It was Saturday morning, and the sky was gray. I think I already knew it was going to be a bad day. My friends and I had planned to go to the movies weeks ago, and I was so excited! But that morning, my dad gave me some sad news: he couldn't take me. The car, my dad's boxy, old Gol, had broken down.
I ran to look for bus schedules, hoping to find a solution. But there wasn't a direct bus to the movie theater. My mother said it was a distant dream to have a direct bus. The movie theater is very close to Aninha's house, the daughter of Dr. Aurélio, a prominent lawyer. My mother explained that people like Aninha's father didn't want a direct bus from here to there because our clothes weren't fancy, they were hand-me-downs from cousin Eli and Aunt Quitéria.
I didn't understand. I asked Mom why we couldn't buy new clothes. Maybe then Mr. Aurélio and his neighbors would let us have a new bus. But Mom just shook her head and said something I'll never forget: "Son, poor people don't change their clothes; it's the clothes that change the poor."
I went to talk to Dad and asked if I could take two buses: one to downtown and one to there, like Aunt Quitéria, who went to work at Mr. Aurélio's house. But Dad said it was too expensive, more expensive than the movie theater itself! And that there were no buses for now; there were only four: the 4:6 AM, 8:16 AM, 18:XNUMX PM, and XNUMX:XNUMX PM buses, and they were for people like Aunt Quitéria and her friends, who worked for the people there.
So, there was no way around it: I didn't go to the movies. Later that same sad Saturday, the mayor opened a bowling alley and announced that a brand new museum would open in Aninha's neighborhood. I was so upset! It seemed like everything cool only happened there, and I couldn't get there. And Dad's car? It was beyond repair.
On Monday, a new student from another city arrived at school. He seemed to know everything! He sat next to me and asked my name. Then he wanted to know if I knew any places he'd visited with his father before moving. I told him I only knew my neighborhood—a small part of downtown where my father worked, and the front of Aninha's neighborhood—because of the school. When I told him where I lived, he made a face like he didn't know anything, which I thought was strange, because my neighborhood is next to the school!
The new student asked the teacher about my neighborhood. She replied that it was a dangerous neighborhood and told him not to go there.
After class, my friends made plans to go to the new student's house, who lives on the other side of the neighborhood, near Aninha. And once again, I didn't go.
I wanted so much to know more about the city, to walk around it! But it was always very Expensive! I wanted to go to the new places that opened, but it seems the city didn't want me. It wouldn't let me walk around.
That night, when I went to sleep, I remembered the news the mayor gave on Saturday: he said that the bowling alley and the museum belonged to the city's residents.
I guess then I'm not really a city dweller. I think I live abroad.
Maike Martins is a student of the geography degree course and currently (2nd semester of 2025) is studying the subject EP132 – Education, Democracy, Citizenship and Human Rights at FE.