Vita Nova

WHAT DID I HOPE FOR ? Just hope itself, really, but in a particular way. I knew things could change because they had for Pip. * In Great Expectations we learned how a life could change without any warning. Mister Pip , Lloyd Jones. 

"I will be honest with you. I have no wisdom, none at all. The truest thing I can tell you is that whatever we have between us is all we've got. Oh, and of course Mr. Dickens."   Who was Mr. Dickens ? And why, in a village population of less than sixty, had we not met him before ? Some of the older kids tried to pretend they knew who he was. One even said he was a friend of his uncle's, and encouraged by our interest went on to say he had met Mr. Dickens. His claim was soon exposed by our questions and he sloped off like a kicked dog. It turned out no one knew Mr. Dickens.   "Tomorrow, I told my mum, "we meet Mr. Dickens."   She stopped sweeping and thought. "That's a white man's name." She shook her head and spat out the door. "No. You heard wrong, Mathilda. Pop Eye is the last white man. There is no other."   "Mr. Watts says there is."   I had heard Mr. Watts speak. I had heard him say he ...

We had grown up believing white to be the color of all the important things, like ice cream, aspirin, ribbon, the moon, the stars. White stars and a full moon were more important when my grandfather grew up than they are now that we have generators. When our ancestors saw the first white they thought they were looking at ghosts or maybe some people who had just fallen into bad luck. Dogs sat on their tails and opened their jaws to await the spectacle. The dogs thought they were in for a treat. Maybe these white people could jump backwards or somersault over trees. Maybe they had some spare food. Dogs always hope for that. Mister Pip , Lloyd Jones. 

Pop Eye wore the same white linen suit every day. His trousers snagged on his bony knees in the sloppy heat. Some days he wore a clown’s nose. His nose was already big. He didn’t need that red lightbulb. But for reasons we couldn’t think of he wore the red nose on certain days—which may have meant something to him. We never saw him smile. And on those days he wore the clown’s nose you found yourself looking away because you never saw such sadness. Mister Pip , Lloyd Jones.