The Sin of Youth

By Matheus Mundim

The Sin of Youth by Matheus Mundim

The Sin of Youth is about getting old and the desire to go back in time to change things, relive moments, and flames.

The Sin of Youth is a contemporary novel with philosophical existentialist characteristics.

The book portrays a moment in the life of young Jamie in which he wakes up in a room in another world. As he leaves the room, he sees a group of people and notes that they are all the folks he once knew and loved in his life, all together and gathered, drinking and partying. 

Impressed and extremely happy he approaches, confronting Thomas and Luke. They explain that the party was to honor the farewell of his youth. It was the last moment to hang out with everybody and say goodbye.

Sad and frustrated, he asks what he can do. They then tell him about the Elder Wizard, who would own the time, and could help him maintain his youth. However, they warn: the way to reach the old man is difficult and tortuous, few have succeeded, and, mainly, time is short.

Still, Jamie insists, following a path that makes him come across old memories, old loves, old "I's", wondering what his past "selves" would do if they knew the unfolding of such pure and delicate scenes. If they only knew how some words would mean after a few years.

It is a mix of pain, sensitivity, frustration, and happiness to review some moments.

   

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Jun 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781547531226

Book preview

Sumário

Sumário............................................................................................................................2

Epigraph..........................................................................................................................3

Chapter I – the farewell party...................................................................................4

Chapter II – the beginning of the path.................................................................13

Chapter III – 303.........................................................................................................16

Chapter IV – on the other side of the counter...................................................19

Chapter V – believe is essential.............................................................................23

Chapter VI – the ravine.............................................................................................28

Chapter VII – The last foothill, finally..................................................................31

Chapter VIII – the return..........................................................................................33

Chapter IX – the end of the journey......................................................................37

Chapter X – wet in tears...........................................................................................38

Chapter XI – life goes on..........................................................................................41

Epigraph

We should be born with the certainty that the youth is gone, reminding us to take full advantage of it.

Poor us men, who used to believe to be immortal. Boast our children, still free from such sin.

Chapter I – the farewell party

Jamie did not know where he was at when he opened his eyes. The alcove was no match for any of the places he'd ever seen in his life. It was not the room he'd slept on his twenty-seventh birthday eve. He felt as if he had awakened in a sanctuary; it was white, crystalline, and chaste, like the very essence. It had no doors. The only entrance and exit was beside the waking bed: a considerable window without glass panes, like a membranous portal connecting two distinct universes. It provided the single bundles of light that illuminated the room where he was; light and soft bundles, like those that strike the Earth in the twilight or the dawn.

The wind was blowing in Jamie's face like a monk caressing the monastery's flowers, letting him know, somehow, that he was supposed to be there having those feelings.

He sat up, resting on his arms, smiling in response to the breeze that entered the window. Accompanying it was a sound; a melody that he knew and increased his laughter.

Music notes replete with memories, making him dive in his nineteen years when the same song that was playing on the other side was his favorite.

Therefore, with the trigger making him transpose geographic and temporal universes – as we do a lot – he was on the floor below a bar made of wood structures amid the concrete that takes modernity. He was holding a glass of cheap vodka with lemon-flavored soda, and alone among so many people – as teenagers usually tend to be –, he heard the band playing a flight of stairs up. People enjoyed, danced, shaken their heads, drinking, exchanging flavored cigarettes, candy, and French kisses. Jamie loved that environment. His favorite song, however – which had immersed him in such a memory – was heard only in his thoughts, which, distant, traveled to meet Carla, an old sweetheart. The lyrics were sung in a country rock tune mixed with blues.

(...)

I belong to her, and she belongs to me,

And together we are one, together we are complete

We can, baby,

I know we can, baby

(...)

He could see himself watching his cell phone, as if it were a recent memory, waiting for the call of the girl he loved, just hoping she would say she wanted him to run toward her. Even there, only recalling the event, he was sure he would run.

However, things are gone (is not it, baby?). The moment is gone, and so is she. Jamie remained an only memory, wondering how his life would be if he had walked a different path, the other infinite possible ways he could have followed and how he would be.

And what if...

The song made him feel more comfortable with the situation. The stage was set, and he was the leading artist. He looked around once more, perplexed and astonished, and stood before the large opening that separated him from the unexpected: the sight of the window was the happiest moment of his existence.

Everybody was there. All his friends and acquaintances, even the ones who had died from some mundane misfortune, victims of tragic coincidences that set off in accidents that were, are, and will forever be remembered with much sadness. All his flames and all his sweethearts, including the girls he did hang out for only a day but remembered with great affection and