CHAPTER 15 - Goodbye Kim, Hello Eva
THE day after Kim left, Priscilla called me from Elvis and told me that the King might have some regular classes available for me in the mornings. She informed me that they would be starting immediately and asked if I was interested. I told her that I’d give them a shot. And so, the next morning, I woke up with the sunrise, said hello to the first Kim-less Dum I had known since my arrival in Bohemia, and made the long forty-five minute bus and Metro trek to school.
Prague would be a strange place for me now that Kim was gone, I thought as I walked the last few blocks to the school building in the Karlín section of the city. He had been my mentor and guide, not only as far as living in Prague was concerned, but in all aspects of this new life I had chosen for myself. Living in a strange country. Not being able to speak or communicate such simple things as a grocery list. The continuous dread that something might go horribly wrong. After all, this path I had chosen to take so many months ago was a dangerous one. Not only was I living from month to month, desperate for my next paycheck, and unable to plan for anything more than two months in advance – but I was doing it all in a strange and foreign land. That tiny life raft I had taken, lowered into the sea, and pushed away from the luxury cruiseship I had known since birth really was a lonely place. Thank God there were other rafts in the sea as well. Some of them were a bit larger and more worn through endless years on the rough seas, but they were all the same. Drifting aimlessly, but enjoying the journey while it lasted. I was sad to see the current take Kim’s raft away. It was the first one I had encountered and the one, outside my own, I had grown most familiar with. But I had always known it would drift out of sight one day, back over the endless horizon from which it had come. And now that moment had finally arrived. While I was watching it disappear into the distance forever, I glanced down into my once empty raft, saw all the useful supplies Kim had left with me, and smile appreciatively. I looked up once again and was about to shout "Thanks!" one last time but Kim had already vanished.
"Hello, my name is Paul. I’m the new teacher," I remarked as I entered room 214. It was the teacher’s lounge, more like a small office lined with desks, chairs, and a small refrigerator by the enormous window. We had a beautiful view of the clock/bell-tower of the gothic cathedral that stood outside on Karlinské naměsti. It was twenty past eight in the morning.
"Ah, Paul, yes," one of the women sitting down broke off her conversation in Czech with another teacher and got up to greet me. "Welcome, welcome. My name is Alena. I am your co-teacher. Have a seat. Have you been here before?"
"Yeah, yeah. I’ve been teaching here for about... Three and a half months now I guess."
"Really? Dat’s what dey said at de office but I haven’t seen you here before." Alena’s English was near perfect except for the fact that most of her "th"s seemed to come out as "d"s.
"Yeah, I usually teach evenings. I’ll tell you what though, I’ve never seen so many teachers in here before." There were eleven teachers, not including me, in the teacher’s lounge.
"Ah, yes. Well dis is normal in de mornings. You’ve never worked in de mornings? I thought you had even substituted for me once."
"Really?" I scoured my defective memory and found nothing. "What a coincidence. Anyway, I usually just drink some coffee downstairs by the machine before class and go back down there to smoke a cigarette during the break. So I guess I don’t really spend that much time in here." The other teachers had soon lost interest in me and continued what they were doing before I had entered the room – talking, preparing lessons, and finishing off any breakfast, tea, or coffee they may have had. I was left alone with Alena at a desk near the window.
"So, de classes know dat you’re coming today. I’ll teach de class in 204 first and you can have de one in 206. We’ll take a fifteen-minute break at ten o’clock and den we’ll switch classes. Now de one in 206 is a little more advanced dan 204. De’re mid- to upper-intermediate while de oder in 204 is lower-intermediate... Some of de students even upper-beginner. You can do what you have prepared with dem today but we should start on page thirty-nine of de book where..." I soon lost track of what Alena was saying. It was too much information and frankly, I wasn’t really that interested. I would just go into class and talk. For Christ’s sake, it was only my first day teaching these students. Page thirty-nine and upper- to lower-intermediate. Who needed that bullshit? "...third conditionals which de class you’ll be starting with should already know. I don’t think dat de last teacher explained it very well so I’ve been revising certain points that you can find in Unit Six, page thirty-seven... I think. Have a look when you get a chance. I think de last teacher gave dem as homework exercises six and seven in..." Alena was an extremely attractive woman and, as I soon found out, engaged to be married in May. She was only a few years older than me, almost as tall, and had short, cropped brown hair which showcased her delicate features. The first thing I noticed though, apart from her huge tits, tight ass, and incredible figure, were her beautiful blue eyes. As she kept talking, my eyes would briefly wander south of her neck towards and, afraid of being caught, would always return just in time to exchange a direct glance with those marvelous sapphires. They were as deep and blue as the waters by Δερβένι. I thought of summer. It seemed so long ago. The Gulf of Corinth. Marie. The sea. My raft. Kim and his cheap beer and cheaper women. I had been without one since Marie. Three and a half months. Not so bad. There were more things to life than sex. My eyes slowly wandered from Alena’s and went southward again. Hopefully she wouldn’t notice. "...any questions just ask me. Okay? Do you understand?" She had definitely noticed.
"Perfectly!" The tower outside the window soon struck eight-thirty. The bells chimed, the teachers rose from their seats, grabbed their books and notes, and made their way to the classrooms. I followed their lead and Alena wished me luck as she closed the door behind us.
I walked into the classroom, glanced at the students, greeted them, and tried to hide my astonishment as I sat down at the teacher’s desk and took out the attendance sheet. My new class was the same one Reinhard and I had been talking about a few weeks back! I wondered what had happened to Reinhard. Why was I taking over his class? It then dawned on me that, in fact, I hadn’t even seen him in the Dum for nearly a week. But I soon lost interest as my surveying eyes became fixed on the students sitting to my right. There were four of them, just as I had remembered, and extremely gorgeous, also just as I had remembered. I called out all the students’ names on the list and marked them as present or absent. Lenka, Petra, Eva, and Katka. Eva – the blonde I had talked to Reinhard about. She smiled sweetly when I called out her name and gracefully raised her hand to show that she was present. She was even more captivating than I remembered. I knew I would have problems concentrating on the lesson that day. First Alena, then these beauties – Lenka, Petra, Katka, and, especially, Eva. What could I do but continue to act professionally?
I finished taking role, leaned back in my seat, and went around class asking and eliciting questions. All the students seemed to remember me from when I had previously substitute-taught them. Apparently, that had occurred a week or so before the Christmas vacation. I felt a bit embarrassed that they still remembered nearly everything about me and I remembered hardly anything about them, but they didn’t seem to mind. The students just kept smiling and were extremely friendly. Most of them spoke enough English to at least communicate effectively – the same level that I had become so familiar with while talking to Pavel – but definitely had more than enough room for improvement. Some students wouldn’t say a word, either because they were too shy or didn’t know how to, while others wouldn’t shut up, despite the fact that they knew they kept making mistakes as I continuously corrected them. For the next hour or so, we practiced forming questions, short answers, and detailed responses. I’ll admit that I probably showered more attention onto the right side of the class – especially the four girls there – but I tried to be fair and equal all the same. I soon got the impression that, out of the entire class, Eva was not only one of the prettiest students, but also one of the most intelligent. Then again, I may have been biased. A single, captivating rose will always distort the rest of the garden.
An hour and a half passed by rather quickly. I gathered my things and went downstairs for some coffee and a cigarette. The area was packed with Czechs either a few years younger than me, my age, or a few years older, puffing away and gulping down caffeine during the fifteen minutes allotted them. I didn’t understand a word of what any of them were saying. Soon, however, some of the students I had just taught found me in the crowd and joined me. Eva, unfortunately, wasn’t one of them. They talked about their former teacher and how happy they were to now have me. I told them that, in fact, I knew Reinhard and understood exactly what they were talking about. We all laughed and one of the students recommended we should go out for a beer together some time. I agreed and told him I would think over the details. Soon, the break was over and it was time to teach the next class.
My other new students, the ones in room 204, weren’t as advanced as the ones in 206. Generally speaking, they were just as friendly but not as attractive... especially when compared to Eva and her three nymphs. I did the same lesson with that class – questions and answers – but found it a lot easier to concentrate on the task at hand without breasts, giggles, and smiles distracting me to the right. I finished class at a quarter to noon, asked Alena to tell me once again where I should start teaching from in the book, and made my way home to the Dum. The working day was done.
Although the morning classes were held five days a week, three hours a day, I had agreed with Priscilla to only teach three of those days. I lied to her and told her I couldn’t teach Thursday and Friday mornings because I was already part-time teaching those hours for another school. In reality, I simply didn’t want to work that much. I had fifteen hours of work a week (three hours each Monday to Wednesday morning; three hours each Tuesday and Thursday evening) and they were more than enough for me. It paid for the rent, food, and occasional night out on the town. Sure, I wasn’t really putting that much money aside but, then again, I hadn’t come to Prague to build a fortune. I had come here to live. I was, unlike most people I knew back home, working to live and not living to work. Financial security and future be damned.
A couple of weeks after I started that new morning class, I finally ran into Reinhard. He told me what had happened. Elvis fired him. Reinhard was clearly disappointed by the King’s stern decision and told me to watch out in the future – the King was not to be trusted. I took his words with a grain of salt. After all, both the students and Alena eventually told me that Reinhard had been a horrible teacher.* (* He had done two-months’ worth of textbook exercises with the students in one and a half weeks. He was unable to answer half of the students’ grammar questions and ignored the other half. In fact, they told me, the only clear and distinct thing that ever came out of his mouth was the smell of cheap booze.)I gave him my condolences and changed the topic of conversation.
"Hey Reinhard, do you think it’s right to try and sleep with one of your students?"
Reinhard just looked at me and smiled.
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"Hell, Paul. I don’t know if it’s right or wrong, but I don’t blame ya for tryin’! You got some pretty students now," he paused for a moment and looked out the window into nothing. "Yeah, real pretty."
I couldn’t have agreed more with Reinhard. Since I had started teaching the morning class, I couldn’t think of anything else other than how to get with, and whether I should get with, Eva. I don’t know why, but I had become infatuated with her. And all in less than a fortnight. I looked forward eagerly each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning to seeing her in class and was always a bit glum when she was absent. I was confused. So confused that, as I previously stated, I had even talked to Reinhard about it. But try as I might, I could never talk to Eva alone. She didn’t smoke or drink coffee which meant I never saw her during the class breaks and, apparently, she worked on Friday nights... A fact I didn’t know when I had first agreed to go out with a few of the students to a pub on the Friday after my first week of teaching them. There was only one more thing to do. I’d invite all of the students out again and, this time, make sure it wouldn’t be on a Friday. The next week, my third as their teacher, seemed to be the perfect opportunity. Thursday and Friday were national holidays so all schools would be closed. I could invite all the students out to a pub again, but this time on Thursday night. Eva would definitely come. I hoped.
I couldn’t contain my excitement as I went to school that Monday morning. Not only would I see my sweet Eva again after the long weekend, but I would also get to invite my pet and the rest of the students, but most importantly her, out for a drink in four days time. The anticipation for the day’s class to begin was killing me.
I suppose I should try to clarify the situation a bit, if I can. I don’t know how my infatuation with Eva developed and how it did so so rapidly. But it did and there was no denying its existence. I knew that I wasn’t in love with her, but I thought of her all the time. Yes, ‘love’ clearly isn’t the word. Now that I think of it, my thoughts go back to Greece and the way Greeks view love – as either eros, agape, or philia. In fact, it wasn’t a Greek at all who had taught me about and how to distinguish between the three, but Marie. She may not have been Greek, but something about her spirit clearly was and had drawn her there. And fate, as the Ancients would say, had drawn me to her... and her wisdom of love all those months ago in Δερβένι.
I was an amateur in matters of the heart when I first met Marie and still was when I started teaching Eva. As Luke had reminded me just a few weeks earlier, I had never really held a relationship down for longer than three months. Not that there was anything wrong with that in my view. In fact, it was something to be praised and cherished along with the freedom it afforded. But Marie was the first woman I had ever really cared about and, despite the fact that everything she believed went against my personal philosophy, I listened. And she, the girl who had been engaged twice to be married and urged me never to follow anything but my heart, taught me about the love of the Greeks that summer.
Eros, she began, was nothing but pure physical attraction. The heat. The passion. The erotic – a pulsing, never-ending desire to take another to bed and insatiably lick every inch of their sexual being. Devour it whole. Agape, on the other hand, was the type of love you feel for your family. The way a son loves a mother. The emotion that would drive a father to sacrifice everything, including his life, for a daughter. Agape is the love the Church preaches. And finally, there’s philia. That’s the love of the intellect. A good conversation. A good friend. Philo-sophy: The love of wisdom. Philo-logy: The love of words.
None of this was really that new to me. Marie just helped to remind me of what I already knew. What I didn’t know, however, was that true love couldn’t exist unless eros, agape, and philia were all present. The three types of love, Marie told me, had to co-exist in one essence of love or, eventually and inevitably, a relationship would end in nothingness. And finally, she told me, it was one of the most human faults, as far as relationships are concerned, to confuse on or two aspects of love for the whole. Eros, I’m positive, is the one most often confused.
And eros, I’m also positive, is what I felt most strongly for Eva. I had known her only for three weeks and here I was – eagerly anticipating inviting her for a drink over the holiday and unable to think of anything else but her beautiful face and body. The way she pushed her long, flowing blonde hair gracefully behind her ear each time a strand covered her delicate face. The way her soft cheeks turned a bit red each time she smiled, or laughed, or made and English mistake. The way her captivating green eyes seemed to follow me no matter where I was standing in the classroom. The way she took off her coat at the beginning of class and put it back on at the end. If only I had a chance to talk to her, to seduce her, to make her mine. I didn’t know whether agape and philia would, or could, eventually develop between us, but eros had definitely enveloped me in a mere three weeks.
Eva was absent from school on Monday. I still told all the other students about my plans for Thursday night though. We would meet at around ten o’clock in the Žižkov section of the city at a club called Akropolis, mainly because it was open until five in the morning. I told the students it would be a great opportunity to get to know each other better and speak English in a more relaxed atmosphere. Eva, I comforted myself, was bound to show up for class either on Tuesday or Wednesday. I would tell her then.
She didn’t show up at all that week.
"Can you believe my fuckin’ luck?! I mean, what is this shit? I finally make a plan, work out all the details, and she doesn’t even show up for class!"
"Yes. Iz fucking shit..." Pavel shook his head in sympathy and translated for Robert and Honza. When he was done, they started shaking their heads too. "Do not worrying Paul. This fucking shit problem. Many womans in world. Why is special this Eva? Czech Republic – every girls is beautiful girls!"
Pavel lifted his glass of beer and we nazdravíed. He then signaled the waiter over and ordered something. It was Wednesday night and Pavel, Robert, Honza, and I were drinking at a pub in Anděl – a popular student and commercial district just south of the city center. They had off the next day too and had called me up for a drink.
"Yeah, yeah. I know there are many beautiful girls here..."
"So? What is problem?" Pavel cut in.
"The problem is, you haven’t seen Eva. I’m telling you man, she’s fucking gorgeous..."
"George-ous? Like Bush?"
"Gorgeous, gorgeous. Beautiful. You know? I mean, I just can’t help not staring at her in class she’s that beautiful. And I made this plan to get all the students out tomorrow, and she doesn’t even show up! In-fuckin-credible!"
Pavel scratched his unshaven chin stubble and furled his brow. Then his eyes lit up with an idea, "I have solution!"
"Really? What?"
"So, why you no fucking wif other student?!"
"What? What kind of solution is that?"
"Is students coming to Akropolis tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"Is beautiful?"
"Well, some. Very. Yes."
"And is all students eigtheen year old?"
"Eighteen or older. Yeah."
"So, fucking wif other student!" Pavel interrupted Robert and Honza, who were having their own conversation in Czech, and said something to them. They seemed interested, said a few words amongst themselves, and nodded in agreement.
"Shit, Pavel. What a stupid fucking idea! I don’t want another student. I want Eva!"
"Ahh," Pavel waved his hand at me dismissively. "Beautiful womans is beautiful womans. You are moc nadržený! Like I say in Horní Planá train for you. Find girls and fucking. All Czech girls is nice. Why fink you only for one? And Czech girls is fucking you very easy. Hundred percents. But you speaking like little boys, ‘I want Eva! I want Eva!’" The waiter came and left four shots of Becherovka, a delicious Czech liqueur, on the table. "We drink! Nazdraví!"
A few minutes later, the door of the pub opened and Luke walked into the crowded room. I waved to him, he saw us, and came to the table.
"Hey. How are you?"
"Okay."
"What took you so long? And where’s Char?"
"Hell, she’s feelin’ a little sick. I had to stay home a bit longer and see if she needed anything. She might come later."
"Oh. Well, this is Pavel, Robert, and Honza. Guys, this is Luke. My good friend from back home." They all shook hands after which Luke sat down next to me.
"What is char?"
"Who. Char’s my girlfriend. She’s a little sick. Not feelin’ too well."
"Char? What is it? Is no Czech name."
"No, no. American. Short for Charlotte. From back home. Georgia."
"What? You is crazy? Why you bring girlfriend from USA?"
"Fuck," Luke sighed. "You sound just like fucking Paul! I’m going to get me a beer." Luke went up to the bar and ordered. He came back and we all started talking about women again.
Luke seemed to like Pavel and Pavel was glad just to have the opportunity to be talking in English with two native speakers. Honza and Robert were in their own little world, speaking Czech like everyone else in the pub, and interrupted occasionally by Pavel. Before long, the pub door opened again and let the cold winter air inside.
"I don’t believe it." My jaw froze.
"What?"
"Eva just walked in."
Everyone at the table flashed their eyes towards the door.
"Who is Eva?" Pavel asked.
"Which one? The blonde. She just walked in with those two other girls and that guy."
"Wow," Luke stared a little too long, "That’s your student? ...Nice."
"Ahh," Pavel turned back around and took my eyes away from her. "Is nice. But nofing specials. Is normal."
"You’ve got to be kidding me Pavel! She’s gorgeous!"
"Look," he turned towards the door again. "Her friends is nice too. Maybe nicers!"
"What?! You’re full of shit." Nevertheless, I started to doubt myself and needed some reassurance, "Luke, what do you think?"
"I don’t know. Eva’s pretty hot. But Pavel has a point. The other two are really hot too."
"Is normal."
"Fuck man. Whatever. Beauty’s in the eyes of the beholder."
"So," Pavel leaned towards me. "Why you sit here? Go and be-holding her!"
Pavel was right. I went up to her, said hello and what a coincidence that we should meet at the same pub, and then told her that the entire class was meeting the next evening at Akropolis. She said she was free and would love to come, capping it all off with that rosy-cheeked smile of hers. We stood there talking for a bit about nothing in particular (she had been absent from school all week because she was getting over a cold) and then went our separate ways. She to the table her friends had already seated themselves at. Me, with a grin that wouldn’t disappear, back to Pavel, Honza, Luke, and Robert.
Prague would be a strange place for me now that Kim was gone, I thought as I walked the last few blocks to the school building in the Karlín section of the city. He had been my mentor and guide, not only as far as living in Prague was concerned, but in all aspects of this new life I had chosen for myself. Living in a strange country. Not being able to speak or communicate such simple things as a grocery list. The continuous dread that something might go horribly wrong. After all, this path I had chosen to take so many months ago was a dangerous one. Not only was I living from month to month, desperate for my next paycheck, and unable to plan for anything more than two months in advance – but I was doing it all in a strange and foreign land. That tiny life raft I had taken, lowered into the sea, and pushed away from the luxury cruiseship I had known since birth really was a lonely place. Thank God there were other rafts in the sea as well. Some of them were a bit larger and more worn through endless years on the rough seas, but they were all the same. Drifting aimlessly, but enjoying the journey while it lasted. I was sad to see the current take Kim’s raft away. It was the first one I had encountered and the one, outside my own, I had grown most familiar with. But I had always known it would drift out of sight one day, back over the endless horizon from which it had come. And now that moment had finally arrived. While I was watching it disappear into the distance forever, I glanced down into my once empty raft, saw all the useful supplies Kim had left with me, and smile appreciatively. I looked up once again and was about to shout "Thanks!" one last time but Kim had already vanished.
"Hello, my name is Paul. I’m the new teacher," I remarked as I entered room 214. It was the teacher’s lounge, more like a small office lined with desks, chairs, and a small refrigerator by the enormous window. We had a beautiful view of the clock/bell-tower of the gothic cathedral that stood outside on Karlinské naměsti. It was twenty past eight in the morning.
"Ah, Paul, yes," one of the women sitting down broke off her conversation in Czech with another teacher and got up to greet me. "Welcome, welcome. My name is Alena. I am your co-teacher. Have a seat. Have you been here before?"
"Yeah, yeah. I’ve been teaching here for about... Three and a half months now I guess."
"Really? Dat’s what dey said at de office but I haven’t seen you here before." Alena’s English was near perfect except for the fact that most of her "th"s seemed to come out as "d"s.
"Yeah, I usually teach evenings. I’ll tell you what though, I’ve never seen so many teachers in here before." There were eleven teachers, not including me, in the teacher’s lounge.
"Ah, yes. Well dis is normal in de mornings. You’ve never worked in de mornings? I thought you had even substituted for me once."
"Really?" I scoured my defective memory and found nothing. "What a coincidence. Anyway, I usually just drink some coffee downstairs by the machine before class and go back down there to smoke a cigarette during the break. So I guess I don’t really spend that much time in here." The other teachers had soon lost interest in me and continued what they were doing before I had entered the room – talking, preparing lessons, and finishing off any breakfast, tea, or coffee they may have had. I was left alone with Alena at a desk near the window.
"So, de classes know dat you’re coming today. I’ll teach de class in 204 first and you can have de one in 206. We’ll take a fifteen-minute break at ten o’clock and den we’ll switch classes. Now de one in 206 is a little more advanced dan 204. De’re mid- to upper-intermediate while de oder in 204 is lower-intermediate... Some of de students even upper-beginner. You can do what you have prepared with dem today but we should start on page thirty-nine of de book where..." I soon lost track of what Alena was saying. It was too much information and frankly, I wasn’t really that interested. I would just go into class and talk. For Christ’s sake, it was only my first day teaching these students. Page thirty-nine and upper- to lower-intermediate. Who needed that bullshit? "...third conditionals which de class you’ll be starting with should already know. I don’t think dat de last teacher explained it very well so I’ve been revising certain points that you can find in Unit Six, page thirty-seven... I think. Have a look when you get a chance. I think de last teacher gave dem as homework exercises six and seven in..." Alena was an extremely attractive woman and, as I soon found out, engaged to be married in May. She was only a few years older than me, almost as tall, and had short, cropped brown hair which showcased her delicate features. The first thing I noticed though, apart from her huge tits, tight ass, and incredible figure, were her beautiful blue eyes. As she kept talking, my eyes would briefly wander south of her neck towards and, afraid of being caught, would always return just in time to exchange a direct glance with those marvelous sapphires. They were as deep and blue as the waters by Δερβένι. I thought of summer. It seemed so long ago. The Gulf of Corinth. Marie. The sea. My raft. Kim and his cheap beer and cheaper women. I had been without one since Marie. Three and a half months. Not so bad. There were more things to life than sex. My eyes slowly wandered from Alena’s and went southward again. Hopefully she wouldn’t notice. "...any questions just ask me. Okay? Do you understand?" She had definitely noticed.
"Perfectly!" The tower outside the window soon struck eight-thirty. The bells chimed, the teachers rose from their seats, grabbed their books and notes, and made their way to the classrooms. I followed their lead and Alena wished me luck as she closed the door behind us.
I walked into the classroom, glanced at the students, greeted them, and tried to hide my astonishment as I sat down at the teacher’s desk and took out the attendance sheet. My new class was the same one Reinhard and I had been talking about a few weeks back! I wondered what had happened to Reinhard. Why was I taking over his class? It then dawned on me that, in fact, I hadn’t even seen him in the Dum for nearly a week. But I soon lost interest as my surveying eyes became fixed on the students sitting to my right. There were four of them, just as I had remembered, and extremely gorgeous, also just as I had remembered. I called out all the students’ names on the list and marked them as present or absent. Lenka, Petra, Eva, and Katka. Eva – the blonde I had talked to Reinhard about. She smiled sweetly when I called out her name and gracefully raised her hand to show that she was present. She was even more captivating than I remembered. I knew I would have problems concentrating on the lesson that day. First Alena, then these beauties – Lenka, Petra, Katka, and, especially, Eva. What could I do but continue to act professionally?
I finished taking role, leaned back in my seat, and went around class asking and eliciting questions. All the students seemed to remember me from when I had previously substitute-taught them. Apparently, that had occurred a week or so before the Christmas vacation. I felt a bit embarrassed that they still remembered nearly everything about me and I remembered hardly anything about them, but they didn’t seem to mind. The students just kept smiling and were extremely friendly. Most of them spoke enough English to at least communicate effectively – the same level that I had become so familiar with while talking to Pavel – but definitely had more than enough room for improvement. Some students wouldn’t say a word, either because they were too shy or didn’t know how to, while others wouldn’t shut up, despite the fact that they knew they kept making mistakes as I continuously corrected them. For the next hour or so, we practiced forming questions, short answers, and detailed responses. I’ll admit that I probably showered more attention onto the right side of the class – especially the four girls there – but I tried to be fair and equal all the same. I soon got the impression that, out of the entire class, Eva was not only one of the prettiest students, but also one of the most intelligent. Then again, I may have been biased. A single, captivating rose will always distort the rest of the garden.
An hour and a half passed by rather quickly. I gathered my things and went downstairs for some coffee and a cigarette. The area was packed with Czechs either a few years younger than me, my age, or a few years older, puffing away and gulping down caffeine during the fifteen minutes allotted them. I didn’t understand a word of what any of them were saying. Soon, however, some of the students I had just taught found me in the crowd and joined me. Eva, unfortunately, wasn’t one of them. They talked about their former teacher and how happy they were to now have me. I told them that, in fact, I knew Reinhard and understood exactly what they were talking about. We all laughed and one of the students recommended we should go out for a beer together some time. I agreed and told him I would think over the details. Soon, the break was over and it was time to teach the next class.
My other new students, the ones in room 204, weren’t as advanced as the ones in 206. Generally speaking, they were just as friendly but not as attractive... especially when compared to Eva and her three nymphs. I did the same lesson with that class – questions and answers – but found it a lot easier to concentrate on the task at hand without breasts, giggles, and smiles distracting me to the right. I finished class at a quarter to noon, asked Alena to tell me once again where I should start teaching from in the book, and made my way home to the Dum. The working day was done.
Although the morning classes were held five days a week, three hours a day, I had agreed with Priscilla to only teach three of those days. I lied to her and told her I couldn’t teach Thursday and Friday mornings because I was already part-time teaching those hours for another school. In reality, I simply didn’t want to work that much. I had fifteen hours of work a week (three hours each Monday to Wednesday morning; three hours each Tuesday and Thursday evening) and they were more than enough for me. It paid for the rent, food, and occasional night out on the town. Sure, I wasn’t really putting that much money aside but, then again, I hadn’t come to Prague to build a fortune. I had come here to live. I was, unlike most people I knew back home, working to live and not living to work. Financial security and future be damned.
A couple of weeks after I started that new morning class, I finally ran into Reinhard. He told me what had happened. Elvis fired him. Reinhard was clearly disappointed by the King’s stern decision and told me to watch out in the future – the King was not to be trusted. I took his words with a grain of salt. After all, both the students and Alena eventually told me that Reinhard had been a horrible teacher.* (* He had done two-months’ worth of textbook exercises with the students in one and a half weeks. He was unable to answer half of the students’ grammar questions and ignored the other half. In fact, they told me, the only clear and distinct thing that ever came out of his mouth was the smell of cheap booze.)I gave him my condolences and changed the topic of conversation.
"Hey Reinhard, do you think it’s right to try and sleep with one of your students?"
Reinhard just looked at me and smiled.
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"Hell, Paul. I don’t know if it’s right or wrong, but I don’t blame ya for tryin’! You got some pretty students now," he paused for a moment and looked out the window into nothing. "Yeah, real pretty."
I couldn’t have agreed more with Reinhard. Since I had started teaching the morning class, I couldn’t think of anything else other than how to get with, and whether I should get with, Eva. I don’t know why, but I had become infatuated with her. And all in less than a fortnight. I looked forward eagerly each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning to seeing her in class and was always a bit glum when she was absent. I was confused. So confused that, as I previously stated, I had even talked to Reinhard about it. But try as I might, I could never talk to Eva alone. She didn’t smoke or drink coffee which meant I never saw her during the class breaks and, apparently, she worked on Friday nights... A fact I didn’t know when I had first agreed to go out with a few of the students to a pub on the Friday after my first week of teaching them. There was only one more thing to do. I’d invite all of the students out again and, this time, make sure it wouldn’t be on a Friday. The next week, my third as their teacher, seemed to be the perfect opportunity. Thursday and Friday were national holidays so all schools would be closed. I could invite all the students out to a pub again, but this time on Thursday night. Eva would definitely come. I hoped.
I couldn’t contain my excitement as I went to school that Monday morning. Not only would I see my sweet Eva again after the long weekend, but I would also get to invite my pet and the rest of the students, but most importantly her, out for a drink in four days time. The anticipation for the day’s class to begin was killing me.
I suppose I should try to clarify the situation a bit, if I can. I don’t know how my infatuation with Eva developed and how it did so so rapidly. But it did and there was no denying its existence. I knew that I wasn’t in love with her, but I thought of her all the time. Yes, ‘love’ clearly isn’t the word. Now that I think of it, my thoughts go back to Greece and the way Greeks view love – as either eros, agape, or philia. In fact, it wasn’t a Greek at all who had taught me about and how to distinguish between the three, but Marie. She may not have been Greek, but something about her spirit clearly was and had drawn her there. And fate, as the Ancients would say, had drawn me to her... and her wisdom of love all those months ago in Δερβένι.
I was an amateur in matters of the heart when I first met Marie and still was when I started teaching Eva. As Luke had reminded me just a few weeks earlier, I had never really held a relationship down for longer than three months. Not that there was anything wrong with that in my view. In fact, it was something to be praised and cherished along with the freedom it afforded. But Marie was the first woman I had ever really cared about and, despite the fact that everything she believed went against my personal philosophy, I listened. And she, the girl who had been engaged twice to be married and urged me never to follow anything but my heart, taught me about the love of the Greeks that summer.
Eros, she began, was nothing but pure physical attraction. The heat. The passion. The erotic – a pulsing, never-ending desire to take another to bed and insatiably lick every inch of their sexual being. Devour it whole. Agape, on the other hand, was the type of love you feel for your family. The way a son loves a mother. The emotion that would drive a father to sacrifice everything, including his life, for a daughter. Agape is the love the Church preaches. And finally, there’s philia. That’s the love of the intellect. A good conversation. A good friend. Philo-sophy: The love of wisdom. Philo-logy: The love of words.
None of this was really that new to me. Marie just helped to remind me of what I already knew. What I didn’t know, however, was that true love couldn’t exist unless eros, agape, and philia were all present. The three types of love, Marie told me, had to co-exist in one essence of love or, eventually and inevitably, a relationship would end in nothingness. And finally, she told me, it was one of the most human faults, as far as relationships are concerned, to confuse on or two aspects of love for the whole. Eros, I’m positive, is the one most often confused.
And eros, I’m also positive, is what I felt most strongly for Eva. I had known her only for three weeks and here I was – eagerly anticipating inviting her for a drink over the holiday and unable to think of anything else but her beautiful face and body. The way she pushed her long, flowing blonde hair gracefully behind her ear each time a strand covered her delicate face. The way her soft cheeks turned a bit red each time she smiled, or laughed, or made and English mistake. The way her captivating green eyes seemed to follow me no matter where I was standing in the classroom. The way she took off her coat at the beginning of class and put it back on at the end. If only I had a chance to talk to her, to seduce her, to make her mine. I didn’t know whether agape and philia would, or could, eventually develop between us, but eros had definitely enveloped me in a mere three weeks.
Eva was absent from school on Monday. I still told all the other students about my plans for Thursday night though. We would meet at around ten o’clock in the Žižkov section of the city at a club called Akropolis, mainly because it was open until five in the morning. I told the students it would be a great opportunity to get to know each other better and speak English in a more relaxed atmosphere. Eva, I comforted myself, was bound to show up for class either on Tuesday or Wednesday. I would tell her then.
She didn’t show up at all that week.
"Can you believe my fuckin’ luck?! I mean, what is this shit? I finally make a plan, work out all the details, and she doesn’t even show up for class!"
"Yes. Iz fucking shit..." Pavel shook his head in sympathy and translated for Robert and Honza. When he was done, they started shaking their heads too. "Do not worrying Paul. This fucking shit problem. Many womans in world. Why is special this Eva? Czech Republic – every girls is beautiful girls!"
Pavel lifted his glass of beer and we nazdravíed. He then signaled the waiter over and ordered something. It was Wednesday night and Pavel, Robert, Honza, and I were drinking at a pub in Anděl – a popular student and commercial district just south of the city center. They had off the next day too and had called me up for a drink.
"Yeah, yeah. I know there are many beautiful girls here..."
"So? What is problem?" Pavel cut in.
"The problem is, you haven’t seen Eva. I’m telling you man, she’s fucking gorgeous..."
"George-ous? Like Bush?"
"Gorgeous, gorgeous. Beautiful. You know? I mean, I just can’t help not staring at her in class she’s that beautiful. And I made this plan to get all the students out tomorrow, and she doesn’t even show up! In-fuckin-credible!"
Pavel scratched his unshaven chin stubble and furled his brow. Then his eyes lit up with an idea, "I have solution!"
"Really? What?"
"So, why you no fucking wif other student?!"
"What? What kind of solution is that?"
"Is students coming to Akropolis tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"Is beautiful?"
"Well, some. Very. Yes."
"And is all students eigtheen year old?"
"Eighteen or older. Yeah."
"So, fucking wif other student!" Pavel interrupted Robert and Honza, who were having their own conversation in Czech, and said something to them. They seemed interested, said a few words amongst themselves, and nodded in agreement.
"Shit, Pavel. What a stupid fucking idea! I don’t want another student. I want Eva!"
"Ahh," Pavel waved his hand at me dismissively. "Beautiful womans is beautiful womans. You are moc nadržený! Like I say in Horní Planá train for you. Find girls and fucking. All Czech girls is nice. Why fink you only for one? And Czech girls is fucking you very easy. Hundred percents. But you speaking like little boys, ‘I want Eva! I want Eva!’" The waiter came and left four shots of Becherovka, a delicious Czech liqueur, on the table. "We drink! Nazdraví!"
A few minutes later, the door of the pub opened and Luke walked into the crowded room. I waved to him, he saw us, and came to the table.
"Hey. How are you?"
"Okay."
"What took you so long? And where’s Char?"
"Hell, she’s feelin’ a little sick. I had to stay home a bit longer and see if she needed anything. She might come later."
"Oh. Well, this is Pavel, Robert, and Honza. Guys, this is Luke. My good friend from back home." They all shook hands after which Luke sat down next to me.
"What is char?"
"Who. Char’s my girlfriend. She’s a little sick. Not feelin’ too well."
"Char? What is it? Is no Czech name."
"No, no. American. Short for Charlotte. From back home. Georgia."
"What? You is crazy? Why you bring girlfriend from USA?"
"Fuck," Luke sighed. "You sound just like fucking Paul! I’m going to get me a beer." Luke went up to the bar and ordered. He came back and we all started talking about women again.
Luke seemed to like Pavel and Pavel was glad just to have the opportunity to be talking in English with two native speakers. Honza and Robert were in their own little world, speaking Czech like everyone else in the pub, and interrupted occasionally by Pavel. Before long, the pub door opened again and let the cold winter air inside.
"I don’t believe it." My jaw froze.
"What?"
"Eva just walked in."
Everyone at the table flashed their eyes towards the door.
"Who is Eva?" Pavel asked.
"Which one? The blonde. She just walked in with those two other girls and that guy."
"Wow," Luke stared a little too long, "That’s your student? ...Nice."
"Ahh," Pavel turned back around and took my eyes away from her. "Is nice. But nofing specials. Is normal."
"You’ve got to be kidding me Pavel! She’s gorgeous!"
"Look," he turned towards the door again. "Her friends is nice too. Maybe nicers!"
"What?! You’re full of shit." Nevertheless, I started to doubt myself and needed some reassurance, "Luke, what do you think?"
"I don’t know. Eva’s pretty hot. But Pavel has a point. The other two are really hot too."
"Is normal."
"Fuck man. Whatever. Beauty’s in the eyes of the beholder."
"So," Pavel leaned towards me. "Why you sit here? Go and be-holding her!"
Pavel was right. I went up to her, said hello and what a coincidence that we should meet at the same pub, and then told her that the entire class was meeting the next evening at Akropolis. She said she was free and would love to come, capping it all off with that rosy-cheeked smile of hers. We stood there talking for a bit about nothing in particular (she had been absent from school all week because she was getting over a cold) and then went our separate ways. She to the table her friends had already seated themselves at. Me, with a grin that wouldn’t disappear, back to Pavel, Honza, Luke, and Robert.
posted by G.C. PHILO at 4:50 AM
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