The Unremarkable Life of Hector Perry 2

But wait - is this the wisest point at which to start? After all, where does a story really begin? The author must pick an arbitrary moment, an action or event, from which to begin telling the tale. But it is still important to have a sense of context, a background upon which to paint the real picture. And so this would probably be an appropriate time to take a look at Hector’s background.

Hector’s mother was the sort of woman of whom one could only presume, from her bone structure and the shape of her smile, that she had been stunningly beautiful in her youth. And indeed she had. Alyssa Hart was just twenty years old when she met her partner in procreation, Federico Perio, an American who had come to London to study British History at university. He was a tall, slim man, of high intellect, and Alyssa was immediately attracted to his “oddness”, as she called it.

They did not fall in love; their brief relationship was built on mutual fondness. There was no passion between them, but the positive side of this was that they never fought. They appeared in each other’s lives one morning when Federico - who was given to clumsiness - accidentally stepped on Alyssa’s foot in a bookshop. His fumbled apologies led to a longer conversation and so their tryst began. In total, they were “together” for just four months - long enough to conceive a child and together decide on two important points: firstly, that they both wanted the child to live a long and fruitful life; and secondly, that they did not want to raise him together. And so they separated, with Federico promising to play the role of father and Alyssa promising, in return, to give their offspring his father’s surname.

By the time Hector was born, Alyssa couldn’t quite bear to lumber him with Perio, which she felt sounded too much like “period”. But, equally, she couldn’t bring herself to call him Hector Hart - not just because it sounded silly, but because she had made a promise to Federico. As a compromise, she Anglicised the paternal surname - and so began the life of Hector Perry.

Federico Perio, true to his word, was a devoted father, until his untimely death under the wheels of an ice-cream van when Hector was eleven years old. The reason Federico died in such a bizarre accident was purely that it amused the author at the time she thought of it. This is one of the rare points on which the author and Hector do not see eye to eye. On the whole - as fictional characters go - Hector has a fairly amiable relationship with the author. Some authors like to torment their characters, forcing them to endure tragedies and traumas in abundance, but Hector’s life has always been largely unremarkable, and for that he is genuinely grateful. But there is still that one point of resentment: the death of his father. The author, having made the decision to create Federico Perio only so that Hector’s fictional existence could be explained biologically, never bothered to get to know the man. His appearance in Hector’s story was only ever supposed to be fleeting, so he was never fleshed out with the sort of personality that bonds authors (and, indeed, readers) with their characters. So the author feels no sadness about the passing of Federico Perio; to her, he barely existed.

But there are some things even the author cannot control - and the unique bond between father and son is one of those things. While the author may not have written it, Hector can remember the relationship he had with Federico, the times they spent together and the conversations they had. He can remember what it felt like to have a father; and he knows how it feels to lose a father. Ultimately, while the author may be Hector’s actual Creator, Federico was his father. And when one’s Creator deigns to take one’s father away, one cannot help but feel resentful.