Tall Story - Candy Gourlay [23]
There was a knock on the door.
‘Sister Sofia!’ a voice called urgently from the other side.
Auntie and I looked at each other.
Whoever it was knocked again.
Auntie’s shoulders sagged. She crossed the room and opened the door, leaving the chain on.
Old Tibo’s face thrust through the crack, his eyes frantically searching the room behind Auntie before settling on me with relief.
‘Thank God,’ he said. ‘I was afraid we were too late.’
‘Too late for what?’ Auntie’s voice was cold.
‘Let us in, Sister,’ someone called from behind Old Tibo. ‘We must speak to you.’
Auntie sighed and unlatched the chain.
A small crowd hurried into the living room.
It was so early in the morning, the streets outside should have remained empty for another hour. And yet here were all our immediate neighbours. Old Tibo, of course, with Flash Gordon at his heels. Timbuktu. Salim. Sister Len-Len with her baby curled in the crook of her elbow like a kitten.
And Jabby. He followed the others slowly into the room, frowning as he spotted the luggage piled up on the floor.
‘It’s true, then,’ Old Tibo said.
Auntie glared at me.
‘I swear I didn’t tell anyone, Auntie!’ I stared guiltily at the crowd.
‘Then how did they find out?’ She clenched her fists in frustration.
‘I put two and two together,’ Timbuktu said, his arms akimbo, a smug expression on his face. ‘Your uncle wanted your jacket lined. In this climate? People only ever order suits when they’re about to go on an international flight.’
‘And, Nardo, there was an earthquake last night, after midnight,’ Old Tibo said. ‘Did you feel it?’
All their eyes turned to me, accusing.
‘The first one in three years; it woke the baby,’ Sister Len-Len added. Her baby made a meowing noise as if to concur. ‘It’s an omen.’
‘Please don’t send Nardo away, Sister Sofia,’ Salim said. ‘San Andres needs him.’
‘The boy should be with his mother.’ Auntie’s voice was defiant, but her eyes were downcast.
‘And what about us?’ Old Tibo’s voice quavered with anger. ‘Did you think about what would happen to our barrio, our homes?’
‘Superstition!’ The screen door to the back banged open as Uncle burst in. He had been getting the jeepney ready out the back. ‘He’s just an ordinary boy.’
‘There’s nothing ordinary about Bernardo,’ Salim said quietly.
Everyone looked up at me.
Old Tibo shook his head. ‘Brother Victor, you know the curse as well as I do. If Bernardo leaves the barrio, San Andres will be destroyed.’
I kneaded my forehead as the first pinpricks of a headache began. They were right. I was letting everyone down. San Andres needed me. ‘Look, Auntie … Uncle,’ I said softly. ‘Maybe I should …’
‘No.’
I thought at first it was Uncle who spoke because the voice was deep and dark, a man’s voice. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t any of the grown men in the room. It was Jabby.
‘Nardo, don’t listen to them.’ His eyes were bright.
All the mixed-up feelings of the past days welled up in me and I wanted to look away, but he held me in his laser gaze. ‘You know you want to be with your mother. You must go. It’s wrong for them to stop you.’
‘Henry!’ Sister Len-Len glared at him.
‘I’m …’ Sorry, I wanted to say. I’m so sorry.
Everyone began talking at the same time, Auntie and Uncle angry and indignant. Old Tibo and the others in furious counterpoint. Jabby saying, No, no, no, Nardo, you must go, go, go. The throbbing in my head turned into a deep drum-roll. I raised a hand to massage my forehead, my eyes watering. A bolt of pain slashed, lightning-sharp, into my eyes, and the faces around me whirled into a spinning blur.
And then I was conscious of a great weight.
‘Nardo!’ Auntie’s voice was a hundred miles away.
It was in my arms again. The Earth, so wet, so heavy – and slippery despite the rough gristle of forests and mountains.
It weighed a ton. No, a million billion zillion tons. Too heavy, too heavy. I couldn’t … It slipped and I struggled not to let go.
Then someone flicked a switch and turned off the sun.
5
Andi
Everywhere we went,