Tall Story - Candy Gourlay [4]
Point guard!
All that hard work had finally paid off. All those training sessions. Showering in Coach’s spit as he yelled at us. Breathing in the aroma of sweaty armpits, dirty rubber balls, unchanged socks and old trainers.
‘Do you fancy some tea, Andi?’ Mum called.
‘Yes, thanks, Mum. Two sugars.’
Mum bustled around the dining-room table, taking out two mugs and clearing aside a pile of ironing and a postcard just arrived from the Philippines. The postcard had a photograph of a concrete dome surrounded by banana trees.
Amandolina, it said. This is the new basketball arena that is being built in San Andres. Wish you were here. Your loving brother, Bernardo.
Mum laid a steaming mug of tea in front of me and sat down.
‘So what’s so awesome, Mum? Is it about Bernardo?’
Highly unlikely, of course. Mum’s been trying to get Bernardo cleared by the Home Office since I was born. It would take a massive miracle to sort that problem out.
‘No, of course not. But it’s still great news.’ Mum’s eyes shone.
‘Oh?’ I held my breath and crossed the fingers on both my hands. Dared I hope? Could it be …
‘We got the house!’
‘YES!’ I leaped to my feet so suddenly that some of the ironing slipped onto the floor. Mum and I were too busy hopping up and down to care. ‘Yes, yes, YES!’
‘No more queuing for the loo!’
‘No more eating with the ironing on the table!’
‘Our own front door!’
‘MY OWN ROOM!’
We collapsed, breathless, into our chairs.
The oily estate agent had taken us to see the house only last week. It was a palace compared to this dump!
I couldn’t believe it when Mum and Dad said they’d put in an offer. The estate agent raised an eyebrow like he’d found a black spot on a banana. There were so many other interested buyers, he warned, we shouldn’t get our hopes up.
‘It all came together today.’ Mum flicked a tear from her cheek. ‘The estate agent called this morning. He said we could have the house at the lower price if we could move quickly.’
‘That’s awesome, Mum!’
‘They wanted to exchange contracts by next week.’
‘Great!’
‘So we’re moving in two weeks!’
Two weeks?
Suddenly it was as if all the air had pumped out of my lungs. I tried to take a deep breath but I couldn’t.
‘What do you mean, we’re moving in two weeks?’
‘There was another buyer, but in the end the house owner went with us because we agreed to all the conditions …’
‘What conditions?’
‘Well, he wanted us to …’ Mum launched into a list that made my eyes glaze over almost immediately. The words ‘cash payment’ and ‘speedy’ jumped out. I shook myself.
‘But what about school? I can’t leave in the middle of term, can I?’
‘No worries! I made some phone calls. You start at Saint Simeon’s the day after we move.’
My voice sounded far away, like it was coming from outside, on the landing. ‘But what about the basketball team …?’
‘I know it’s a bit sudden,’ Mum beamed. ‘But, Andi, the timing is perfect. The sooner we move, the better. Someday we’ll need an extra bedroom for Bernardo. And you’ll love Saint Simeon’s.’
I sat very, very still.
‘What was your good news, darling?’ Mum said.
3
Bernardo
It was while we young boys sat waiting our turn on the long bench at the barbershop that Old Tibo told stories about Bernardo Carpio the giant.
To start with, everybody hated Bernardo Carpio, Old Tibo said. He would unfold his fingers and count off the reasons why the giant had been so reviled.
1. The people feared him because he was different.
2. He was a little bit magic. His mother was human, but his father? They weren’t so sure. He was from elsewhere, foreign. They had no goodwill towards him, even after he died.
3. And of course Bernardo was a freak, a monster.
‘How many times did the townspeople try to drive Bernardo Carpio out of San Andres?’ Old Tibo would say, stabbing his razor in the air. ‘They poisoned his well. They stoned