13 January 2006

The Love Letter Saga Continues

From here.

Son went back to school yesterday and like a secret agent tried desperately to find a chance to palm his reply to the young lady without anyone noticing. He never found his opportunity, in spite of her finding three or four non-reasons to hover quite close in unspoken hope during breaktimes.

They were in each others breathing space, in public, unable to say a word, and apparently it was torture.

He and his letter of reply went back to school again today, but, somewhere along the line, parted company, and this is where he realised quite how expert he had been at speaking in code.

The letter was handed in to his teacher who saw it was addressed to "?" and saw the self effacing way he had belittled his move up to the top maths set. In truth his admirer had been on the same table as him before he was moved up and had made a lot of how clever he is and how sad she is. He had replied that her handwriting was wonderful and that the silly maths test might have made him 'look like Einstein' (sic) but that top set wasn't all that wonderful.

Teacher asked him about the letter. He dared to make a lunge for it and insisted it was very private. She concluded, from that, that there were deep feelings involved, and that these were to do with top maths set not being wonderful.

There followed a very long (if one sided) heart to heart while she tried to get him to talk about his fears, stressed that he should bring worries like this to her attention, but managed to get no feedback from him at all barring a Bart like insistence that it 'wasn't him'; that his mother (me) had written most of it anyway, entirely against his wishes of course. Thanks Son.

She didn't buy that and so it went on and she was reduced to examining possible scenarios out loud. "Well now, if....." and all that.

She was doing her best and in the end gave him the letter back, saying he wasn't to bring any more like that into school but was to talk to her, instead.

After school he told me all about his thwarted love life and his annoyance at realising someone else must have found and read the letter, to find his name on it and give it to the right teacher. He was imagining worst case scenarios and generally cringing, but by the time we got home I had a rough picture of what really happened.

I've just got off the phone from speaking to Teacher, who was mercifully still in the building after hours on a Friday. It took quite a while for her to come to the phone although the secretary who went to get her was back in the office almost immediately, and I suspect she steeled herself by completing other things before picking up the handset, expecting a different tone of conversation.

Meanwhile son was furious that his business was being spread to all and sundry, but once Teacher realised that the whole thing was to do with respecting the wishes of an admirer from the lower maths set who had sworn undying love and also sworn him to absolute secrecy, in short that his total lack of cooperation was to do with a lady's honour, she started expressing relief, then laughing, and ended up aww-ing and cooing about how sweet it all was.

Son currently remains stony faced (may he never discover poker), trying to decide whether to admit his own relief that his teacher isn't even more angry (to him, plain speaking of concern/forcing him to listen = angry), or to berate me for the next 48 hours solid that now the entire teaching staff will know and it will be all my fault.

I think I got away with it.

11 comments:

Doris said...

My jaw is on the floor.

The situation has been well salvaged but this is worse than any nightmare. Oh jeez, it's the stuff that makes us into tough humans.

If he was a few years older I'd offer him a stiff drink. Heck, I think I might have one for him myself. Let's see.. it's just after 4.30pm - I'll wait a decent amount of time and start cooking early.

May the evening and weekend be OK for you all. Poor sod. ((Hugs))

Cheryl said...

Oops better say - that's Bart Simpson, not Bart the blogger!

Unknown said...

"The name is Bond......James Bond". I love this story and HAPPY BELATED NEW YEAR!!

Cheryl said...

Hahaha! Thanks Michael, but to quote Son:

"James Bond, he's a bit of a sex pest, ins't he?"

At 11 Son already has very firm ideas about monogamous dating....

mommyguilt said...

Nicely done, Mom! Thwarted, though, his attempt may have been, I am certain that the young lady took quite a shine to the fact that he put himself on the line in class to protect her honor!

Fabulous! Fabulous! Son's going to be quite a winner. Who said chivalry is dead? HA!

Anonymous said...

Bless your son! Aww jeez it's just soo cute! (Gushes)

Angeline Rose Larimer said...

You have raised one fantastic son.
All of my former lovers sold me out at times of letter confiscation.
In fact, they probably seduced me in the first place to see what sort of goofy mushiness I'd be stupid enough to put down on paper...Me with my romanticized ideas that my honor would be protected.
Pfsssst.

This is now a love triangle, isn't it? Growing more Shakespearean with each post. Someone else is in love...either with fair maiden or your son. That someone slipped the note to teacher, right, in hopes that the embarrassment would squelch the passion?
(I'm taking notes--This is me in 6 years with 'bedroom eyes' Jack--sob. I hope he's as much a gentleman as your son. And I will fight every urge NOT to write the notes for him..."No no no! You need to compliment her, son. Don't make it all about YOU!")

Chep said...

Your son's story just tugs at my heart. I loved reading it!

jane said...

I like how your son is protective of 'her' and respects her wishes. What a young gentleman. I also like that you take up for him when necessary.

fineartist said...

Grab your peanut butter and get to the side of the road, I’ll be along shortly to pick you up. We need to smoke drink and eat peanut butter….not while driving of course….

Dude, that poor kid. Not that it hasn’t worked out, but man, that will probably be the last time son acknowledges the attention of an admirer, for a long time, and I wouldn’t blame him.

Talk about Murphy’s law. Glad he’s got you to help him out, though he’s probably still freaking out a little.

fineartist said...

I finally got the audio blog thing to work, and I sound like an imbecile babbling out my butt. Gaaaaaaaaaaa. Oh well....

It seemed so contrived.....