Tall Story - Candy Gourlay [49]
It was so strange and wonderful and terrible and awful at the same time. It was so unfair. Poor Bernardo, the smallest in his class, just a boy. Going through all that. And us, his family, who should’ve been there with him, out here on the other side of the world.
How lonely he must have been. How he must have missed being with a mum and a dad – and a sister.
And I felt a sharp pang. Because I should have been there with him, shouldn’t I?
The funny thing is that Bernardo and I have more in common than anyone would think.
And the truth is, even though I didn’t know him, I have missed him just as much as he has missed me.
28
Bernardo
So I ran.
Ran from Judas, his sharp teeth sunk into Gabriela’s white flesh.
Ran from Gabriela, screaming and fighting to free herself from the evil dog’s grip.
Ran from Nena, the witch, trying to pull the dog off her daughter.
I ran all the way home, and that afternoon Auntie returned from the shops in a frenzy of gossip about how Gabriela was bitten by her own evil dog. How the neighbours had struggled to force the dog to let go. How instead of thanking them for their troubles, Gabriela and Nena had rushed back into the house, slamming the door behind them. How the dog was left outside the house, crazed and bloodthirsty. How everyone had fled into their houses as the dog had howled and snapped. How—
‘Enough, enough, Auntie,’ I cried, unable to bear the horror of it all. ‘I don’t want to hear about it!’ I ran upstairs to my bedroom.
I did not emerge for supper and stayed in my room until well into the next day. ‘What is the matter with you?’ Uncle shouted through the door.
‘I don’t feel well,’ I replied. ‘Please leave me alone. I just want to sleep.’
I was waiting, waiting for the police to come. Isn’t that what Gabriela and Nena would do? Wouldn’t they command the police to fetch me and put me into jail? But nobody came.
When I finally did venture out, I pretended that I had a splitting headache. Auntie gave me a Panadol and sent me back to bed.
And I waited.
And still nobody came.
After three days, Auntie made me go back to school. Of Gabriela there was no sign. She didn’t turn up at school but that wasn’t unusual. Gabriela took holidays whenever she felt like it, and everyone – the nuns, the teachers, the children – was always happier for her absence. I avoided all talk about the witch and her daughter. Whenever Auntie started, I walked out of the room. I didn’t want to know because if I didn’t know, I couldn’t be held responsible.
But still I was afraid.
It was a month before I realized what was happening to me. A month! I had no idea. And by the time I noticed, it was too late.
One day I saw a house lizard above the old wardrobe in my room. Auntie hated house lizards; the sight of them sent her into hysterics. Without thinking, I had plucked the lizard from the wall and released it to a tree in the back yard. It was only when I returned to my room that I began to think. To fetch the lizard high up on the bedroom wall, I had not needed to stand on a chair. To release it, I had merely reached up to a tree branch.
I had grown a foot taller.
‘But it must be normal,’ Uncle said. ‘Boys his age grow fast. I remember when I was his age, one moment I was a small boy, the next I was a teenager!’
I overheard Auntie on the phone to Mama. ‘Hello? Hello? Mary Ann? Oh, that Bernardo, he’s growing so fast.’
Everyone in San Andres acted like there was nothing strange about it. ‘How you’ve grown, Nardo,’ they said. But I lay awake at night, listening to my bones creak like bamboo as they lengthened. Wasn’t that the way with giants? Had not Old Tibo told us over and over again? You needed to stand back. Up close you couldn’t see them. Giants were the landscape.
I did not need to see a doctor. I knew what had happened. I was cursed.
I decided that I had to go back. I had to apologize. Then the growing would stop.
I knocked on Gabriela’s door with a beating heart, my apology carefully memorized.
The door swung open and at first I did not recognize the woman