Chapter 8

Charly vs Immaculada

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TOCAYO
Part 1
Prologue
Playa Norte
Charly the American
A Catholic Education
Cold Showers
A Peruvian Name...
Tossing Armando...
Los Shorts de Bob...
Charly vs Immaculada
Warming the Bench...
A Little Socrates...
Running From Lola
Ping Pong Politics
A Perfect Basketball Day
A Man Needs His Friends
A Pig In a Hole
Condors Over Ticlio
Wrestling in the Plaza
Handcuffs and Curfews
Rochabus
A Hero Hiding
Hitting A Brick Wall
Part 2

When I returned to the layup line, I elbowed him. You know, playing. He ignored me. He would not look at me. I was going to hit him again, but suddenly, the people in the other stands, the wrong stands as you say in America, they all stood up and cheered. Not most of them, all of them.

The Immaculada players, they did not run timidly onto the court like the Santa Maria players. No, they ran like bullfighters would run if bullfighters ran, which of course, they don’t. They entered the arena with their courage in their right hand and their arrogance draped over their left shoulder. Red, embroidered, and ready for the bull. They liked to fight, the Immaculada players. When you looked at them, you saw elbows and knuckles. They had one very tall, very skinny boy who liked to perform dunks during their layups. I understand, now, that dunking in warmups is common in America. When I was a schoolboy in Lima, it was not. The Immaculada fans, they loved this boy, and everybody stood up to watch him dunk the first basketball. Even the Santa Maria players stopped to look. The Immaculada boys, pretending not to know we were all watching, but of course knowing, threw him the ball. He took two steps, jumped, and dunked the basketball. The people in the bleachers jumped high in the air, cheered, and acted like they could feel our pain. Poor little Santa Rosa boys, they are going to hurt so much. As theatre, it was excellent.

Charly was not impressed. Of course he was not impressed. In America even the president can dunk a basketball. Charly made a big frown with his face and waved his hand. “He’s just tall. That’s all. And he takes baby steps. He’d get flattened back home.”

You see, this kind of talk is what makes everybody all over the world mad at the gringos. And so it was with me. “Who is going to flatten him in Peru, gringo, you?”

Charly did not answer me.

“Because, my American basketball friend, I have never seen you dunk a basketball.”

Obviously, this statement was designed to make Charly angry. It worked. I had mastery in that department. I always have. He glared at me. Why did he glare? Because every day, before practice and after practice, while I stood against the wall and waited for him to give up, Charly took a hundred running starts at the basket and bounced a hundred balls off the back of the rim. Coach Phil Rink, he explained to Charly that the scorekeeper gave a dunk two points, the same as a layup, and told Charly to use his time on something more productive. Basketball was about scoring points, Coach Phil Rink said, not showing off. Charly nodded as if he understood, and when Coach walked out of the gym, Charly tried again.