The Gang And The Cursed Path

Good Friday, April 23
Puriscal, San Jose, Costa Rica

We were all behind the church. We were weakly eating the things we had bought at the convenience store. We were all completely exhausted from such a brutal procession. On Good Friday there is a procession from Grandma's house to the church of another small town, 10 kilometers uphill, under the brutal summer sun, without stopping to rest. It is so well known as the journey of repentance since it is normal that not everyone reaches the end of the journey and decides to return. Although it started as a religious event, it ended up becoming more of a sporting event by the attendees themselves.

Every year we young people made the trek while the older people stayed at grandma's house preparing lunch for those who would return. Normally my brothers, my cousins, my mother, and my aunt Damaris participated. But it seems like a lot of things happened this time, My aunt seems to have sprained her ankle yesterday so she doesn't come with us for the walk, Mom is taking care of my grandmother because my grandfather is working in the fields even today, he says that he doesn't He is old enough for long walks, but later he is going to plant corn all day under the sun, which I think is worse. So today there are few attendees in my family.

Next to me was my brother Leon, who came from the United States also under threat from my grandmother, and Brayan, the cousin definitive edition. If Cesar were here, the gang would be together again. I also had more female cousins, but they are much older than me, so the only group that didn't reject me was the men. But don't get me wrong, this group was much more fun than being with the other girls, there was always something fun going on, and if we didn't find a way to make it funny. Cesar acted like the leader, which we ignored, but he was the voice of reason in this group of idiots. Leon was the one with the ideas, he proposed what things to do, they almost always went wrong but it was part of the fun. I was more the one who gave moral support to others, if we did something I was there to be in favor, although we all knew it was a bad idea. But Brayan, was the brute force of the group, if anything needed to be done, it was done. Also known as the biggest idiot, he was capable of doing almost anything, I'm sure if it wasn't for Cesar's crazy stuff, Brayan would have the craziest life by far. If you have seen videos of men doing dumb things, then exactly the same but watching it live.

I think the three of them should be long dead actually. They've done so many stupid things like bike down dead Dave's hill, pedaling at top speed. See who was the bravest who stood the longest near the lit fireworks, The time we hunted a snake with a machete. The most powerful improvised flamethrower, etc. And in all of them, Brayan was the winner of all of them. But time passed and we did not meet again until now.

Right now we were resting to get our strength back to go back to grandma's house, so we were talking to hang out. Leon knowing that it would not hurt either side talking about work with Brayan nearby, spoke better about his time with his wife and how they met. Brayan, for his part, mentioned the fun things of the past, and was melancholic about Cesar's absence in the group, I really thought the same, I would like him to be here with us today. For my part, I talked about how it was to live in Japan because it was something that Brayan did call his attention to. He even showed her photos of Tokyo and where we lived.

"And this here is my room, before I had another bed but a wooden leg broke and I have to use this one until they fix it"

"Heavens, this is all very interesting Maria, but I have to ask the obvious, that over there  not is a dog right ?"

Damn, I had missed Tamamo who is also in the photo.

"That is precisely why I took the photo, that day a wild fox entered my room and I was able to take it" I answered nervously
(Thank goodness it's Tamamo in his animal form and not Momo)

"They are  a protected species there, right?"
"I think they worship them as spirits"
"Did you have to do anything to get it out of there?"

"Not much, I just opened the window and he left, ha ha ha"

"They don't sound very convinced, something else happened there?"

"Nope"

"Alright keep your secrets then"

"Very well, I think it's time to go back, if we leave now we can get to lunch earlier" Leon said standing up.

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"Okay"
"We return by the usual shortcut then?" asked my cousin.

"Of course, I don't want to walk more than necessary"I answered.

"Still, it's amazing to see how healthy you are now Maria"
"I really didn't think they could do the whole tour"
"I'm glad to know that everything is better now" said my brother.

"Well, after all, I couldn't stay in a hospital forever, could I?"

He was right, even though I would have hesitated before to make the whole trip when I was sick. All this is thanks to Cesar that I can be here today with them.

The return trip was not along the same initial route, but at a certain point, we deviated from the main road and entered the forest to cut the road. The place is what people consider a jungle, but we all knew this place perfectly so it was impossible to get lost. But even so, the road was not easy, because yesterday it rained a lot, so there was a lot of mud everywhere. Even so, we already expected this, we already had practice walking and not getting dirty.

"Hey! what if later we go to the supermarket and buy loud fireworks to go scare Daniel!?"
"He should be cleaning the house right now, we still have to get revenge for what he did at that Halloween party."
"I'm sure making him run from fright will help him exercise"

"For Daniel, going from the bedroom to the refrigerator is exercise"
"The last time I saw him, he managed to complete the meat bowl challenge at Nica's restaurant."
"Then he came home for dinner"
"I wanted to vomit just listening to it"

"Remember that he was allergic to bees"
"And the time that Cesar disturbed a honeycomb near him"
"The fat man almost had a heart attack just for yelling"
"I have no idea how he managed to get down to his house"

"That is easy for Daniel"
"Rolling"

"And even so I'm sure he would get tired"

"Hey, did you hear something?" Brayan said.

"Now what? The jokes of that style are already very worn"  Leon answered who had already fallen 6 times today with the same joke.

"No wait, I think this time it's something serious"
"Is there someone else ahead?"
"I think he's asking for help!"

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