The Testimony of Taliesin Jones (59 page)

'
It
's g
ood to h
ave
you home
,'
hi
s
father says
,
puttin
g g
reat
e
mphasis on the word
home
.
'There
are a few present
s
for you to open in the hou
se
.
You
've
got one from
y
our Aunt Jan
e
.
I think Ra
chael's go
t
s
omething for
y
ou
.
And th
ere
is a letter for you. I've put th
em
in your room
.
'

It i
s go
od to
ge
t back to his room. There is no dispute over
o
wn
e
rship h
ere.
It cont
ains
hi
s
things and the
y
ar
e
arranged how h
e
want
s
them. He has taken a
certain comfort in his p
ossessions.
Th
ere
is
a
reliability in inanimate obj
ects:
they
a
ren
'
t diffi
cult
to conv
erse
with
,
th
ey
have no h
idden ag
enda, and th
ey
can b
e
relied upon not to
desert him.

A
s
he ent
ers
his
bedroom he doe
s
a subliminal ch
eck
of it
s c
ontent
s
and
see
s
first h
is
tedd
y
bear,
fadin
g
now but still with
s
pringy arms outstretched ready to embrace. He'
s
had
this be
ar
sinc
e
he was one, and
still it looks back at him with bl
ack
button
e
yes and noncommittal straight mouth, waiting for him to
say something. Usually he would, something like
'
I m
issed
you
,'
or 'Did anyone try to steal anythin
g
while I w
as a
way?' or p
erhaps
a
'
Merry Christma
s.'
Tod
ay
he is taciturn with
it, seeing it for what it is
,
a stuffed thing.
T
he bear sits p
atiently
in the miniature wick
er
chair that
Goldilocks might have sat on and broken
.
There was a tim
e
wh
en
h
e co
uld sit on this chair without breaking it
.

H
e
i
s
drawn to the pre
sents
in the middl
e
of the room, and
s
pecifically
,
t
o
the letter
,
which he opens fir
st.
Th
e
handwritin
g
i
s c
reaky
a
nd the letter
s
gauntl
y
loop into
e
ach oth
er.
He read
s
th
e s
ignature first. It
's
from Billy
,
d
ated
befor
e
Christma
s.
Th
e
lett
er
read
s:

De
ar
T
aliesin,

I
a
m s
orry I
did not let you know that I would be aw
ay
.
I did not e
xpect
to
go for
s
u
c
h
a long tim
e.
I kn
ow
th
at
we missed
a
lesson. If you lik
e,
I will give
y
ou
a
d
ouble
l
esson
when we next me
et.
How
a
bout S
aturday
week
?
Telephone me and l
et
me know. I hope y
ou
h
ad a
happ
y
Christmas
.
Ma
y
God bles
s
you
a
nd k
eep
Hi
s
h
and
over
y
our life.

Bill
y
.

A
ye
ar o
f d
eciphering
messages between uncommunicative p
arents
h
as
help
ed
Taliesin
to read between lines
.
Th
e
tone of
thi
s
l
ett
er
isn
't e
ntirely comfortabl
e.
It's as if the writ
er
isn't us
ed
t
o w
riting and that it has required great
e
ffort
.
C
ertain
word
s a
re hard to make out
.
Although th
e
l
etter
i
s
hone
st,
Billy d
oesn't
sa
y
where h
e
has b
een.

All
o
f hi
s
pre
sents
are laid out on th
e
floor. H
e s
tock-takes the h
arvest.
This year'
s
bumper
crop h
as
been
s
poilt
by
rec
eiving
tw
o
identical pr
esents
:
a Monopoly
s
et from his moth
er a
nd a M
onopoly
set from hi
s
father
.
Thi
s
dupli
cation
show
s
th
e
lack of communication
between them and alack of origin
ality.
It
's
a waste, like having Mayfair but not Park Lan
e.
Hi
s
p
arents
should b
e
together, doubling
the possibiliti
es,
buildin
g
hotel
s
in
stead
of living in separate houses
.
There
's
th
e sca
rf th
e co
lour of a Mars Bar
from his mother. As he pi
cks
it up it cr
ackles
with static and smells of shops. Th
ere's a
tor
ch
from Jonathan that
comes without batteries. It's trun
cheon-sized
a
nd probably has a beam powerful enou
gh
t
o s
hine int
o
th
e
corners of caves.
There'
s
a
brush,
c
omb
a
nd h
air g
el from Toni
,
a half eaten n
et
stocking of
c
hocolate b
ars
from hi
s
mother
,
ten pounds worth of
book tok
ens
f
rom
hi
s co
nstant
a
unt wh
om
he ne
ver
sees but
a
lways th
anks, a
h
ome-made
wallet from
Rachael and three books from hi
s
f
ather:
Sp
ellbinders
in Suspense
,
Famous and Fabulous Anim
als
a
nd
a
book of Welsh folk
tales depicting a red dr
agon sc
orching
a s
ilver kni
ght
.
Famou
s
and Fabulou
s
Animals
has the obvi
ous o
nes in
i
t like
'
The Lo
ch
-
Ness Monster
',
'Moby Dick
' a
nd
e
ven
'
The Elephant Child
'.
There are al
so s
ome that he
's
not
see
n b
efore s
uch
a
s 'The Hol
y
Whit
e
Buffalo of th
e
L
akota'
and
'
Siegfried and the
Worm'
.
Th
e
dr
awings
are
ga
udy and
a
rtless
a
nd th
e
tellin
g
of th
e
tales abrid
ged
for
e
asy r
eading.
H
e
find
s
th
e
pictures simplistic
,
th
e
typeface too l
arge a
nd the writin
g
p
atronizing.
H
e
closes the book,
feeling to
o
old
for it. He put
s
it with the other books that he f
eels
too old to r
ead.

H
e
h
as
quite
a c
ollection now
.
He
had intend
ed
to u
se
th
e
holid
ay
t
o s
ort th
em
out. He planned to arran
ge
them in
alphab
etical
ord
er,
i
n order of publisher, siz
e,
spin
e
colour, t
itle, o
r
h
ow e
njoyable th
ey
were. There w
ere
a thou
sand
diff
erent co
mbinations
h
e'd
thought of. He's hoard
ed
everythin
g, eve
n
hi
s very
fir
st
r
eaders g
iven to him at a tim
e
when it w
as eas
ier
t
o
dr
aw
in
books than to read them
.
H
is s
cribbl
es
and
hi
s
ju
venile a
ttempts
at writin
g
his nam
e
a
re embarra
ssing
to him n
ow a
nd
s
hocking
in their disr
egard
for the printed word.
 
H
e s
till h
as
the full set of Beatrix Pott
er,
half of
th
em s
tained from having
milk spilt on th
em
in
a
t
antrum o
ver
o
wnership with Jonathan
.
He
's
k
ept
th
e
L
adybird
b
ooks
th
at a
re
g
raded by difficulty
.
Next t
o
the
se
i
s a
n illustrat
ed
di
ctionary a
nd the once frequently con
sulted
Illu
strated
E
ncyclop
edia
of th
e
Li
ving
World.
And proppin
g
th
e e
nd up i
s
Th
e
Illu
strated
Children
's
Bible
which h
e s
till
o
pens
occas
ionally
to a
dmire the picture of Goliath fallin
g
fr
om a s
ling
s
hot
o
r to
ga
wp at th
e
n
aked
Ev
e
covering h
erself
in sh
ame.