Читать книгу A Reunion of Ghosts - Judith Mitchell Claire - Страница 16

It’s in Frau Geist’s dance class where the boy who will become our great-grandfather first places his hand on the waist of the girl who’ll become our great-grandmother. Naturally, they’re paired: nine-year-old Lenz Alter is the smallest boy in the class, seven-year-old Iris Emanuel is the smallest girl. Even so, when they converse, he has to look up. And conversing is mandatory. Conversing while dancing—preferably in French—is as important as knowing the steps. It’s part of doing it well.

Also, the boy must begin the conversation. Lenz has his opening line at the ready. “Bonjour,” he says. “I hate this stupid dance.”

The girls are encouraged to ask the boys questions. “Quelle danse do you prefer?” Iris asks.

“I hate them all.”

“Even the polka?”

“Maybe not the polka.”

“All the boys like the polka. And the mazurka.”

“En français,” Frau Geist sings out.

“It’s all boring,” Lenz says. He turns her, turns her again. “Ennui,” he says.

“I pretend we’re Earth,” Iris says. “I’m the Western Hemisphere, and you’re the east. We revolve in a circle as we rotate around the room.”

Lenz glances to the center of the circle. “That makes Frau Geist the sun,” he says. This is very funny if you’ve ever seen Frau Geist, and they snicker through a few more turns.

Before the dance ends, Lenz has made two requests: one, that the next time they’re partnered, he gets to be the Western Hemisphere, and two, that Iris marry him. All the other boys are doing it—proposing—although what one does after one becomes engaged, he’s not entirely sure.

Iris seems not to know this game at all. “I’m too young,” she says, frowning, perplexed.

He rolls his eyes, though he, too, is perplexed. Improvising, he says, “Not now. Later.”

“When?”

He does some calculations. “Eighteen eighty-six,” he says. He’ll be seventeen, done with gymnasium.

“But what about university?”

“I’m not going. I’m going into my father’s business.”

She says, “I meant moi. What if I want to go?”

None too gently, he apprises her of the fact that girls can’t go to university. She shakes her head. She knows all that, she says. But her father says the rules will change by the time she’s sixteen, and if they don’t, her father says, well, then, by God, the two of them will change them.

“All right,” Lenz says. “We won’t get married until after you finish university.”

“Ça va,” she says.

The music stops. They’re back to the spot on the floor where they began. He bows. She curtsies. Frau Geist applauds. Lenz leans over to the couple nearest them, the second shortest boy, the second shortest girl. “Iris and I are engaged,” he confides.

“Good show,” says the boy.

When Iris returns home, she announces her betrothal at dinner. “That’s it,” her father says. “No more dancing for you.”