Bilbao

Bilbao appears as the setting of a childhood episode thirty years before the events narrated in the novel. Its central streets, a school tram stop, and the proposed outing to Club Loreto turn the city into the scene of a consequential first meeting between Chemari Goñi and Iñaqui.

Urban Setting and School Route

The boys meet beside a stop used by a tram rented by the Jesuit fathers to carry pupils from their school. Yellow and noisy, it runs through central Bilbao to collect the schoolchildren; with five cars linked together, it is longer than the trams used for ordinary passenger service. Its several nicknames suggest how conspicuous it is in the city, but the scene identifies it above all as part of the boys’ everyday school routine.

The December Encounter

The meeting takes place on December 20, on a grey morning when a light drizzle threatens to become steady rain. Christmas holidays are due to begin for the schoolchildren three days later. The contrast between the scheduled school journey and what follows gives this stretch of Bilbao a threshold role: Iñaqui, five, is persuaded by the seven-year-old Chemari to skip class for the first time and go skating at Club Loreto. The club has an outdoor skating rink and an indoor swimming pool, bringing the city’s streets and a recreational destination together in the episode that binds the boys’ childhoods.

Narrative Significance

Bilbao is not described through a broad civic portrait; it is made concrete through movement, weather, school transport, and a child’s departure from routine. The tram carries the order of the school day, while the journey proposed by Chemari opens onto an unsanctioned morning. In this recollection, the city is the setting of a small but decisive change: Iñaqui’s first truancy, prompted by his chance encounter with Chemari.