Tall Story - Candy Gourlay [20]
The boy put the kit bag down, let go of the sack, and folded his arms across his chest, looking me up and down. ‘There’s no coach. Just me. My name’s Rocky. I’m the team captain.’
He was tall, probably six foot two, maybe more. I had to bend backwards from the waist to look up at him. He had biceps like boulders.
He stared at his shoes. ‘Listen, I’m sorry but …’
‘My name’s Andi,’ I said. ‘Andi with an i. I started at Saint Sim’s two days ago. My family just moved here. Near the hospital.’
‘Ah,’ the boy said. ‘That explains everything.’
‘Explains what?’
He smiled and scuffed the floor with his feet. Which were huge. I could probably swim in his Converses. ‘Well, it’s just that …’
I tried to relax. ‘Oh, well. I know. I’m really small. But you’ve only got to see me play …’
‘No, no.’ Rocky’s tan seemed to darken. Was he blushing too? ‘It’s … well, I’ve got to tell you now, before anyone else arrives. You’ve got it wrong.’
I closed one eye and peered up at him. What was he on about?
‘Andi … it is Andi, isn’t it?’
I nodded.
‘Andi, it’s great you’re here but … you’re new to the school so you had no reason to know …’
‘No reason to know what?’
There was real sorrow in his doggy brown eyes. ‘The Souls. It’s a boys’ team.’
For the first time in my life I wanted to be even smaller than I was. I wanted to shrink away until I disappeared.
‘But your poster said: “Basketball, anyone”,’ I mumbled. ‘And Saint Sim’s is a mixed school – surely there’s a boys’ and a girls’ …’
Rocky sucked his teeth and stepped closer, as if he wanted to do something sympathetic like pat me on the head.
‘It’s boys only. I’m sorry but you can’t join the team. There isn’t a girls’ basketball team but there’s a girls’ netball team. How about—’
But I didn’t wait to hear more. I grabbed my stuff from the bench, picked up my ball and ran.
17
Bernardo
‘How is our Bernardo?’ Tibo always asked when I came in for a haircut.
He meant Bernardo Carpio, of course.
‘I’m fine,’ I mumbled as he produced a footstool. I had to sit on the low stool so that he could cut my hair without the help of a ladder. I was never going to be small enough to sit on the barbering chairs that could lean back, move up and move down.
‘Now, look. Up in the sky. What do you see?’ Tibo would say.
‘Nothing, sir. I see nothing,’ I murmured resignedly.
‘Precisely.’ Old Tibo pulled his clippers out. ‘So many millions of sins pushing the Heavens further and further away. Tragic.’
And then, as he cut my hair, he recited the story.
When Time began, people had no use for churches, nor did they pray. There was no need. Heaven sat low over the Earth, leaning gently against the tops of the coconut trees. Thus gods lived and walked amongst men – indeed many fell in love with mortals and married them.
The offspring of these mixed marriages were the giants, who looked human but were of a magical size. They may not have been gods but they were immortal – unlike the human side of their families.
As time passed, humankind grew older and wilier and innocence was lost and life became a matter of what one could get away with. The accumulated sins of man began to push up against the Heavens, pushing it higher and higher and further and further away until one day the gods were amazed to see that the Earth was just a distant green patch under the clouds beneath them.
The giants were confronted with a difficult choice: to live with their heavenly parents in the sky, or step down to Earth to live with their mortal families.
Many stayed in Heaven. But who could bear to be parted from his or her mother? The ones with human mothers returned to Earth.
So Heaven rose beyond the atmosphere and the giants who had chosen to stay leaped down to Earth to make their lives amongst ordinary men.
And they were happy.
But only while their mothers were alive.
Their mothers eventually passed away, as mortals do.
Their neighbours, who previously had shown no sign of ill will, suddenly turned against them. They massed in small paramilitaries and attacked