OCTOBER

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Monday, 17

First day of class! They left like a dream the three months!

of holidays spent in the countryside! My mother took me this

tomorrow to the Baretti section to register in the tercena

elementary. I remembered the field and went reluctantly.

All streets leading to the school

they tingled with boys; the two nearby bookstores

they were full of fathers and mothers who acquired purses,

notebooks, primers, pens, pencils; at the door itself

crowded so many people that the bedel, aided by the guards

Municipal, he had to put order. When I got to the door I felt

a tap on the shoulder: I turned my face and it was my old man

master of the second, jovial, friendly, with his blonde hair

curly and frizzy, he said to me:

"So, are we separated forever, Enrique?"

I knew this well; and yet, those words

they did harm! We entered, at last, to empellones. Ladies,

knights, women of the people, workers, officers, grandmothers,

maids, all holding children by the hand and carrying books and

objects mentioned above, filled the lobby and stairs

producing a rumor like the one of the exit of the theater. I went back to

see with joy that great hallway on the ground floor, with seven o'clock

doors of the seven classes, through which I had passed almost to

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daily for three years. The kindergarten teachers went and

they came among the crowd. The one who had been my teacher of the
First superior greeted me saying:

"Enrique, you're going to the main floor this year, and you don't even get

I'll see when I go in or out!—and she looked at me in sorrow.

The director was surrounded by mothers who spoke to him at the same time;

asking for a position for their children; and by the way I thought it was that

I had more gray hair than the year before... I found some guys

fatter and taller than when I left them; below, where already

everyone was in their place, I saw some little ones

resisting entering the classroom and defending themselves as

foals, getting angry; but by force they introduced them. Even

thus, some escaped once they sat on the benches, and

others, seeing their parents leave, burst into tears, and

it was necessary for the mothers to return, with all of which the

Teacher despaired. My little brother stayed in the class of

teacher Delcatti; I was touched by Maestro Perboni, on the floor

first.

At ten o'clock, everyone was in his section; fifty-four in

mine; only fifteen or sixteen were former fellow pupils of mine.

of the second, including Derosi, who always took out the first

prize. How sad I found the school remembering the

forests and mountains where I had just spent the summer! Me

I also agreed now with nostalgia for my former teacher,

so good, he laughed so much with us; so small that almost

he looked like a companion; and felt not seeing him there with his blonde

matted hair.

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The teacher who now touches us is tall, without a beard, with his hair

gray, that is, with some gray hair, and has a straight wrinkle that
it seems to cut off his forehead; his voice is hoarse and he looks at us all

fixedly, one after another, as if he wanted to read inside

we; he never laughs. I said to myself: "Here is the first

day. Nine months ahead! How many jobs, how many

monthly exams, how many fatigues!‖.

I felt a real need to meet me again.

Mother, and when I came out I ran to kiss her hand. She told me:

"Cheer up, Enrique! We will study the lessons together.

And I came home happy. But I don't have the same teacher, that one.

so good, I always smiled, and I didn't like this one so much

school classroom like the previous one.