André and Pedro – The boys from the Amazon

 

On that day, March 20, 2022, Samuel and his wife Marilda came from the forest with their 5-year-old son, named Andé. Marilda had a big belly, waiting for her child to be born. At one point Samuel said:

 

- Woman, I'm really going to the city, there's nothing here for me. There... At least I have school, college, job, work and house to live. There's nothing here, just water and weeds.

 

-Husband, you go if you want to leave me. It is from this water and forest that we live, Nothing can divert your thoughts. You've been trying to leave me here for a long time. There's nothing, I live here, just the same.

 

-Woman, when I'm fine, I'll send for you.

Suddenly, when they looked at their house. The river was carrying all the belongings, including the aluminum pots.
André, still shouted his father's name, but it was useless at that moment. As the hours passed, they built a little buriti house near the river, and spent the night there.

 

Throughout the margada, the most ferocious animals in the jungle were showing solidarity with the new residents present there.

Marilda feels pain, and says:

 

-Thanks to Saint Francis of Assisi, help me. Help me my mother, Our Lord of Graces. Help me!

 

At that moment, André arrived from the forest with an armadillo, and said;

 

-What happened to my mother. O ever virgin Mary, help me!

Yes, too much waiting, a voice said;

 

-André, call Comadre Benedita and say I'm in pain.

 

Hearing the appeals, André ran out and dove into the muddy waters of the river, swimming towards Benetida's house in the village, almost nine kilometers from the mainland.

 

Tired of swimming, the boy lay down on the bed of a log that was descending at speed, and there he rested. Upon arriving at the village by swimming along the river, André swam more than three kilometers. Near Benetida's house, he screams for her name.

 

- A voice from inside answered.

 

-I am my son. What was it?

 

- My mother is in pain. She asks for help now. She will soon save my mother.

 

The old woman took a boat, and the boy jumped in and they headed towards where Marilda was. Upon arriving in that room, Marilda looked at the crying boy. And she asked why.

 

-Why do you cry so much, my son?

 

-Don't worry. Our mother helped us.

 

Without delay, Benedita and André, stop the boat and tie it to a jatobá tree, and ask:

 

-Hey from home? It's me coming, Benedita.

 

Without many questions Dona Benedita asks the boy's name.

-What is the name of the mebibome, Marilda boy?

 

-His name is Pedro.

 

Dona Benedita looked for the boy's preparations and saw nothing. Suddenly, she arrived with a bunch of rags, André. Without a shadow of a doubt, André went to get the clothes that were in the woods and on the banks of the river. All were washed and starched in the yellow waters of that river.

 

Benedict still asks:

 

And where is your father?

 

- My father, he left to earn a salary and money Here you know, it's just grass and water, our only wealth. We don't have another one. Dona Benedita, when I grow up I'll pay you everything. Dad says he'll come get us when he earns money.

 

Lady Benediota with pity said:

 

-No my son. You won't have to pay. Everything with love is paid for. When I got here, the boy was already born, and I don't know how. And soon, I found all the beasts present here at the birth of the boy. San Francisco is powerful. Very powerful.

 

After finishing the boy's preparations. Benedita puts the two to sleep, and says alone.

 

-Now I just believed in Saint Francis of Assisi. I've never seen what I'm seeing today. A miracle from God. How can a boy be born alone, so poor and penniless. How can? Only God can explain it all. Being born without a midwife, in the middle of the woods, only God knows the reasons.

 

The two begin to sleep, and Dona Benedita receives the cloths from André's hand and prays a rosary in honor of the Virgin Mary and Saint Francis. In a few minutes, Benedita leaves in her boat. And she tells the boy André that she will pay a visit on Thursday.

 

After 4 years (four), Pedro, at the age of four, was already swimming like a fish, and the entire Solimões River already knew the swimmer boy.

 

One day, André found a thick log of wood in the water. And he tried to take it home. During the week, André made a boat, digging the inside of the wood, until it was ready. And he said to his mother.

 

-Mother, now I'm going to sail with the big boats and sell our products to the sailors. Let's make a lot of money and help the ladies.

 

-Beauty my son. That's very good. Amen in the strength of Our Lady of Graces and Saint Francis.

 

Early the next day, André and Pedro went to pick up assaí, cashews and bananas to sell on the boat. They took a fair amount of food from the jungle. The boy yelled for the pilot to stop the craft.

 

At the request, the boat stopped, And André and Pedro got on the boat with the fruits and sold them all and gave a portion to the pilot.

Peter spoke.
 
-Thanks boy! God bless you. Hello boy. I do not have father. My father abandoned me in my mother's ninth month of pregnancy. Saying he'd come get us when he got money. And he still hasn't shown up? I just wanted to meet my father. Only this.

A navigator warned him André.

 

-Children? Aren't you afraid to get into the boat bay? Aren't you afraid of wild beasts and Indians? Please be careful.

 

-Hey boy, we do this because we don't have a father. He's gone. We stayed here because we didn't have anyone for us. Our life is the forest and the river. The Amazon is everything to us. It is our greatest wealth. My brother has bullet marks on his feet, fighting a gold thief. The Indians respect us and we respect the Indians. The white man doesn't respect us. They want to kill us.

 

Then they asked when the pilot would be back. He replied that he didn't know. With three weeks, André and Pedro go to meet the passenger boat.

 

André yelled at the pilot to stop. The pilot stopped, while the boys were selling the fruit, appeared on the deck of the boat Zé Frango. And he was soon pushing the boys into the water, accusing them of mercenaries and thieves.

When they arrived home with nothing in their hands, their mother asked what had happened. André told his mother everything.

 

-Mother, they took everything that is ours, and she called me a mercenary and a thief. The pilot did nothing for me. He just kept smiling.

 

Mom, tomorrow I'm going to the river. Maybe I'll take another navigator's boat.

 

In the morning, another boat was tracing the waters. And suddenly, Peter says. Here comes a boat. He yelled at the pilot to shut down the boat.

The boat did not stop, a man appeared and shot the boy. André dived and never came back, Little Pedro was crying on the boat and asking for help that never came.

 

Other people said:

 

-Do not do it. Do not shot! They're just kids. Please don't shoot anymore.

 

The man replied.

 

- They're all bandits. The father stays hidden to later assault us. There's more is to die, these pests.

At dawn, Pedro was in a house in the city talking to his mother, and told what he saw.

 

The mother of the boy André, dressed in black and entered the waters screaming for her son.

-My son, where is he? Andrew, your mother! Come!

 

Andrew! Andrew!

 

He shouted for several hours, and his tears fell into the muddy water of the Rio Solimões.

 

Marilda, dressed in black, entered the river and took the boy André by the arm, leading him over the water, praying to mother Nossa Senhora das Graças and São Francisco, and disappeared.

 

On that day, the waters of the Solimçõe River never came together with the Rio Negro. They walked for kilometers and kilometers in two colors black and yellow, joining only in the Rio Amzônas.