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‘Nas ultimas duas semanas, eu tenho lido sobre Carl Jung e sua teoria do inconsciente…’
Lexi followed the line with the tip of her pen, eyes narrowed, the rest of the video caffé a Man Ray haze.
‘In the last two weeks,’ she said quietly, ‘I have…lido…seen about Carl Jung and his theory of the incon-…unconscious.’
Putting pen to lips, she revised her translation.
Lido…lee-do…
Was that seen or read? Logically, it had to be one of them…you wouldn’t do anything else to a theory of someone except read or see it…or trash it…would you?
‘I think that guy wants a coffee,’ said Mark, from the other end of the counter.
‘What?’
‘You want me to serve him?’
Lexi put the pen down and looked over at the only booth with a live, human shape. Foda. One of the art students, a regular, in a green beanie that was seemingly glued to his head.
‘I’ll do it.’
She picked up the pad [and pen again], and went over. As usual, the guy ordered a caramel latte with zero sugar and then coughed, muito artificial, before asking if she’d ever tried the VR plaza across the road.
‘Once or twice.’
‘They have Pluto 2280 now…probably gonna give it a shot later, if you wanna co-op?’
‘Is that the sci-fi game?’
‘Yeah, sequel to Pluto 2270. Muito légal, muito hype. Heard they’ve jazzed it up a bit too…more missions, more crisis events. Huge-ass servers.’
Lexi flinched at the Portuguese then glanced over at Mark, who looked, for a brief moment, like a rabbit in a fox-run pool hall, before blinking himself out and scurrying back to his phone.
Okay, so he’s still looking, she thought, turning back to the customer. Even if he’s barely said a word to me all morning.
‘Sorry, I’m not really a big sci-fi person,’ she replied, adding the same sympathetic smile she used on the elderly.
‘Yeah, me neither. Just the newness factor mostly.’ He nodded to himself and looked left, at one of the GRAPE FEST stickers Juana had stamped on the table. ‘How about this grape thing? Any interest?’
‘Only if I’m cultivating a migraine…’
He tilted his head, eyes squinting at her neck as if that had the answer.
‘I mean, I’m not good with large crowds.’
‘Oh.’
Lexi tapped the pad with her pen and said, ‘caramel latte, coming up,’ then made her way back to her side of the counter. Surprisingly, Mark was there, sitting on the stool next to hers, going over her Portuguese notes.
‘Think I can actually read some of this…’
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