Page 298 - The Grotesque Children's Book

Tozzo...was not a smart man. When he caught up to Tavola from behind and accidentally
hit him with his birch --

“Point for Tozzo!”

-- it did not occur to him to keep running around the circle and lap Tavola. Tozzo did the
opposite; he stood stock-still, unsure what to do next, which gave Tavola free reign to take a
swing at Tozzo...which he did.

“Point for Tavola. Game stands at one to one.”

The lout, thought Carola. Everything's riding on an idiot. Then Carola realized, since
Tozzo had scored the first point, if he now could just stay even with Tavola, scoring a point for
each one of Tavola's points, then Tozzo would reach nine points first. “Run, Tozzo!” she
shouted, “Faster than Tavola!”

“Run” was a word which Tozzo understood. He dashed round the circle, with Tavola
directly behind him. In terms of speed, they were equals, so when they'd each completed a
revolution, they were still right next to each other. Tozzo struck first. Two to one.

Again Tozzo stood stock still, grinning. Then Tavola struck his second blow. Two to
two. Tavola took off for his third revolution. Tozzo frowned. Carola could see he was trying to
think things through. (“What if we did the same thing next round, and I hit first. It would be
three to two. Then...then....”) “Don't think, Tozzo. Run!” But it was too noisy now in the
tavern. Tozzo couldn't hear Carola any more. Tozzo was on his own, immobile in his own
strategic thought. And before he knew it, Tavola had completed his next revolution, overtaking
Tavola from behind and scoring a double buttock point.

“Four, two. Advantage Tavola!” roared the middleman, though none could hear him over
the din of the crowd. Tavola kept circling.

Tozzo still wasn't running. He was turning in place, flailing his birch in every direction,
having forgotten about the rule of only one score per revolution. Disaster! thought Carola. Run!

But Tozzo did not run. He continued to spin around, waiting for Tavola to come into his
reach. Tavola completed his fourth revolution, and was striking out in front of him, equally
wildly. The birches found each other with a crack. “Birch to birch. No points either side,” said
the middleman, though he could not be heard above the noise.

Suddenly Tavola stumbled, dizzy, and landed on Tozzo's feet. “Now, Tozzo! He's
down; run!” Instead of running, however, Tozzo beat on Tavola's back, thinking probably he
was scoring a point with each hit. Thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack. The crowd was in a frenzy.
The middleman interceded by stepping into the playing circle and grabbing Tozzo's arm, taking a
few thwacks himself.

“No points, no points! Only one score per revolution,” he said directly into Tozzo's ear.
Tozzo's face lit up with recognition as he suddenly remembered the rules of the game. He ran
off in the circle, and exactly as Carola knew he would, unaffected by the dizzying effect from the

298