-Part 2-
It rained so hard today. Professor Smit and I arrived at the village four hours ago, just a few minutes before the rain started. And it didn't look like it would subside anytime soon.
Six of us were stranded in this tent. Me, Professor Smit, Dr. Chen, Dr. John, Aarón, and Alicia. Not sure where the rest were. I took the chance to help Alicia key in the analysis and taught her how to organize the statistical data.
The four academics were sitting around the table discussing something I couldn't hear from my spot on the ground, with Aarón's habit of touching his earlobe now and then, and Professor Smit's habit of loosening and retying his hair. The rain was raging. But I wasn't interested enough to know what they were discussing about. I was more interested in Professor Smit's act.
Since two days ago, he became... clingy. He refused to distance himself from me. He basically hugged me earlier when a monkey walked pass us. I tried to imagine that he was one of my students who always clung to my legs. But it was hard because he was an overly attractive grown man, and he attached to me like a baby koala. But as soon as we reached the tent, and he met the other academics, he became... the way he had always been. No trace of his childish demeanor.
"He really is super attractive, isn't he? Look at that veiny forearm," Alicia whispered.
"He is..." I said, half-conscious. "Wait. Who?" I put the laptop on the ground.
"You've been staring at Professor Chaves for an hour." She giggled. "Have you two been together long?"
Staring at Aarón? I woke up to his face every morning for the past six years. I even know how many tiny moles he has on his face. Thirteen. I didn't need to stare at him for whatever reason.
"We've been friends for six years. He's like a..." He's like my boyfriend. But it didn't feel right to tell her about our relationship in a formal research trip like this. I didn't care about me, but Aarón had a reputation to uphold. “He's like a brother to me.”
"Really?"
"Really."
Her hand flew to her mouth, but she smiled. Wide. "All this while, I really thought you two are a couple."
Ah, I get it. She likes Aarón.
"I thought you thought I have a girlfriend? You mentioned about the damsel or something once."
"Yep. That was a lame joke." She laughed, peeking at Aarón, with a big HEART in her eyes. "So who were you staring at?"
Professor Smit. "Nobody. I was just... thinking." I exhaled.
Her eyes were skeptical, but she nodded and continued updating data on her laptop. Then she sighed. "We are here for the low-water season study, but here we are. Raining almost every day. Can't trust the weather forecast."
"It's fine. The canopy won't suddenly change because of the rain. It will take months before the structure responds to the weather. Our primary objectives are still on the deforestation study. You're coming with us to the site tomorrow, right?"
"Yep. Got tired of calibrating the dish. I already got the internet up, though it's almost useless to have it. It takes five minutes to upload a one MB folder online. Ugh. Ridiculous!" She shook her head and peeked at me. "I'm sorry you can't call home, Jona." She paused. "I miss my mama. It's been a month since I last talked to her." She hung her chin in her palm.
"Hey, Jona." Aarón beckoned me over.
I approached him. "What?"
"Sit for a bit." He pushed a chair toward me. "So, I was talking to the chief yesterday. In a month, they're gonna perform the Huka Huka combat for the Kuarup festival."
That caught my full attention. I rested my elbows on the table. "Wait. Huka Huka? That ritual to choose their partners?"
He grinned and nodded.
Then I remembered something. "Fuck. So this is the village Anderson Silva came to and trained with the Indians... and... and wrestled with the Indians using his Jiu-Jitsu moves?" I almost bounced on the chair.
"So... this Anderson Silva fella is the Gandhi of martial arts?" Dr. Chen asked.
I was about to answer him before Professor Smit responded. "He is the best mixed martial arts fighter on the planet. He holds the longest title streak in UFC history at 2,457 days. Sixteen consecutive wins and ten title defenses."
"You know him?" I asked. If it wasn't a creepy thing to do as a man, I would already squeal like Alicia. Professor Smit suddenly became a thousand times more interesting.
"Who doesn't know him?" he said.
Dr. Chen and Dr. John raised their hands.
"We invited him for a demonstration once," Professor Smit continued.
"Onde?" [Where?] I shifted on my seat.
"At our combat center."
"You have a gym too?" I almost shouted.
"We don't really own a gym. My brother owns a security company. We train bodyguards."
I wanted to ask him a thousand more things, but Aarón patted my leg.
"Anyhow, I want you to take part and show them Jiu-Jitsu moves," Aarón said.
"Sure! I can do that." I squeezed his arm.
"I don't recommend for him to wrestle yet." Dr. John put a damper on my mood.
"He will not wrestle with the indigenous. He'll only demonstrate the moves with me. Like an exchange. We learn their moves, they learn ours. It won't put a toll on his body," Aarón said.
Dr. John rubbed his ear. "Show me later. I'm not familiar with Jiu-Jitsu. Only then I'll let you know."
"I can help you if you want a partner." Professor Smit said to Aarón. "Da Graça doesn't have to demo it to John to prove that he's fine. It's kinda antithetical to the purpose, don't you think?"
Aarón slapped his shoulder as he laughed. "Absolutely. Though I have to ask. You do Jiu-Jitsu?"
"I just told you my brother owns a security company. We're a family of martial artists. Though I won't lump myself with them. I stopped at brown belt."
"You're a brown belt holder?" This time, I shouted.
Professor Smit was many things, but I never took him as a brown belt holder even when he indirectly told me in the airport that he learned Jiu-Jitsu.
He was psychologically a child two days ago. Crying, afraid of an imaginary monster under the bed. Now, he told me he owned a brown belt in Jiu-Jitsu, something that I had been working on so hard for ten years to get! If the accident didn't happen six months ago, I would have already taken the promotion exam.
I didn't know if this was jealousy or admiration, but my chest suddenly felt constricted from how unfair everything in my life was.
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