Free Tall Story by Candy Gourlay

called. ‘We don’t want him getting stuck in them gates.’
    Trolleys were not allowed on the Underground platforms so we each took one of Bernardo’s suitcases to roll along. Bernardo had to bend low to reach the handle of his bag, which was just as well because he had to keep his head ducked to get through the low tunnel to the platform.
    ‘This is first time I have train,’ Bernardo said when we got to our platform. And I believed him – especiallyafter he leaped backwards like a terrified rabbit when the train came thundering out of the tunnel’s mouth. His eyes bulged with awe as it screeched to a halt and the carriage doors rattled open.
    I paused. How was he going to fit into the carriage?
    But Mum was already urging him in. If the tunnels were low, the carriage was a matchbox on wheels. Bernardo practically had to unhinge his shoulders to get through the low opening. He tucked his chin deep into his chest and approached the door with his body bent into a right angle.
    ‘Please mind the gap,’ a metallic voice intoned on the PA as the carriage doors began to slide shut.
    ‘Hurry, hurry,’ Mum called, and I leaped on board as Dad swung the last bag into the carriage.
    Bernardo was bent in half. It looked painful. The train set off and Mum put her arms around him, holding him up like a prop. ‘Sit, Bernardo, sit!’ He backed into a corner and sat on the floor, folding his knees sideways and angling his feet out into the standing space where Dad stood with the luggage. Mum stood next to him, rummaging in her handbag. She produced a thick woolly scarf. He just sat there like a baby, allowing her to wind it round his neck.
    The train hissed and squealed as it rattled to the next station.
    I crossed to the far end and leaned against the emergency door to the next carriage.
    ‘Andi just needs a little time to get used to you,’ Mum yelled into Bernardo’s ear. I grimaced and Mum stuck her tongue out at me. She continued to yell, switching to Tagalog.
    There was a loud knocking. A bunch of teenagers in the next carriage peered through the window, waving at Bernardo. He smiled and waved back and they fell about laughing. I pulled the hood of my jacket over my head.
    How did Bernardo become so tall? The other Bernardo, his dad, wasn’t very tall. Or was he? It was hard to tell from the portrait which now sat on the mantelpiece in our new, double-size sitting room.
    As the train emerged from the tunnel, the darkness was replaced by a murky grey. Suddenly we were clacking over a high bridge, the lights of London spreading beneath the train like candles in a darkened church. There was an explosion of phones beeping and ringing all around us as the train came within reach of a mobile phone signal. Bernardo’sphone went off too. OK. His message alert was Darth Vader’s theme from
Star Wars
.
    Mum’s voice rose above the train’s clatter like a foghorn. She was speaking in English again. ‘Cellphones are called
mobiles
in England.’
    I glanced up. Bernardo was leaning against Mum. He sat on the floor and Mum stood next to him. His head lay on her shoulder, he was that tall. He looked dead tired. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with his knuckles. Mum nattered on. ‘As for bananas, they say
buh-NAR-nuhs
instead of
bah-nah-nahs
. And the hood of a car is a
bonnet
. And the trunk of a car is a
boot
! A boot! Imagine!’
    Bernardo nodded, smiling despite the frown that knitted his brow. He pulled his mobile from his jacket pocket. I was amazed he could manage to push the buttons with such big fingers. Mum’s chatter had so obviously bored him that he was checking his messages.
    I glanced at the teenagers in the next carriage. They’d forgotten about Nardo and were now pole-dancing on the other side of the carriage.
    And then Mum screamed.

6
Bernardo
    O ne moment I was surrounded by the unwelcoming committee of Old Tibo and Sister Len-Len and Salim and Tim. The next: there it was, the Earth. I actually