Читать книгу When I was - Nataniël - Страница 11

When I was 14 years old my cousin Rupert came to live with us. He was not like the rest of us, he came from the city and looked like the people in the magazines I took to the bathroom every time I had to deal with my changing body.

When we asked why he had come to live with us, Mother said we shouldn’t ask questions about the family and that he had no way of knowing the diamonds he had sold to those Japanese people were fake.

I thought he was a bus driver, said Father.

They were looking for souvenirs, said Mother, You can’t be rude to overseas people.

I would have bought unlabelled chemicals from Rupert. I had never met anybody like that. He smoked cigarettes and walked around the house in cowboy boots and a pair of jeans that changed my outlook on life completely. Sometimes when my parents were not in the house he would speak on the phone and use bad words and say things that made me run into my room and bite into my desk so as not to cry out from joy.

It was like discovering the earth was round.

Every day Rupert opened new worlds to me and I followed him like a shadow. I even started forgetting about the day in the revival tent.

Just before Rupert had arrived, Father took us to the tent at the railway crossing. He said he heard the man was really good and maybe we needed a change. The tent was filled with plastic chairs and people with desperate expressions. People I had known for years were behaving strangely. They put their hands in the air and starting waving like they saw an aeroplane. A man with a microphone and a Memphis wig sang eight songs in the same key and then he screamed we should all be like babies. Father started crying. Then he took off his clothes and ran to the front, screaming, Wash me! Wash me!

I was at that period in life where you wanted to see everybody on the planet naked except your family. The sight of my father running naked through a possessed congregation filled me with emotions that will never be resolved in this life.

When I told Rupert about the tent, he smiled in a way I did not know was possible.

Then one night we were having supper when Mother asked Rupert to pass the peas. As Rupert put his hand out he looked at Father.

So, he said, I heard you let the old banger out for Elvis.

We immediately realised something memorable was about to happen and stopped eating. Father turned as white as mash and looked at Rupert.

I beg your pardon, he said.

Rupert put his arm around my shoulder. My friend here tells me you showed your sins to the world, he said, That is wild.

Father said nothing. He took me to my room and beat me like we were living in a trailer. I thought I was going to faint but I did not make a sound. That night Rupert came into my room and asked me if I wanted a cigarette. I asked him if we could go away. The next night we got onto the bus and drove to a town I’d never been before. There we had breakfast, saw a movie and then Rupert bought me a pair of jeans that must have been sewn by Satan and every slut in the world. Turning around in front of that mirror was the sexiest, most deliciously sinful moment of my life. Then I burst into tears and asked Rupert to phone my parents.

It was evening when they finally drove into town. I turned around and Rupert was gone.

I got into the car and for hours nobody spoke. Until Mother got the sandwiches out. Then she turned around and looked at me.

There are no rules, she said, Everybody finds Jesus their own way.