ABSTRACT
Seventeen unnoticed final grammar school report damning Carragher washed hands of him the sooner he leave the better agreed. No French class since absurd “The Sixth Form” decision gliding thornback ray spotted him in a corridor one morning unassuming shambles a brief word?
“So, what are you going to do when you leave?”
“Dunno, sir.”
Bus conducting came to mind didn’t mention it or the “milk round” banks businesses army selling themselves to “potential undergraduates” steered clear didn’t say he thought it a fair for posh kids.60 “There is a possibility, if you are interested,” he continued, “that you could work as an assistant teacher of English in a ‘petit séminaire’ school in Coutançes, Northern France—Normandy. I have a colleague there, M. Bernard Aubert, who is looking for someone to help teach English to younger children, seven or eight years of age, from the autumn. Do you think you might be interested in doing something like this?”
“OK,” replied his mouth.
“All right,” Mr McMorine continued.“I’ll look into it and keep you informed.”
Didn’t think about Mr McMorine trying to get cheap labour for his friend years later sadness gratitude a quiet forgettable man intervened to change the course of his life interposing himself final moments at school a resistance worker spirited him away under cover of darkness grey box undiminished violence school rotten unequal culture not for one moment did he think it might have been Mr McMorine’s intention or for decades following. Was it luck or instinct he didn’t blow the opportunity? Had McMorine identified something? Interest in French? A boy gone under the bottom? To step in a remarkable act in later life read Borges on his father that he was an intelligent man like all intelligent men he was kind. McMorine must have been an intelligent man, mustn’t he? Carragher wrote him off not meeting his standards McMorine put him first unable to recognise goodness give thanks nobody had done this before forgot about him until the sun shone late in the day McMorine improved his life more than anyone a single radical intervention ingratitude absolved callous indifference wasn’t ignorance of McMorine’s kindness total lack of familiarity with generosity. Stroke of genius made his pupil believe going to France was his idea contact information the rest 61up to him. Mr McMorine died his pupil’s fifth university attempt he never knew him tried to trace thank him he was dead cousin old man little information confirmed what he knew quiet unassuming a family wife two children comforted him.