Stupid and rich, clever and poor
What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who
died?
You can say that she was beautiful and intelligent. She
loved Mozart and Bach and the Beatles. And tne. Once, when
she told me that, I asked her who came first. She answered,
smiling, ''Like in the ABC.' I smiled too. But now I wonder.
Was she talking about my first name? If she was, I came last,
behaid Mozart. Or did she mean my last name? ff she did,
I came between Bach and the Beatles. But I still didn't come
first. That worries me terribly now. You see, I always had
to be Number One. Family pride, you see.
In the autumn of my last year at Harvard university, I studied
a lot in the Radcliffe library.
The library was quiet, nobody knew me there, and they
had the books that I needed for my studies. The day before
an examination I went over to the library desk to ask for a
book. Two girls were working there. One was tall and
sporty. The other was quiet and wore glasses. I chose her,
and asked for my book.
She gave me an unfriendly look. 'Don't you have a library
at Harvard?' she asked.
'Radcliffe let us use their library,' I answered.
'Yes, Preppie, they do - but is it fair? Harvard has five
million books. We have a few thousand.'Oh dear, I thought. A clever Radcliffe girl. I can usually
make girls like her feel very small. But I needed that damn
book, so I had to be polite.
'Listen, I need that damn book.'
'Don't speak like that to a lady, Preppie.'
'Why are you so sure that I went to prep school?'
She took off her glasses. 'You look stupid and rich,' she
said.
'You're wrong,' I said. 'I'm actually clever and poor.'
'Oh no, Preppie,' she said. 'I'm clever and poor.'
She was looking straight at me. All right, she had pretty
brown eyes; and OK, perhaps I looked rich. But I don't let
anyone call me stupid.
'What makes you so clever?' I asked.
'I'm not going to go for coffee with you,' she said.
'Listen - I'm not going to ask you!'
'That', she said, 'is what makes you stupid.'
Let me explain why I took her for coffee. I got the book
that I wanted, didn't I? And she couldn't leave the library
until closing time. So I was able to study the book for a good
long time. I got an A in my exam the next day.
I gave the girl's legs an A too, when she came out from
behind the library desk. We went to a coffee shop and I
ordered coffee for both of us.
'I'm Jennifer Cavilleri,' she said. 'I'm American, but my
family came from Italy. I'm studying music'
'My name is Oliver,' I said.
'Is that your first or your last name?' she asked.