Chapter Three
 

The following Saturday, the Villanovas drove out of the village into the country for a family reunion.  An hour later the car came to a halt at the entrance of a driveway to a spacious modern bungalow.

"I'll park here on the road," said Senyor Villanova, "that way we won't clutter up the drive with cars."

"Isn't that what it's for?"  his wife asked, adding bitterly: "Raimon doesn't like to see our Seat parked next to his Range Rover, does he?"

The two children got out of the car with reluctance and glanced over the hedge at the ample gardens surrounding the house.  There was a lot of space to play in here.  The tennis court looked like it had been recently renovated and the heated swimming pool looked very inviting as it sparkled in the warm spring sunshine.  Anyone would expect that Xavier and Marta would be feeling happy at the prospect of spending the whole weekend there with their cousins, but in fact both of them were feeling decidedly sick.

"Look at these two," their mother noted to her husband.  "I told you that they'd end up car sick."

The winding mountain roads had been free from traffic and Dad had relished throwing the car round the hairpin bends.  Xavier had really enjoyed the trip, imagining they were competing in a rally.  Marta had been so absorbed in her own thoughts that she had not really noticed how fast her father was driving.  No, it was not the trip that had made them both feel so queasy, it had been the thought of spending two days in Uncle Raimon and Aunt Elvira's weekend residence.

"How many times do I have to remind you that you aren't Carles Sainz?"  Mum said to Dad who sighed and opened the boot to get their bags out.

 Loaded down with suitcases, sports bags and plastic carrier bags full of fresh fruit, the four of them plodded down the drive towards the house.

Uncle Raimon, a tall, thin, balding man wearing bermuda shorts and a colourful floral shirt stood on the porch with Aunt Elvira, a short, round-faced woman bulging embarrassingly out a vivid purple summer dress which was obviously two or three sizes too small for her.

"Hello Pep, hello Maria," Raimon greeted them shaking his brother's hand and giving his sister-in-law a big hug and a wet kiss on each cheek.  "Nice day for it eh?"  he chuckled.

While his wife exchanged hugs and kisses with their parents, Uncle Raimon turned to the children:

"Hello you little monsters!"  He said patting them on the head and guffawing as if he had just told the world's funniest joke.

"Oh is all this fruit for us?"  Aunt Elvira asked, observing the contents of the carrier bags.  "But you shouldn't have bothered, really.  We've got plenty of food here, haven't we Raimon?"

"Heaps!"  replied her husband with a chortle.

"Well we always like to contribute something," stated their father timidly.

"Yes, but really it's not necessary," Elvira objected.  "Oh well, come on, we'll put it all in the fridge and if we don't end up eating any of it you can take it home with you again on Sunday evening, can't you?"

Xavier saw his mother give Aunt Elvira a nod and a very false smile as they entered the cool interior of the house.

"Have Frank and Rosa come yet?"  their father asked.

"Sometimes adults ask such stupid questions," Xavier thought to himself.

"If the twin's parents had already arrived we would have seen their car parked on the road,"  he whispered to his sister.

"We all know that," Marta whispered back.  "This is what they call small talk."

For the next twenty minutes the children endured a lot more of it, until their cousins arrived and they were told to go off and play.

 "But stay clear of the flower beds, don't go onto the tennis court, and be careful you don't break anything!" Uncle Raimon shouted after them as they fled out of the room.

The four raced down towards the swimming pool shouting and laughing.

"Last one to touch the shower is a dead donkey!" shouted Pere pulling away in front.

"That's not fair!" cried Marta falling behind.

Then, a few metres from the pool, Pere tripped over and fell.  A triumphant Marta reached the blue painted tube before him.

"Pere! Pere!  Pere's a dead donkey!" she chanted.

Pere picked himself and rubbed his grazed knees with a clump of grass.

"Serves you right!"  laughed Xavier, who had arrived first.

They looked enviously at the calm surface of the bright blue pool.

"Do you think Mum will let us have a dip before lunch?"  Montserrat asked her brother.

"She might," Pere replied.

"But will Uncle Raimon want `little monsters' like us in his newly filled pool?"  Xavier said, doubtfully.

"Did you two bring a ball?" Pere asked.

"Not likely," Xavier replied.  "Last time we were here he confiscated mine when Marta kicked it into the rose bushes by accident."

"Not your Barça ball?" asked Pere, mouth agape.

"Yes, but luckily it wasn't the one with Rivaldo's signature.  I never let anyone play with that."

"So what shall we play?"  Montserrat asked.

"How about Cowboys and Indians," suggested Pere.  "Me and Xavier can be the cowboys and-"

"Me and Montserrat get killed all the time!" Marta interrupted.

"Well yes, but..."  Pere glanced at his cousin's expression and shut up.

In the end they played Hide and Seek until Uncle Raimon came out to prepare the barbecue and put an end to the game telling the twins off fiercely for hiding among his tomato plants.

The one thing you could say for Uncle Raimon was that he made an excellent chef.  The four children, relegated to a small table away from the six adults, tucked in to their spare ribs with great delight and polished off the paella that followed with litres of Coca-Cola.

Xavier, broke off from telling a dirty joke, sucked on a prawn head and said in a low voice:

"That's about the only thing you can say about coming here, the grub is always good."

 The others agreed and they were about to go into whispered criticism of their hosts when Uncle Raimon suddenly shouted out loudly:

"You can't say I haven't been generous with you Maria, I won't have it!"

Marta put a finger to her lips and hissed to the others:

"Shh, I think Mum has put her foot in it again with Uncle Raimon."

"Raimon has been charity itself with your husband!" Elvira screeched.   "Why if it wasn't for him your kids would be begging in the streets!"

The children listened avidly.  They could not hear their parents replies because voices were being kept low and anxious glances were being cast in the direction of the kid's table.

Raimon and Elvira did not seem to care who heard what they had to say:

"You wouldn't even have a job if it wasn't for me!"  Raimon stated.  "Oh come on, don't tell me you thought you passed the interview on your own merits?  Huh, Ferrer is a member of my golf club.  I had to throw a few rounds and pay for a few lunches before I brought him around to giving you the job."

"Do you think it's true?"  asked Marta in a whisper.

"Of course not, " replied her brother in the same tone.  "Only Raimon thinks it is.  He thinks he pulls all the strings in the family, that's his trouble."

"I expect my dad will defend yours," declared Pere, trying to sound sympathetic.

"Shh, I can't hear what they're saying!"  Marta interrupted.

"Well, if that's how you feel about our generosity you can..."  The children did not catch what Aunt Elvira suggested, but Xavier knew what was coming next.

"Forget that afternoon swim you fancied Marta," he said.  "I think we'll be sleeping in our own beds tonight."

Sure enough Maria got up noisily from the table and crossed to her children:

"Come on you two, we're not staying where we are not welcome!"

"See you next Thursday at grandma's," Montserrat said to them as they got up from the table.  Then Maria shouted over to her husband who was making pacifying noises to his older brother:

"Josep, are you coming?  I'm not staying here another minute!  Kids, go and get the bags!"  with that she stormed off up the drive towards the road.

The children went into the room they should have slept in and picked up the bags which had not even been unpacked.  They came out into the sun again and Xavier crossed over and spoke to his father:

"Well, are we going then?"

His father nodded and said softly:

"You two go and get in the car with your mum, I won't be a minute."

When Josep eventually arrived back at the car, ten minutes later, he found Maria crying, but her sadness turned back to livid anger when she saw the carrier bags her husband was carrying:

"What on earth are you bringing those back with us for!  We're not that desperate yet!"

"Elvira insisted dear and-"

"Don't mention that woman to me again as long as you live!" Maria shouted in a voice which made the two children on the back seat tremble.  Then with a terrible roar of rage their mother seized the bags of fruit and hurled them back towards the house.  They landed with a crash onto the drive and burst open sending apples, oranges and nectarines rolling down the slope towards the house.