hare. He was crestfallen and down. So I approached him and tried to talk." Lepo stopped stirring his ears and became interested in the subject.
"We started talking, Lepo, and that hare was willing to jump into the lake: he said his life was confused, things didn’t work out for him and that no matter how hard he tried, it seemed that his life was shrouded by black and thick clouds and he couldn’t understand anything or think straight. Then he said he could only jump into the lake and put an end to that suffering."
Lepo continued to listen carefully to every detail.
I talked to him, I did everything I could to try to change his mind, but he was inflexible. He said he had already taken ​​that decision and was about to give up everything. So I stretched my hand and managed to hold his arm. I didn’t know what to do. He already had one foot on the cliff. I couldn’t’ hold his arm. I was getting tired. I wanted to find arguments, I wanted to speak, I wanted to have the strength enough to hold him, but I could only tell him, 'Do not be afraid, do not be afraid, my friend', but he was slipping. Then I remembered the lyrics of a very beautiful song. I wanted to sing for that hare, but my voice was choked because I was nervous and tired and I could only croak. So I could only speak part of the song, but I no longer could stand it. Then my arms were smooth and wet and he slipped out of my hand. I saw his body churning in the water. I saw his ears with black tips, spinning into a kind of whirlpool and moving away. I dove into the water and tried to swim, but when I took my head out of the water, he was gone in that water whirlpool and I lost sight of him when he was getting near the waterfall.
          "Lepo listened intently, with a look of 
compassion and his eyes filled with tears."
           "You know, Lepo, what hurts me most about this is that I feel guilty. I wasn’t a 
professional and didn’t know how to handle it. I shouldn’t have been there that night. 
Sometimes I wonder I should have held his 
hand a little bit more, I should have had some more strength. Other times, I think I should 
have talked more, or heard more.  I let the 
guy out, Lepo, and he was gone. I don’t even 
know the guy's name. I never saw him again. He must have fallen into the waterfall", he 
sentenced. Ranny was bathed in sweat and 
trembling. His body had severe muscle 
spasms and he struggled to continue.
              "Sometimes I wonder if I had the power to walk on water, I would have gone after him and saved him."
              Ranny no longer refrained and began to cry compulsively.
              Lepo was silent for a moment. Afterwards, Ranny approached and held his hand. Ranny began to cry and squirm in his chair. He wept bitterly and loud.
            "Ranny, I want to tell you something: you helped this guy."
             "He's gone, Lepo, I saw him being carried away by the stream and disappear in the dark night."
              "You did help him, Ranny, you meant to save him."
              "But I couldn’t save the guy," he insisted, shaking the whole body and twisting more and more, "the water took him away."
              "Ranny, you should not feel guilty about that."
              "But he was gone, and I should have done more..."
              "Ranny, doctors cannot always save everyone, but they do their part. Can you imagine if they gave up trying to save others?"
              "All I wanted was to be able to walk on water like Jesus Christ."
              "Ranny, you could not walk on water, but you were able to perform other miracles. And everybody is able to perform these miracles."
              Ranny wept bountifully and regained a bit of strength to ask:
              "What miracles?"
              "Ranny, you could not walk on water, like Christ, but you approached the hare, talked to him, encouraged  him and held out his hands, do you understand?"
              "Yes, but what are the miracles?" he insisted.
              "The miracle of approaching people when they are feeling in the darkness, the miracle of speaking and talking with them, the miracle of encouraging them not to be afraid and the miracle of reaching out, Ranny, and you did it all," Lepo said, holding his hands tightly.
        "But I couldn’t save that guy, Lepo, I failed, it did no good."
‘‘You’ve made  it indeed, Lepo, of course you’ve made it."
"How can you be so sure about that?" Ranny asked, trying to control his sobs and weeping bitterly. Warm tears rolled down from his swollen eyes. 
"How can you be sure?"
"Ranny, relax a little, try to lean back in the chair," proposed Lepo, "stay with your spine straight and breathe deep, you'll be all right. Do not be afraid, man, I'm here with you. Hold my hand."
  When Lepo held Ranny by his hand, he revived the whole episode with the hare and lost total control of his feelings. This time, he threw himself face down on the floor and could only cry.
         Lepo thought it was best to say nothing and let Ranny unburden his feelings. After a few minutes, Lepo resumed the dialogue and said:
         "Ranny, put a hand on your chest and another in the diaphragm and breathe well. Come on, man, breathe very deeply. Now hold your breath for a few seconds and exhale very smoothly. You will feel good, man, trust me, I'm here with you."
Ranny slowly began to recover after these cathartic moments. His breathing seemed to have returned to normal and he whispered:
"I couldn’t save him, I couldn’t save him, and he was gone ..."
"Ranny, I want to tell you one more thing: you were not afraid and approached that hare when all the other frogs were afraid and turned away..."
         Ranny interrupted again and continued:
         "I didn’t have the strength, I couldn’t make it, I failed, he was gone and I couldn’t save him."
              "You could, Ranny, you saved him too." Lepo insisted.
              "And how can you be so sure, Lepo?"
              "Because I am that hare, Ranny, I am the hare you reached out." 
             This time it was Lepo who started crying nonstop." I was the hare you tried to save."
              Ranny was dumbfounded and perplexed.
              "And how do you know I am the one who saved you?"
              "I think you can remember the lyrics of this song, Ranny":

'I can see clearly now, the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way. Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind. It’s gonna be a bright sunshine day’"

Ranny stared at Lepo’s attentive ears and at his eyes, and in a gesture almost automatic, continued quoting the lyrics":

"I think I can make it now, the pain is gone. All that bad feelings have disappeared."

Then both of them recited the sequence in unison:

"Here is the rainbow I’ve been praying for. It’s gonna be a bright sunshine day!"

After that, both hugged and cried for long minutes.
Both were relieved. It was as if they had left to shed all sense of anguish, bitterness and sadness.
Lepo wiped his tears and packed the goods and the  virtual cardboard glasses they had made is a very nice package.
When Ranny was about to leave, Lepo reminded him of the collection of toys and action figures.
"Ranny, now I will always be here. Before you go, remember when you told me not to be afraid. Now I want you to think about that too. I know that in time you will be able to overcome every fear, even if it takes a little time."
"I know Lepo, but can you follow me home?"
"Of course Ranny, I will always be around for all you need."
As soon as Lepo left Ranny at the door of his house, he rushed in to see the result of his research. He saw nothing out of the ordinary and was about to finish everything when he remembered to transliterate the Latin letters into other alphabets.
After the transliteration, the research result had provided several matches, out of which one caught Ranny’s attention:
"ME PHOBEISTHE -   detected language: Koine Greek." Meaning:
                  
Do not be afraid!