Excerpt
And are they brave enough? The most dangerous place in the world is the
centre of one’s self where all the secrets and all the fears lie. I’m prepared
to go there even if it shrivels me up like an autumn leaf. That’s what it’s
about to me.”
On the third day, Ken refused to do what the teacher asked of him.
“Show me how to use different materials.” Ken said.
“No. You have to follow the rules.”
Ken sighed. “Picasso broke all the bloody rules – don’t you understand?”
“Oh – and you’re going to break all the rules!”
“Absolutely – I’m going to shatter them and then pick up all the pieces
and see what happens when you put them back together again differently
– but not as ugly as Picasso.”
At the end of the class, Ken packed up his books and pencils and left.
His formal art education was finished.
Ken’s father made inquiries and found a tutor – John Traynor, an Irishman
– who gave lessons in his private school. Ken found the lessons, if
not exciting, at least enjoyable and interesting.
Shortly after Ken’s uncle’s visit, his grandfather, Don Hymie, and
grandmother, Victoria, came to stay for several weeks. Victoria was the
matriarch of the family and ruled it with the proverbial iron fist. She was
a tiny woman with a curved back, a stooped gait and hair that reached the
floor when she let it down.
Ken loved to brush his grandmother’s hair with her silver-backed tortoiseshell
brush. Victoria, in turn, enjoyed nothing more than having her
hair combed and the two became friends. Ken was the only one in the
family who she never tried to terrorize. She called him a clown. “Tu es un
Paeaso.” But the word had deeper textures than merely clown. It embodied
the village idiot, the King’s fool and the savant.
Ken also developed a strong relationship with his grandfather, whose
passion was his plants and his orchards. He derived enormous pleasure
from grafting fruit trees and he was an avid historian and linguist. When
he came to visit, he told Ken, “I am going to be your history teacher.”
Every day Ken and Don Hymie walked to the beach to have lunch with
Francisco. Class distinctions meant nothing to Don Hymie and that alone
was enough to command Ken’s love and respect.
At low tide, they would wade out and hunt for shrimps, which they
would quickly throw into a pot of boiling water and eat by the handful,
accompanied by large pitchers of beer. While they ate bread and shrimp
and drank beer, Don Hymie told stories of his family history dating back
for hundreds and hundreds of years.
As summer drew to a close that year, his father asked him one day – as
was his custom – what he wanted for his birthday.
Manolis Aligizakis 