: A teenager falls in love with his teacher, but because of the age difference, they are forced to end the relationship. Many years later, he learns that the teacher died young and now he is forever older than her.
24-year-old teacher Ann Taylor came to Greentown to teach at school. The children immediately became attached to her and vyingly offered their simple help.
... She was the teacher to whom all the children wanted to bring huge oranges or pink flowers ...
Her 14-year-old student, Bob Spaulding, was a dreamy lonely teenager. From the very first day, he showed increased attention to the teacher: he met and escorted her after work, carried a bag, washed a blackboard. However, he understood that the townspeople would not accept the explicit courtship of Miss Taylor, so he masked him as best he could. The teacher took the boy in love calmly, not encouraging him. She gave him a book, they discussed literature a lot - Bob wanted to become a writer.
Bob invited her several times out of town to a wonderful meadow, where he usually caught butterflies. Miss Taylor refused at first. At the same time, she noticed that she herself treated Bob in a special way: she could not call him to the board and often thought about him.
... On other days ... she found herself staring at him for long moments before returning to her notebooks again.
Finally, she came to a clearing outside the city, and they both had a wonderful day: they caught crayfish and butterflies, sat in the sand, ate sandwiches, drank citro, talked a little. Bob casually remarked that such an innocent pastime of a teacher and student would not be liked by anyone in the city, although they do nothing reprehensible.
Miss Taylor tried to break this friendship, but the boy continued his innocent courtship. Finally, the teacher called Bob for a frank conversation. She explained to him that their relationship can only be friendly and no other, because between them the difference is 10 years. And although they are both decent people and have not done anything wrong, their meetings must be stopped before they begin to pay attention.
The teacher gently and delicately explained to the boy that otherwise they would both become unhappy, because there are unwritten rules and it is dangerous to break them. To Bob’s desperate question, how did this happen to them, Miss Taylor replied that no one knows why love arises.
People either love each other or not, but it happens that those who should not love each other.
She was about to transfer to another school, but the teenager said that his family was moving to another city where his father found a job. Both vowed never to forget each other, but the teacher wisely noticed that if life takes something, then she will definitely give something in return.
After 16 years, 30-year-old Bob and his wife drove into the city of his childhood for a day. Miss Taylor, almost no one remembered. After a long search, Bob found out that she died 14 years ago.Shocked, he stood on the teacher’s grave, bitterly realizing that he was now older than her, forever 26-year-old. Bob's lovely wife aroused in the townspeople the same sense of admiration that Miss Taylor had in her time.
The retelling is based on the translation
