[from the color tales, i wrote this a long time ago]
Uriel was a former soldier who left the Brazilian armed forces after a long period of service in war and in military camps in Brazil. He was already 37 years old, and had graduated from the Army Engineering School. Since he was young, he had dreamed of working in the country's defense and was now retired. He lived on the coast, alone and without relatives. He made a living fixing cars and taking long walks by the beach. He was a good man, calm for someone who had seen many tragedies. His house was isolated from the city, right in front of one of the beaches in Espírito Santo.
His routine was of an ordinary man: he would wake up, comb his brown hair, brush his teeth, put on some clothes and go drink water, then go to the bakery to buy bread and eat it there with some coffee. Uriel didn't usually go downtown; he liked to pay his bills at home, online. He was obsessed with shells and collected them on the beach. So many spirals and weird patterns, almost alien he would think. He ignored most people when he could, otherwise he would say "good morning", "good afternoon" or "good night" to the neighbors who passed by. His fascination by shells and everything that was not mundane was quite unusual, diving into his curiosity he researched animals, plants, the ocean... Deep down, deep down, he really wanted to be in the Navy instead of the Army or maybe an Oceanographer. But he never lived near the beach until he joined the Army. He didn't know the sea could be so beautiful. And on top of that, Uriel kept a secret, something that no one in the four corners of the city seemed to notice. Even though it was a small town.
Uriel knew a giant. He saw him for the first time on one of his walks by the beach at night, while he tried to forget and hide the details of the war that were flying over his head, visions of massacres and explosions. The blood, the bones, cracking, the empty white eyes of a friend. He took off his shoes and went into the sea, putting his feet in the sand, with his toes in the small waves that formed and broke as if they were washing away his sins, of having killed and beaten many men, not saved enough lives, and perhaps of the loneliness he felt for not having prioritized love in life. He closed his eyes and tried to feel the cold night breeze, the sea air... But suddenly he felt a chill, it ran down his entire spine and made his knees buckle from shaking so much, he fell into the waves and got wet up to his waist, he wondered where this fear came from, this feeling as if death was right in front of him. Then he wiped his eyes and opened them, at first he thought it was a nightmare, a mirage or his own insanity. Seeing further than he should, he came across a creature approximately 40 meters tall, reflecting the moonlight on the clouds. He was above the sea, pale white and enormous, humanoid in stature.
The moon separated a little more from the clouds and then he was able to see what seemed like a human carcass. The giant was a huge, shining skeleton with silver eyes, and he stared at Uriel intently. After locking it’s eyes on him without moving for a few minutes, lying in the salt of the waves, he finally stood up and in a moment of madness – because nothing worse could happen if it was a dream, according to him – he shouted at the creature with as much breath as he could: - Hey! - After that, he raised an arm, waiting for a reaction, but the giant didn't show one, he simply turned around and continued on his way to the depths of the sea. Uriel watched him disappear into the darkness of the night while the waves got bigger every time the giant stepped into the water. Then he left the beach and went back home.
He made a point of researching everything about giants, oceans, legends, sea monsters, anything that could explain what happened; he felt entrusted with this task. It was a strange feeling of duty, a desire, as if he had regained an excitement in his life that he hadn't felt since joining the army after finishing high school. In his search for answers, he found himself thinking about the monster and then realized that he couldn't remember the memories that tormented him that day. He wondered if the monster had caused this, so he went to the sea again, every day. And every day he met the giant. As always, they looked at each other and Uriel came back happier than ever. Greeting his neighbors when he bought breakfast, going to the bank more often, sorting things out, and even getting a girlfriend. His happiness for not remembering anything was such that he went home and grabbed a glass of wine from the fridge to celebrate, knowing there was something painful unnecessary to remember. Out of sight out of mind right? Surely I would notice anything wrong, he told himself.
However, one day, he was startled by a female figure in his house, the woman called herself his wife, he didn't have a wife, much less was he married, and then the children came, sleepy behind. Saying father this... father that... He didn't understand anything. Scared. He dropped the bottle of wine on the floor, the children cried and the wife begged him to remember but he didn't want to, after all, if it was something bad, why remember? He kicked them out of the house and sat on the couch to watch TV as if nothing had ever happened. After a while, when hearing conversations outside the house he instinctively grabbed a knife, his body still had muscle memory from the training, training of something he had never done before. This is dangerous, I don’t want this. - He looked out the window and saw people, that woman and the children outside. People who called themselves "Neighbors" were knocking on the door, insisting on coming in, that they would explain everything. They didn't understand Uriel, he had chosen this, he only needed the white giant and nothing else.
Soon, police cars arrived at the entrance of the house, saying they would break down the door. Uriel despaired in the midst of all this commotion, went to the window on the other side of the house and ran out of there towards the beach, "the giant will solve it!", he thought. "I should just forget about it!", he thought. He ran to the meeting point and while looking for the giant, the clouds were covering it’s body, it was returning to the sea, he was too late, the creature no longer looked at Uriel. His house was fulled by now, with all of these strangers. The memories started coming back, of a life of love and horror. Not bearing it all at once, "Don't leave me. Don’t leave me!" - screaming at the monster, diving into the water and swimming after it. He swam, swam, swam as fast as he could after the giant. Forgetting, also, how to swim. The giant friend sank next to him on the coast, and Uriel’s body was found several weeks later, as a bunch of bones and rotten meat on the beach of Espírito Santo, eaten by the sea, completely forgotten.
