(eng) Nancy Farmer - Matteo Alacran 01 by The House of the Scorpion

Author:The House of the Scorpion [Scorpion, The House of the]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

19

COMING-OF-AGE

El Patrón’s burst of energy didn’t last long. Soon he was as pale and weak as ever. He rambled on about his childhood and his seven brothers and sisters who had all died young. He listened to Matt play the guitar, although the boy’s fingers weren’t long enough yet to play really complicated pieces.

Matt’s voice was high and sweet—an angel’s voice, Celia said. El Patrón went into a quiet daze when he listened to it. Matt loved to see the old man then, with his eyes half closed and his mouth curved up in a gentle smile. It was better than any compliment.

One day, as Matt was singing a Spanish ballad, his voice cracked. It dropped more than an octave to produce a sound more like a braying donkey than a boy. Embarrassed, he cleared his throat and tried again. At first the song went smoothly, but after a few moments the same thing happened again. Matt stood up in confusion.

“So it has happened,” murmured El Patórn from his bed.

“I’m sorry. I’ll ask Celia for cough drops,” said Matt.

“You don’t know what’s wrong, do you? You’re so cut off from the rest of the world, you don’t know.”

“I’ll be okay tomorrow.”

The old man laughed: a dry, dusty sound. “Ask Celia or Tam Lin to explain. Just play for me without singing. That’s good enough.”

But when Matt asked Celia later, she threw her apron over her face and burst into tears. “What is it? What’s wrong?” cried Matt, thoroughly alarmed.

“You’ve grown up!” wailed Celia from behind the apron.

“Isn’t that okay?” Matt’s voice, to his horror, boomed out like a bass drum.

“Of course it is, mi vida,” said Celia, wiping her eyes with the cloth and putting on an unconvincing smile. “It’s always a shock when a little lamb sprouts horns and turns into a big, handsome ram. But it’s a good thing, darling, really it is. We must have a party to celebrate.”

Matt sat in his room with the guitar as he listened to Celia bang pots in the kitchen. He didn’t believe it was a good thing to grow up. He could read Celia’s moods no matter how many smiles she produced. He knew that underneath she was upset, and he wanted to know why.

He’d become a man. No, that was wrong. Since he wasn’t a boy to begin with, he couldn’t turn into a man. He was an adult clone. An old memory surfaced of the doctor telling Rosa that clones went to pieces when they got older. Matt no longer feared he would actually fall apart. But what did happen?

Matt felt his face for the first hint of whiskers. There was nothing except a couple of bumps left over from his last bout of acne. Maybe it’s a mistake, he thought. He attempted the ballad again and made it through only the first line before his throat betrayed him. It was extremely disappointing. His new voice wasn’t nearly as good as the old one.

I wonder if María’s voice will change too, he thought.

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