Iñaqui

Iñaqui is a five-year-old schoolboy introduced on a gray December morning in Bilbao, where his chance encounter with the seven-year-old Chemari Goñi leads him away from class and into a swimming-pool prank. Though smaller and less experienced on skates, Iñaqui is an excellent swimmer; when Chemari’s teasing puts him in danger, he uses that advantage to answer the prank in kind.

Identity and First Encounter

Iñaqui and Chemari meet beside a tram stop in Bilbao on December 20, three days before the school Christmas break. They attend different classes, and their ages show in their clothes: Iñaqui still wears short trousers, while Chemari has graduated to knickerbockers. Both carry schoolbooks on their backs and wear caps and raincoats beneath the unsettled winter sky.

Chemari is the older, more experienced boy, known among bourgeois parents as the sort of companion who teaches bad words, breaks street lamps, and avoids school. The narrator presents their meeting as fateful for both boys, but the immediate change falls on Iñaqui: for the first time, he agrees to play truant at Chemari’s urging.

Skipping School at Club Loreto

Chemari proposes spending the morning at Club Loreto, which has an outdoor skating rink and an indoor swimming pool. Their abilities are sharply contrasted. Iñaqui is an excellent swimmer but has never skated; Chemari is a remarkable skater, though his swimming resembles a wildly turning mill. Iñaqui’s uncertainty extends to the heavy roller skates, which must be fastened to his shoes with adjustable fittings and several straps.

The indoor pool is also unfamiliar to Iñaqui. When Chemari asks whether he knows it, Iñaqui says he has never seen an indoor swimming pool. Their truancy therefore brings him into a place and activity beyond his experience, while Chemari occupies the role of confident guide—and, soon, tormentor.

The Pool Prank and Iñaqui’s Retaliation

After Chemari pushes him, Iñaqui feels faint and falls into the pool with his skates on. His first instinct is to remove them, but he cannot manage it underwater. He then takes off his shoes, leaving both the footwear and the attached metal skate fittings on the bottom, and succeeds in reaching the surface. Chemari laughs at the heavy-handed joke.

Iñaqui hides his anger by laughing too. Since Chemari is taller and stronger on land, Iñaqui decides that the water gives him a chance to retaliate. He shows off his swimming, approaches the edge, and raises a hand as if asking Chemari to help him out. When Chemari takes it, Iñaqui pulls hard and brings him into the pool, then dunks him underwater. The episode reverses the boys’ apparent advantage: Chemari’s skating skill and physical size do not protect him in the water, where Iñaqui is at home.

Characterization and Narrative Role

This childhood episode defines Iñaqui through action rather than explanation. His first response to danger is practical: he tries to free himself of the skates, abandons his shoes when that fails, and swims to the surface. Once safe, he conceals his anger long enough to turn the situation around. The contrast between his small stature and his command of the water makes his retaliation possible without suggesting that he could match Chemari’s strength on land.

The encounter also marks a double transgression: Iñaqui skips school for the first time, then answers Chemari’s prank with a calculated trick of his own. Their meeting is presented as the beginning of a consequential connection, though this childhood scene alone does not specify the later course of their relationship.