Evening Class by Maeve Binchly

Author:Maeve Binchly
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2010-02-06T20:00:00+00:00

'Luigi.' She seemed delighted to see him.

'You know, I got a present of a key ring just like yours,' he said. They weren't all that uncommon, it was hardly something to be marvelled at.

'My owl key ring.' Signora was always pleasant and responded to any conversation that was presented to her.

'Yeah, let me see, are they the same?' he said.

She took it from her bag and he pretended to make a comparison as he made the switch. He was safe now, and so was she. No one would ever remember this harmless little conversation. He must talk about other gifts and confuse them.

'God, I thought that Lou would never stop talking tonight,' Peggy Sullivan said as she and Signora washed up. 'Do you remember when they used to say people were vaccinated with a gramophone needle, they can't say that today I suppose, what with CDs and tapes.'

'I remember that phrase. I once tried to explain it to Mario, but like so many things it got lost in the translation and he never knew what I meant.'

It was a moment for confidences. Peggy never dared to ask this odd woman a personal question but she had sort of lowered the guard here. 'And did you not think of being with your own people at all, Signora, on Christmas Day?' she asked.

Signora did not look at all put out. She answered the question thoughtfully, with deliberation, as she answered Jerry's questions.

'No, you know, it wasn't something I would have liked. It would have been artificial. And I have seen my mother and sisters many times and none of them suggested it. They have their own ways and customs now. It would be hard to try and add me to them. It would have been very false. None of us would have enjoyed it. But I did enjoy myself here today with your family.' She stood there calm and untroubled. She wore a new locket around her neck. She had not said where she got it and nobody had liked to ask. She was much too private a person.

'And we liked having you very, very much, Signora,' said Peggy Sullivan, who wondered nowadays what she had ever done before this odd woman had come to live there.

The class began again on the first Tuesday of January. A cold evening, but they were all there. Nobody was missing from the thirty who had signed on in September. It must be a record in any evening class.

And all the top brass were there, the Principal, Tony O'Brien, and Mr Dunne, and they were beaming all over their faces. The most extraordinary thing had happened. The class had been given a gift. Signora was like a child, almost clapping her hands with pleasure.

Who could have done it? Was it anyone here? Was it one of the class? Would they say so that they could thank him or her? Everyone was mystified, but of course they all thought it was Connie.

'No, I wish it had been. I really do wish I had been nice enough to think of it.

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