When I was 13 or 14, I went to school to the Lycée J.B. DUMAS in ALÈS (Gard). This is the time when a boy starts looking at the girls with a new eye.
My English teacher was a young woman; she noticed me, more because of my constant daydreaming than because of my diligence at working on my English, and she liked walking with me after school, given the opportunity; so we had a walk twice or three times a week. I often walked faster, or slowed down, so that we could meet and walk together. I was proud, because her beauty was the number one conversation in the schoolyard.
Then came a day when she waited for me. This routine lasted for one school year, a school year full of emotions; she probably found this little game quite funny. She knew I was a Beatles fan, so one day she asked me if I had heard their latest single, Yesterday. Her question surprised me, and confidently told her that it had been available at the record shops for only two days. "I know", she said, "I've got it. Comer and listen to it at home tomorrow afternoon."
I was astonished that she could be interested in the Beatles; unprepared as I was, I stammered " No, thank you. " ; I was probably as red as a poppy, and I surely looked like a fool. She laughed, and she said: " I've got something important to tell you. You'll be the only one to know. I'll be waiting for you. " So the next day, out of curiosity, I went to her place. She lived on the third floor in a smart block of flats, not very far from my home.
She was delighted to see me, and said she would have been very angry if I had not showed up.
She soon told me what she had in mind: she was going to be transferred to Montpellier, so it was the last time we would meet.
But before that… She gave me a long, long lesson. It was heaven within heaven, I discovered beauty, perfection, hot emotion and an unthinkable sweatiness.
No wonder if my admiration for woman is endless. My initiation has been a perfect one.
By the way, the Beatles single was the only pop record amongst classical music records.