Alain Mabanckou - Tomorrow I'll Be Twenty

My parents both ask together: ‘Michel, what present would you like?’

I’m very surprised because at Christmas they already gave me several bags of marbles and a castle you have to build, which I still haven’t managed to put together. I suspect they are hiding something from me, or have some very bad news to tell me.

Papa Roger adds: ‘We’ll go into town, just you and me! We’ll eat apples! Afterwards you can choose your present.’

‘Any present you like, whatever it costs!’ finished my mother.

‘Yes, any present you like, we just want you to be happy. Then you can come and see me at work, I’ll introduce you to my boss, Madame Ginette. And you’ll meet Monsieur Montoir too, who gave us the radio cassette.’

‘And that’s not all, Michel. One day you can come with me to the bush, and then to Brazzaville. Your first train journey!’

I don’t feel like eating now. There’s too much good news, all at once. And this is not how they usually talk to me. They’re like two different people sitting opposite me this evening. They’re smiling, but I can tell their smiles are hiding something. And when I look straight at them they lower their eyes because they know their Michel can read people’s minds. When they give me a present they never ask for my opinion, they choose it themselves. Sometimes it makes me cross, but I always end up accepting because they’re not going to go and take it back to the shop. Maman Pauline’s always said her business trips were dangerous because of the bush and the gangsters in Brazzaville. That I was too little to come with her. So she goes on her own, and every time, before she leaves, she tells me off because I say I want to come to Brazzaville with her. Am I big enough to go with her now?

In the end, what have I got to lose by accepting what they want to give me?

‘I’d really like a car like Sebastien’s!’ I tell them.

They are surprised. They look at each other and start to laugh. But I’m serious, I’m not laughing here. If I start laughing it will be like in Monsieur Mutombo’s workshop, I won’t be able to stop, I’ll have to hold my sides and fall on the floor.

My father doesn’t like this idea. ‘A car like your cousin’s! Is that really all you want? Think carefully, take your time, finish eating and then tell us what you want.’

We go on eating, though I’m only pretending, and they can tell because I’ve stopped peering at the largest piece of meat on my father’s plate. Besides, he’s just put it on my plate and I’m stalling before I eat it.

I can see they’re giving each other looks. My father’s even kicked my mother under the table, and his foot touched mine as well.

‘What are you hiding from me?’

My father replies, ‘Oh, Michel, we’re not hiding anything! We’ve never hidden anything from you, you know that. We just want to make you happy, that’s all.’

My mother asks me, ‘Would you like a bit more beans and beef?’

I shake my head, even if beef with beans is my favourite dish. I like the way she makes it. She takes her time, washes the meat carefully, starts boiling the beans first thing, and lets them sit till the end of the morning. Towards midday I begin to smell it, I’m hungry, I can’t wait, and it’s her that says, ‘Just five more minutes.’

But those five minutes are like five and a half centuries. And when it’s ready I eat like tomorrow there’s going to be a nationwide famine. So today she can’t believe I don’t want a second helping.

‘Wasn’t it nice? Did I not make it right?’

‘I’m not hungry now. I’ll eat the rest tomorrow.’

‘No, tomorrow I’ll make you something else delicious.’

My father’s impatient: ‘So, what should we give you really, Michel?’

‘A car like Sebastien’s.’

‘But what’s so special about this car?’

‘It’s the best car in the world. If you press a button it starts up all on its own. And you can make it go left or right if you press different buttons.’

My mother wants me to change my mind. ‘And what about a bike? A bike would be better, for a boy your age! You can go riding about, people will see you, they’ll like that and…’

‘I don’t know how to ride a bike. I’ll just fall off.’

‘Lounès can teach you! I was at their house earlier, I had a long chat with Madame Mutombo.’

As soon as I heard that I thought: If Maman Pauline’s been to see the Mutombo’s, Lounès must know what my parents are keeping secret.

‘I want a car like Sebastien’s, not a bike.’

‘All right then, we’ll give you two cars and some new clothes,’ says Papa Roger, getting up from the table to fetch the radio cassette from the bedroom.

…..

I can’t get to sleep. I can’t breathe properly because of the mosquito net. It stops My Sister Star and My Sister No-name from seeing my face. I’ll have to take it off this evening.

I get out of bed, push aside the mosquito net and get back in. An army of mosquitoes immediately attacks. But though they bite me all over, I feel nothing.

Just as I close my eyes, I hear my parents on the other side of the wall, as though in a dream. My father asks my mother, ‘Pauline, do you think Michel guessed what’s going on?’

‘No, I don’t think so. He couldn’t guess, he’s still too young to understand these things.’

Mother Teresa is the mother of all poor people. She helps children who have no family and have to hang out in the street down in India, especially in a town they call Calcutta, but she also wants to help poor people all over the world, so people can be happy here on earth. She works very hard. Since she has white globules, she’ll go to paradise where God’s waiting for her, so he can congratulate her in front of all the angels, and they’ll all clap. She also helps people who are sick or are going to die. Roger Guy Folly says that today she’s been given the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Peace Prize is a present they give people who don’t like it when other people do bad things. They give it to people who’ve done something important for humanity.

The American journalist reads out the names of the other people who have been given the prize before Mother Teresa, and I notice that the president of Egypt, Anouar el-Sadat, is on the list. I’m very pleased about that. Anouar el-Sadat got the prize along with another man called Menahem Begin, who’s from Israel, the country that was angry with the Ugandan dictator/president, Idi Amin Dada. Roger Guy Folly also says that was a great event, because Anouar el-Sadat is Arab, Menahem Begin is Jewish and these two important people are trying really hard to get the Arabs and the Jews to stop hating each other and fighting.

…..

According to Roger Guy Folly, when Mother Teresa accepted the Nobel Prize in the name of all the poor people on earth, she said that abortion was the thing that would finish off our world. Now I know why Maman Pauline always talks about this woman as though she was a member of our family. Mother Teresa this, Mother Teresa that. Maman Pauline thinks this woman is right and France is wrong, because France voted to shut the door in the face of children. My father explains to her that this business about abortions is very complicated, that there are times when it is better not to allow a child to come into this world if it’s going to suffer unnecessarily.

‘For instance, Pauline, a woman can’t keep the offspring of a rapist in her womb! Abortion also means freedom for women! In any case, if abortion is made illegal, people will always do it in secret. So, what’s better: doctors who carry it out properly, or charlatans who make a complete mess of it and risk killing the mother as well?’