Tall Story by Candy Gourlay Read Free Book Online Page B

mood.
    I opened the door to my room.
    ‘Oh, Andi, I didn’t hear you.’
    Mum was on the stepladder, hanging curtains.
    It was a heartbeat before I realized what had jarred as I walked into the room.
    On the floor next to my bed, two mattresses had been laid side by side.
    The wardrobe door sagged open, and all the clothes I had carefully put away were now piled high on my bed.
    Oh Holy Mother of God.
    Mum looked at me and I could see guilt etched on her face.
    ‘It’s not what you think.’
    I shook my head. ‘I don’t know what to think.’
    ‘You know, Bernardo is quite big, so I’ve put two single mattresses together to make up his bed. It’s temporary.’
    ‘Temporary?’ And then suddenly it dawned on me.
    After the ceiling fell down, Bernardo’s room was a ruin. The ceiling had to be rebuilt, the walls repainted, the carpet relaid.
    You could see right up into the attic rafters through the gaping hole in the ceiling. There was a smell like wet towels that had not dried properly and I thought I heard squeaking up in the hole. Gross.
    ‘It was damp to begin with,’ Dad had said after the crash. ‘We knew that from the survey.’
    And now there was a bed on my floor.
    ‘Look, Bernardo will share your room until his ceiling is mended.’
    ‘When?’
    ‘When what?’
    ‘When is the ceiling going to be mended?’
    Mum smiled a bright, fake smile. ‘Soon. I’m working on it. We have to sort out the insurance. And it takes time to find a good builder.’
    ‘He can’t share my room,’ I said. ‘He’s a boy.’
    ‘He’s your brother.’
    ‘But I don’t know him.’
    ‘Oh, try to be hospitable,’ Mum said. ‘Filipinos are the most hospitable people in the world.’
    ‘But I’m English.’
    ‘You’re half Filipino.’
    ‘I’ve only been to the Philippines once in my life.’
    ‘And you loved it!’
    ‘I can’t speak Tagalog.’
    ‘His English is very good!’
    ‘Why can’t he sleep in the living room? Or how about
your
room?’
    Mum frowned at me. ‘Well, I was going to put him in the living room at first but then I thought, Bernardo is sixteen, he needs privacy.’
    ‘What about
my
privacy?’
    ‘You’re both teenagers!’ Mum said. ‘You have so much in common!’
    Brilliant.

15
Bernardo
    T here was a humming and the bed shivered as if it had suddenly been nudged awake.
    I sat up.
    Earthquake?
    The bed trembled again.
    But no.
    It was the cellphone on vibration alert under my pillow.
    It was just a text message.
    I pulled the phone out. The little screen flashed blue in the darkness.
    The number had a +44 country code for the UK. It was Mama.
    gud night nardo. cant w8 to c u.
    I texted back: night ma. c u soon.
    I lay back again, awake now. Shadows huddled on the ceiling. Only a few more days and I would be on a plane to London. But in the pit of my stomach, angry teeth nibbled.
    You don’t need a player, you need a sideshow. You only want me as the team freak.
    I clenched my fists. Jabby might as well have punched me in the face. How could he use his best friend like some sort of
thing
to barter at the market?
How could he?
    He didn’t know, did he, that I was about to leave? I imagined it. Jabby turning up at the front door like he always did, touching Auntie’s hand to his forehead before calling for me over her shoulder.
    Nardo! Nardo!
    And Auntie smiling sadly at him.
    Nardo isn’t here! He went to London.
    And him gazing down at Auntie, jaw dropping in shock.
    London?
    I’m sorry. We couldn’t tell anyone. He’s not coming back.
    And Jabby would be sorry. Sorry. Sorry.
    My face was suddenly wet and my heart seized with guilt.
    Jabby would be sorry but so would San Andres.
    Everybody
would be sorry to see me go.
    And frightened.
    Because what if the earthquakes returned?
    Remorse suddenly had me by the throat. Was I about to bring calamity to my village? How could I even think of leaving? What if something happened?
    I rubbed my eyes. No. No. No. Nothing was going to