An Education in Love

Illustration by Diego Jeri

Grace and Elizabeth met at school.

School ended. Each received permission from her parents to visit.

This being a time when women were ladies, they of course went walking. Strolling arm in arm, pausing at shop windows, they talked of this and that, often commenting on what they saw.

Sometimes they looked outwards and sometimes inwards.

Certain displays increased their knowledge of human nature. These things they could not tell of at suppertime.

The most delicious was when they chanced to pass an open window through which they could hear conversations thought private by the speakers.

Did he really? And then, only to herself, each would wonder if that would be her life too, one day. Nevertheless, these moments ended in shared laughter for there were things they did not say to one another.

When they looked inward they talked about their brothers and sisters; the things their parents did; and about how cabbage gave them gas no matter how carefully they chewed each bite and in this way they came to love one another.