An Irishman
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
It was a day for a concert down in The Loop at The Pageant. Muse – a rock band from Britain, which incorporated classical piano into their writings. Collette looked forward to hearing it, although she knew, even before Carrie-Bri warned her, that she would not enjoy the environment. She figured it would be decidedly different from her first concert.
She had almost unintentionally stumbled onto it in Hero’s Square, Budapest, Hungary, four summers ago. Two hundred thousand Hungarians packed the square that night, while she and Diana snaked their way through the masses, eating sweet soft pretzels. It was a rather surreal experience altogether. However, this time there would not be two hundred thousand people, and they would not be quiet Hungarians.
As Collette typed away on various projects that morning, clouds rolled in, stormy gray against the golden leaves of the redbud. It would be thrilling to have a frightful rain storm with cracking thunder coming out of a rock concert that night. Such would be the way to end a good relaxing day.
OLeif had recalled the previous night, a certain Irish kid in their psychology class from the old MBU days. There he had sat, silent as a snail every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, one of the soccer kids, and keen on keeping still during the sessions. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that the Hispanic psychology professor was also the soccer coach. However, one morning was spent in discussing crime and punishment. The professor asked the foreign exchange students to tell the class about how they were disciplined in the classroom back home, when younger. One guy from Uruguay explained that they were set aside in the corner. A girl from Uganda said that they were made to wear a stinky bone around their necks for a certain period of time.
“And what did they give you in Ireland, if you misbehaved?” The professor asked the little unshaven Irish fellow.
“A slap on the arse,” he said, calmly.
There was only a split-second of silence and the room erupted into laughter. The professor, howling, quickly went to shut the classroom door, in case anyone was listening in the halls and thought there was something awry. The class next door wondered what was going on. It was likely the most funny episode Collette had ever witnessed on a college campus.