My bosom friend

I was about eight years old. I had a bosom friend with whom I had fallen out for many days, after a childish stupid bickering. In class, we used to sit together at the same table. But that day she left me and went to sit alone at the back of the classroom. I was very sad.

That morning the mistress asked me to go to the blackboard and conjugate the verb “to have a friend”  in the present tense.  I thought hard about the question for a moment then said that the verb “to have a friend” could not be conjugated in the present tense.  There was an up roar in the class following my answer. The mistress was very surprised, she asked me to explain why. I calmly said “because we only realize that we have a friend when we have already lost her”. The whole class fell suddenly silent, apparently everybody was very astonished by my answer, or was puzzling out my words. From the back of the class, my ‘bosom’ friend dashed towards the blackboard, hugged me tightly in her arms and planted two kisses on my cheeks in front of everybody then rushed back to her usual place, sobbing.

My mistress understood at once what had happened between us, as everybody knew well that we were two inseparable friends.  Then she quietly said: ‘So, now, I think that you can conjugate the verb in the present tense. Go on !’

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