Saga of Brutes by Ana Paula Maia

Author:Ana Paula Maia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
Published: 2017-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

BOOK 3. carbo animalis

for dust you are / and to dust you will return.

—Genesis 3:19 (NIV)

CHAPTER 1

In the final accounting, what matters are teeth. They make identification possible. It’s highly advisable for every individual to preserve their teeth above all else, even above dignity. Because dignity won’t attribute what a person is, or rather, what they were. Vocation, finances, papers, memories, and love will have no bearing. When the body chars, only dentures will preserve the person’s own, rightful story. A toothless sod has it worse than the most pitiful lout. For they’ll become dust and charcoal. Nothing more.

Ernesto Wesley risks life and limb at all times. He throws himself into fire, crosses dense, black smoke, swallows sooty saliva, and can guess what material was used to make each item of furniture in every room based on how the flames crackle.

He can distinguish between cries of despair, blood, and death. At the beginning of his career, he learned that the business of saving another’s life is made up of equal parts madness and determination. He wouldn’t call himself a hero for his acts of bravery. At the end of the day, he feels the impact. He’s determined to safeguard some faith in life, to make sure he gets up every morning and goes to work.

His failures are greater than his successes. He understands that fire is treasonous. It rises in silence, drags itself across surfaces, erases all vestiges, and leaves only ash. Anything a person builds or attains can be devoured in a single licking. Everyone is within reach of the flame.

Ernesto Wesley doesn’t like to respond to the call of automobile or airborne accidents. He doesn’t like torqued iron, and having to saw through it even less. The emergency rescue saw makes him uncomfortable. Plunge cutting through metal can give him the rushing quivers, and he might lose control. It makes his body rigid and robotic. The slightest error could be fatal. Make a mistake in a profession like his, and become a condemned villain. Putting himself at risk is par for the course. It’s what this is about. He’s trained to save lives; but if he fails, a disapproving glance can turn his honor to ash.

The only good fight there is—fire. He likes to dodge blazes and outrun violent flames that rise on an abundance of oxygen. He’ll rake his stomach along a floor to feel the heat come through his uniform: wallboard caving around him, one floor crashing onto another, wires dangling, walls breaking. The sputtering of flames measures his resistance over time, and reminds him of the imminence of death. But there’s nothing that compares to that feeling of carrying someone on his back, a weight greater than his own, a rescued person who’ll never again forget his darkened, soot-covered face.

Ernesto Wesley is the best at what he does, but few know it.

He smiles at the bathroom mirror and pulls floss through his teeth. He carefully cleans the deep crevices and finishes his ablutions with a mint-flavored mouthwash.

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