Dr. Carlie's shift had ended a long time ago, but she chose to work extra hours because she wanted to get home and think of nothing else. Just take a hot bath, eat something quick, and hide under the covers, completely shutting down.
As a reward for working so many hours straight, she could afford to arrive late to work the next day and start all over again, but this time without her little friend Lowo N'air.
Meanwhile, in a very humble and distant neighborhood...
Monday was the day when her friend Smile woke up early to carry out his routine duties: delivering an order for one person, picking up equipment for others, helping with third-party purchases by carrying them to the home of an elderly person. He managed in every way possible and, despite not having a steady job, he never lacked his little earnings, which, even though they were small, were shared with Lowo N'air. Lowo often didn't want to accept them, but in his situation, he couldn't afford to sadden his friend or go without food.
The day passed quickly, and it was already nearing the afternoon when a severe stomach ache hit Lowo N'air, who hurried to the bathroom. Lowo N'air had experienced many stomach pains before, but never as intensely as now. He spent almost an hour in the bathroom, suffering from a strong pressure in his lower abdomen. Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief and, curious as any kid, looked in the toilet to see what had caused him so much trouble.
But what he found shocked him so much that he almost couldn't believe what he was seeing. As incredible as it seemed, there were no excrement in the toilet, but rather a slightly golden egg, a bit smaller than a chicken egg, but still an egg.
"I laid an egg? How is that possible? What is happening to me? What experiment did they do on me at that pharmaceutical lab? And now what do I do? Am I going to turn into a man-chicken?"
His panic lasted for over an hour. Not believing it, he would go to the exit door and then back to the bathroom, repeating nonstop:
"What am I going to do? Man, I laid an egg, what's going to happen to me now?"
And he looked and searched his body for any sign of feathers, as his biggest fear was developing feathers on his coccyx, or better yet, growing a tail of feathers like a chicken.
When he finally managed to calm down, he carefully picked up the egg, washed it, dried it, and wrapped it in a paper bag, thinking about something that was not normal at all.
"I already knew I had no luck, but being unlucky enough to turn into a chicken! I can hardly believe this."
Lowo couldn't wait to tell his friend what had happened to him, but after thinking about it, he concluded that it was too embarrassing to share.
Before nightfall, Smile arrived, happy because his day had been much more productive than usual. He had bought a good amount of food for the house, including fruits and vegetables. He knew his friend Lowo needed a stronger meal to recover from everything he had been through.
Smile entered cheerfully, expecting to find his friend Lowo N'air in a slightly better mood, but the fact was that, in Smile's eyes, he seemed even stranger than usual.
"What's wrong, Lowo? Why do you have that strange look?" Smile asked, wanting to help his friend.
"It's nothing, Smile, nothing you need to worry about," Lowo N'air replied.
"What happened to you?" Smile asked, somewhat curious, noticing the bruises on his friend's body as he changed and removed the shirt he had received from Dr. Carlie.
"Nothing much, Smile, just the usual, my old bad luck."
"Don't say that, Lowo N'air. You're always around lucky people here in the area and had the privilege of being the first to participate in the research program, or rather, the secret pharmaceutical research program. And you still have the nerve to say you're unlucky?"
"Oh, so you think I'm lucky?" Lowo N'air said, apparently angry. "I was dismissed from the test without being given a penny and with the promise that I would never set foot there again. For everything I've been through, I consider that justice."
"How come you never told me you went through this?" Smile asked.
"There are things in life that don't need to be said," Lowo N'air replied.
Smile immediately understood why he had seen his friend so often sad, and when he asked, Lowo always responded that it was nothing, just a small indisposition.
"But it's no problem. This week I'll find a job for you. You'll see, my luck might not change, but I'll never give up. Don't worry, Lowo N'air, I can find a job for you close to where I work. There are many opportunities here: Jones's grocery store, Balão's butcher shop, Timba's pharmacy, and Darlan's snack bar. Surely some of these will accept you as an employee."
Night fell for everyone, and now the scene was different. Smile slept soundly and snored loudly, preventing Lowo N'air from sleeping. The place where Smile lived was quite precarious: just one room and a bathroom, and even so, it wasn't his; he had to pay a small rent to live there. In a way, Smile was happy; no one bothered him, and now he had the company of his only friend, who was also his only family.
The young Smile was very honest and slept without any guilt. Lowo N'air, however, couldn't close an eye because, besides the noise his friend made snoring, that incident, which was very out of the ordinary, also wouldn't leave his mind.