“I’m different,” I said. “I don’t know how to do anything particularly interesting. I’ll be reading The Three Musketeers until I’m twenty-one and then if I start on The Lady of the Camellias, well, I’ll still be reading it when I retire. At least that’ll save money on books. I’ll never be able to learn chess, nor music theory with all its cadavers and semi-cadavers.”

“Quavers and semi-quavers!”

“You see… I get my words muddled! Even when it comes to Panhard cars, you’re cleverer than me.”

We’d walked as far as the pond, where three swans were swimming around. With their straight necks they looked like umbrellas floating upside down. We sat down on a bench. It was quiet there, and we were quiet too. She was sitting bolt upright next to me and I couldn’t bring myself to look at her any more. It was clear I was no match for her. We had nothing in common, and I still hadn’t worked out why she was helping me. When we stood up again and were about to leave, I said, “I’ll never be able to thank you enough … without you I would have been done for… Now there’s maybe a bit of hope, only a little, but still… Even Lucky Luke’s leaving me in peace.”

Now she was looking serious. She wound her hair around her finger and visibly blushed.

“Well,” she replied, “believe me, there will be a way you can repay me, even more than you can imagine!”

This was extremely mysterious, but I didn’t try to delve deeper, because that’s not in my nature. With me, what you see is what you get.

“I’ve got to get a move on,” she said, “or I’ll be late for my music lesson.”

“You’re still learning?”

She stopped suddenly. Behind her, high up in the sky, I saw some migrating birds fly past in a triangle. Maybe it was an isosceles triangle, maybe not. Christmas wasn’t far off.

“I’ve got to go on learning because at the end of the year I want to take a very important audition. It’s crucial that I pass.”

“And what will you do after this audition?”

“I’ll go to a special college where I can study music as well as doing schoolwork.”