We walked out of the building after class and chatted in the sun like we did the previous Monday. An icy wind was blowing over the campus, it was cold. We talked about England and Elise learned that Patrick was English. Yet, she had known him for over a year, because he was often by my side in class, and she had already exchanged a few words with him several times. But it is true that I had never formally introduced them to each other.
— So we have an English friend! she exclaimed as if she and I were contained in the "we".
One thing led to another we talked about what we would do later. She said she would like to be a radio documentalist. Patrick must have said that he would go to England without specifying what he would do there and as I remained silent (meanwhile I was mostly looking at Elise, she looked like a little cat, the wind was blowing her hair over her face and sometimes on her mouth as she spoke, it was lovely...)
— What about you Michael? She asked me.
— I don't know, maybe a teacher? because of holidays...
— You must have a vocation now, with children who challenge teachers at 14!
/.../
The conversation continued, I wasn't really into it, I was mostly watching Elise, until she noticed:
— These boys are funny... They will have to earn their living and at the same time also that of others, finally...
She stopped abruptly as if she had broached a forbidden subject, as if she had said too much, revealing her thought more than she would have liked...
(Like she already saw herself as a mother stay-at-home housewife, waiting for her husband to bring home his pay check to support the family. Was she picturing me in the role of the husband in her future?)
/.../
Years have rolled by. Approximately fifty years since that conversation took place. A lifetime!
How did we fulfill our predictions?
Patrick disappeared at the end of his studies, probably went to England, and we never heard of him anymore.
Elise didn’t marry me but married an older guy ten years her senior and did become a housewife with two children.
I was the only one to stick to my goal if ever I had one in life, and I became a teacher, of French, and then English. And the pupils were indeed tough at the end of my career, as Elise had predicted!