Text: Cristina Fontenele*
It was early on a Wednesday when a strong thunderstorm followed by flashes invaded the room. Scared, I got out of bed and looked for the most hidden corner away from the mirror. (those who are superstitious understand). What could have been a movie script was a scene from real life, from someone who is terrified of lightning and grew up in a land with the sun at its highest. The fear was not for nothing. According to the news, on this date, Portugal recorded more than 23 thousand electrical discharges in 12 hours. Autumn, indeed, had arrived.
Almost three months ago, the windows signaled the change of season. I resisted as much as I could as a tropical immigrant: with sandals and a floral strappy dress. The wardrobe was in transition, every now and then I would just complement it with a jacket. Until, last week, it got cold, hands and feet coldly confirmed that it was time to curl up. Gloves, warm socks and a scarf protecting the throat will be the accessories for a few months.
It’s time to cover the bed with blankets, open the suitcase of warm clothes and be surprised by your own clothes. “Hello, dear, how was hibernation?”, we can salute the plaid, the gray tones, while we fold the prints. It’s also time for an exercise in self-perception, coming across the costumes and questioning whether they still reflect us, what we can reduce, whether we give it one more chance or is it better to donate it.
Moods undergo adjustments, spirits become more reserved and serious faces fill the subway. There are sneezes and coughs in transport, the nose runs without warning (tissue always ready), early in the morning the smell of alcohol on some breath, and it’s the beginning of the wrap-up-take-off season when entering and leaving environments with different temperatures.
The stomach asks for warm food, saying that inside it needs comfort. Curious, because in my city of 30 degrees, the hot food didn’t affect the body. At most, it caused sleepiness after a heartier meal. Living in Portugal, I notice a more immediate connection with the heat of the dish. In the European summer, I can even refuse a coffee, which would never happen in Brazil. Maybe because in the Northeast the season varies between warm and hot, and the body works according to the logic of this rule.
When people travel on foot or by public transport, they still have to carry the weight of decisions in their bags. Choose a more composed coat or risk getting cold? Is the wind favorable or not for wearing a skirt? Small or large umbrella? Cover? And, even with a daily check of the weather app, we can be surprised by unforeseen rain. The lament goes on for hours – “I should have gone out with another coat.”
Entering autumn means going through the instability of time and its particularities. The wind that tore off the roofs of the Santa Apolônia station this week blew away my friend’s umbrella. “She turned and broke the stems into a thousand little pieces,” she said when I asked how she dealt with the stormy day Claúdia. Just in case, I bought a bigger umbrella. However, upon first use it almost broke due to the force of the wind. This is the minimum given the almost 2 thousand incidents in the country due to bad weather. The siren has been a constant sound for three days.
Each season calls for different resilience and different ways of dealing with the routine. While the boots are off to walk around Lisbon and the clothes are layered, my friends from Ceará send humorous videos with people taking to the streets holding a bucket of water to wet their heads along the way. I respond with another video showing the different ways of tying scarves and scarves. We joked that it would be good to change the degrees on each side a little. We know the effects that extremes can have.
*Cristina Fontenele is a Brazilian writer, specializing in Writing and Creation. Author of “Um Lugar para Si – reflections on place, memory and belonging”, as well as a journalist and publicist. She has been writing chronicles for fifteen years and, like a typical Ceará native, she loves a hammock and couscous with hot coffee.