More Than a Team by Villatoro Vicenç;Villatoro Vicenç;

Author:Villatoro, Vicenç;Villatoro, Vicenç;
Language: spa
Format: epub
Publisher: Barcelona Digital Editions
Published: 2010-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

5

“The Angel who has delivered me from all harm—may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac.”

—Genesis 48:16.

When Àngel reaches the Bois de Vincennes he sees before him, like the Achaean camp before Troy, the tents of an army that besiege the city. The whole esplanade has been filled with tents, around which there are masses of people shouting and singing, eating and drinking, doing what troops do on the eve of the battle. He has spent the morning and midday alone, from the time he got off the train at Austerlitz. What he wanted to do didn’t allow for much company. He has never been to Paris. He doesn’t know when he’ll be able to return. He hasn’t even stopped to eat: it says there are free coques and pizzas here, even though it is a little late for lunch. But this is blue and scarlet territory, they don’t keep to French meal times, the only time schedule that matters is the match, and the arrival of the coaches that are pulling up in the park.

The image of a siege is not right. This isn’t Troy, even though the articles by the writer and journalist Joan Lluís Cardona make use of this Homeric image. We could talk about the Turks, camped outside the gates of Vienna, making their own coffee, but who would want to claim the image of an army that will be defeated the following day? Or the French and the Castillians at the gates of Barcelona almost three centuries ago but we were the ones inside, supposedly. No, none of those eating sandwiches of pa amb tomàquet at Bois de Vincennes, in the grounds of the castle, are thinking about old sieges. Only Àngel, returning from the Louvre where he has spent the whole morning, and where he would have spent many more hours if could have. His eyes are awash with the images of old battles, gods, and heroes. All that was missing was someone to talk about it with: going to a museum—like a football match—isn’t the same when there is no one to speak to. Àngel is more solitary through shyness than vocation.

“Hey, you’ve all come here too!”

Àngel has found Jaume who has gone to get a Coke. All the others are sitting down on the grass outside Vincennes.

It is not exactly an accidental meeting. Àngel has been looking for them, with little hope, but with a great deal of tenacity. He is tired of being alone. He knows hardly anybody. Only the pair who came with him from Lleida, Ramon and Oriol, and also Ignasi, whom he met on the coach. And Jaume and Albert, from the train. They are the only company available to him.

“By the way, I remembered something else. That player that you were talking about, Bio, he scored the only goal in a match against Valencia. It ended one-nil and it was Cruyff’s last match with Barça.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.