9 Chapter 9

"Liza, you can put the movie on"

"Okay, Alex"

Soon a colored light went up on the wall, all the light in the room dimmed and a slightly upbeat song began to play.

Big fat Totoro, with a huge smile, came walking up to the middle of the screen, and soon a little girl who looked like Melissa came running up and hugged the creature's fat belly.

"Mom, mom, look it's me!!!"

"Huh?!"

"It really looks like you."

Catharina looked surprised, using 3D animation it's easy to copy a person's appearance, but 2D animations aren't used in this way, probably no one has even tried to do this, after all it would be necessary to draw the hand, the appearance of the person.

Soon a boy who looked like Alex appeared and hugged Totoro's other side, the slightly animated music subsided, everything went dark and the sound of a small moving truck appeared along with soft music.

Suddenly the whole screen lit up, a beautiful landscape appeared, white clouds, blue sky, a vibrant green forest, a dirt road and a small truck with several pieces of furniture tied to the back.

Jade, who was concentrating on the screen, jumped in surprise, her eyes widening and her mouth hanging wide open. Alex, who was standing next to her, slowly lowered his arm so she wouldn't notice, he was recording her reaction to the holographic bracelet.

(Hahaha, look at that expression, now I understand why old men like to mess with children so much, hahaha)

"Huh? Wait, that man looks like me, Alex, how did you do that?!"

Everyone was surprised by this, even though they didn't understand much about animation, they could still understand that to make a 2D character look like a person requires great drawing skills, and Alex in the first minute of the movie copied the appearance of four people.

"Ssshhh, quiet, watch the movie."

(Tsh, this brat, if I did sshh for my dad, he'd break my legs, now, look at this kid, he's got no respect).

Mark remained silent, but had already decided to double Alex's training in the future.

In the film, the children's father compliments the neighbors, but the scene focuses on the children looking at the girl handling the hay, and making her feel ashamed.

"Hehe, Miss Jade all embarrassed"

"It's not me... she's just a character."

The movie continues, the family arrives at an old house, the children start to play and explore the whole place, seeing the siblings running around the house having fun, made everyone get a little smile on their face.

While exploring the place, the children open a door, at which point a huge number of little black balls with eyes move in and quickly disappear.

"Eeehhh?!, what was that, it looks like some kind of creature but I don't think I know anything like it."

Catharina was surprised at how small the creatures looked.

"I have no idea, but there seems to be something strange about this house."

Mark tried to remember something similar but couldn't, the couple's friends who were talking a little further away also saw the scene, almost unconsciously everyone in the room began to concentrate on the movie.

As the children continue to explore the house, they reach the attic, little Meli manages to catch one of the small creatures and runs to show her father, but ends up bumping into an old lady.

The old lady, who was helping to clean the house, smiles at the children.

"What you saw were the susuwataris."

"Susuwataris? Are you talking about those little black balls that fly around the house and disappear upstairs?"

"Yes, they live in abandoned houses, and cover the inside with dust and soot, I could see them when I was a child."

"They couldn't be ghosts, could they?!"

"They're not ghosts, so there's nothing to tremble about, if you get scared you just have to laugh, the more fun you have the quicker they'll go away."

Everyone stayed focused on the movie, everything seemed very captivating, whether it was the brothers running around and having fun, or the beautiful and striking landscapes.

In the evening, the small family of three are having a bath, but when they hear the sound of an animal, the children get a little scared.

Realizing this, the father just starts laughing out loud, then the eldest brother starts laughing too, Meli looks at them both.

"I'm not scared"

"Hahaha"

"Hahaha"

"I'm not scared"

"Really? How about that?" 

The older brother starts tickling the younger one, and soon the three of them are playing and smiling in the shower.

"That's it... Alex has really captured my essence, I really am like that, amazing."

"Stop daydreaming, apart from your appearance, this character has nothing of you."

"How can you say that Cath, it's obviously a perfect representation of me."

Soon the movie arrived at the moment when the older brother goes to school and the younger sister, to explore the surroundings of the house.

"He seems pretty busy, little Meli is playing by herself, hmm?! What's that?"

Catharina, watching Meli crawl through the bushes, while chasing a strange animal, while climbing some roots she falls.

"Careful."

Meli in the movie, falls on the belly of a huge creature, Catharina looking at the huge mouth of the creature, felt an inexplicable nervousness, even knowing that nothing will happen, seeing Meli's innocence in dealing with this being, made her heart flutter.

 Alex smiled, looking at his mother like that. It could be said that one of Totoro's greatest merits is that it sends out a different message depending on the age at which you watch it.

When a child watches the movie, he or she will just be amused by the antics of the brothers and sisters, but an adult will be slightly nervous in various situations, such as the first meeting with Totoro.

 The girl didn't seem to know fear, she just lay there, laughing and annoying the huge Totoro, she kept having fun until she fell asleep on his belly, with a peaceful and happy face.

"Wow, he's cute, Mommy, I want to hold him too."

"Yes, me too, I want to sleep on his tummy."

The twins' eyes were shining, if it were possible they'd jump on the screen to hug Totoro.

"What, don't even think about it, you can't just go hugging any animal just because they're cute."

"But Mom..."

"Watch the movie, then we'll talk, okay?"

"Okay." X2

(I'm just going to wind it down a bit, she won't even remember it tomorrow.)

At this point, Lidia, the twins' mother, had no idea that she would have to spend a lot of money to make a life-size Totoro plush, just so the twins would stop complaining.

In the movie, the father and Alex look for Meli and find her sleeping in the forest, Meli tells them about her adventure, they run through the bushes and laugh at the whole situation.

"Stop laughing, I'm not lying!!!"

"Meli"

"I'm not lying."

"Meli, neither your brother nor I think you're lying, you must have found the lord of the forest. 

Which is very lucky, but just because you've seen him once doesn't mean you'll be able to find him again."

The father picked up little Meli and sat her on his neck.

"Come on, we can give him our greetings."

Everyone watched with interest as the father spoke of the forest lord, the little family climbed up to the gigantic campanile, they chatted and joked, watching the three of them thanking the forest lord before running off, everyone smiled.

The scenes of nature and unique surroundings captivated children and adults alike. Technology has evolved so much that all the nature of the worlds has become more of a nuisance than something desirable and enjoyable.

During so much war, people only thought about making things as convenient as possible, which is why there are three entire worlds focused entirely on food production.

So in civilian and military worlds, it's impossible to find large forests, plantations or the like.

So all these scenes focusing on the beautiful natural landscapes naturally attracted everyone's attention, even the children were dazzled by all these settings.

The scene of the brothers running out of the rain, and receiving an umbrella from Jade, made everyone smile, it's amazing how Totoro can convey different messages and feelings in his scenes.

The beautiful scenery during the rain, the closeness of the siblings as they run to escape the rain, Jade's shy personality as she hands over the umbrella, Jade's joy and embarrassment when the siblings return the umbrella and thank her.

There's no need for dialogue, just these short scenes are enough to show the emotions and personality of each character, even if at that moment the 

people can't perceive these details, they can still feel that what they're watching is something incredible.

As soon as the moment when Totoro gets his umbrella appeared, seeing how close these brothers are, and how they handle these strange situations, with such innocence and naturalness, leaves only one thought in the minds of the adults watching.

(They really are children.)

"What the... was that a cat?"

"Maybe half cat, half vehicle?"

"Now I know for sure, there's no such animal."

"Sshh, we're trying to watch the movie"

When the adults saw the Catbus, they couldn't help but comment, while the children were amazed.

"Mom, did you see it, I want to ride it too."

"Me too, it's super cute, I bet it must be really soft."

"Okay, okay kids, let's finish watching."

The movie started to get more and more magical, but at the same time it never said whether what the children saw was real, a dream, or just imagination.

As the movie went on, everyone was wondering what Cath's illness was, and why she was in hospital, but even when the final part began the answer didn't appear.

In fact, what everyone got was a dose of anguish, seeing the brothers saddened by the knowledge that their mother wasn't going to leave hospital, and a further dose of sadness when the two, who are so close, quarrelled.

Catharina, who was holding Melissa on her lap, frowned when she saw Meli in the movie run away holding a corn cob.

"What are you doing, come home."

Mark, seeing his wife like that, wanted to smile, but he also tensed up, Meli is simply too small to run off on her own like that, and there doesn't seem to be any tracking technology in this place.

"What's the matter mom, I'll just take that vegetable to the hospital for you, the old lady said it can cure you of everything."

"Eh?!"

Hearing her daughter say that, sitting on her lap, didn't make Catharina happy.

(That little girl, she really is very innocent, in future it's always best to keep an eye on her, or she might end up disappearing somewhere.)

Soon the scene focuses on Alex being told that little Meli has run away, they know she's probably trying to get to hospital, he starts running along the dirt roads.

Seeing the boy running desperately, trying to find his sister, made everyone lean towards the screen.

As time passed, it was dusk and the boy continued to run. When his slippers broke, he continued to run barefoot, and that's when Jade appeared.

"No, no, no, you're joking, right?!"

Catharina was shaken, hearing that a sandal had been found in the lake, looking at the animation it looked like her son, running back without thinking twice, her heart racing, she unconsciously hugged Melissa tighter.

The scene changed to an old woman kneeling next to the lake holding a child's sandal, praying that nothing bad had happened, a group of men were standing around. 

searching every corner of the lake. Catharina felt her body go cold, the last time she had felt that way was when she was in the army.

On the screen, Alex came running up to her, and the old lady, as soon as she saw him coming, stood up and showed him her little sandal.

"It's not Meli's."

The boy spoke out of breath, and the old woman fell to the ground relieved.

"I really thought it was Meli's"

"Mom, I told you you'd jumped the gun."

"Everyone can stop looking, it's not hers."

"What are we going to do, we should keep looking elsewhere."

Watching the scene, everyone's heart finally calmed down, Catharina was relieved, but her hands were trembling slightly, perhaps because the characters, being so similar to her children, made her hit much harder than everyone else.

At this point the movie reached its climax, Alex asked for Totoro's help and finally found Meli, they even gave the ear of corn to the mother, which was a satisfying ending.

But Catharina was lost in her own thoughts, she had a persistent fear, sometimes she wondered if her choice to leave the army was right, after all she loved fighting.

But today, watching this movie, just thinking about the possibility of losing one of her sons, made her body tremble.

Alexandre, who was sitting a little away, noticed his mother's reaction.

(It seems that this movie was more effective than I imagined.)

........

Note: I'm back, the problem with the translator is almost solved, so I can start posting again.

I felt that this chapter wasn't that good, I wrote it a few times, but it wasn't turning out the way I wanted.

Anyway, in the next few chapters I want to start working on the first game, but it will take a few years to finish.