But Zana only signed in the clinic, and it must have been her last attempt to reconcile her sons.

Later Rânia found out that, on the day he’d been beaten, Yaqub was going to spend a night in the hospital in Manaus. He did go there, but had to move his return to São Paulo up. He left for the airport at nightfall, in secret, accompanied by a doctor. This, because in the middle of the afternoon of that same day, Omar burst into the hospital and very nearly attacked his brother again. Yaqub shouted when he saw Omar in the ward. He was expelled from the hospital, dragged forcibly into the street, and was left staggering off into the heat. He was seen going in the Cabacense bar for a swig. He recounted his recent feats to a group of men, in a mocking, boorish fashion. Then he disappeared. They say he went to look for Pau-Mulato at the Escadaria harbor, and only Rânia’s action saved him from being caught. She bribed the policemen and officers, giving them banknotes in sealed envelopes, asking them to leave Omar in peace, free; let him escape. Cid Tannus and Talib sent letters to Yaqub, asking him to forgive Omar, or at least forget it all. Yaqub didn’t reply to anybody. Rânia soon realized that her brother, in São Paulo, had engaged lawyers and was coordinating Omar’s persecution. There were witnesses galore; the doctors and nurses who had prevented the aggression in the hospital; and an examination of the corpus delicti that Yaqub underwent before his return to São Paulo.