CHAPTER 36

Magalhaes had interrupted the drug treatment, due to an unforeseen problem with the supplier.

A long time had passed since the day Rúbia had spoken about the need for an instructor and had dismissed the last of the several candidates who had emerged since then. She was no longer satisfying herself, playing only with herself.

No one in the locality was capable of competing and teaching her something new. “What doesn’t nourish me shouldn’t occupy me...” she said after each dispensation. Therefore, after brief departures, she saw the need to continue the search. Those from Romântica were the first to be eliminated and then those from several closer cities.

Faced with the need, Rúbia came to the conclusion that she should hire someone qualified from the capital, or from another state and, if not suitable, from outside the country, such as one of the authors of the books she had read.

In the dining room, where she usually eats breakfast alone, like before she got married, after her parent