Amberville - By Tim Davys Page 0,64

have fallen flat onto the cold sand.

“Emma Rabbit,” I said, “will you marry me?”

I had thought about asking earlier. I had abstained. I’d been wise and strategic. I was through with so-called wisdom now. A seagull was screeching out over the sea.

“Emma Rabbit,” I repeated, “will you marry me?”

Later she would tease me about that. It was my need for control that caused me to get to the point, she would say. When I realized that I wouldn’t get to see her at work anymore.

She was so lovely on the shore at Hillevie. Happy as a cub at having finally made her decision and chosen art.

I put a damper on the mood with my proposal. I couldn’t let be.

“Emma Rabbit,” I said for a third time, “will you marry me?”

Her broad smile became even broader. She nodded and whispered, “Yes, thanks.” It was enchanting.

In the very next moment I knew that I could never carry out the marriage.

It had to do with Father.

Eric and I grew up with a powerful father figure. Boxer Bloom served not only as our role model; he was a role model for many. The stories about him were legion. The one I personally placed foremost, and which moved me most deeply, dealt with pride, dignity, and respect. It dealt with a stuffed animal’s attitude toward his place of employment.

When I started at Wolle & Wolle, it was unavoidable that I compared myself to my father.

Father had been trained as a schoolteacher. Immediately after his education, he started to work at the elementary school in Amberville, where he later remained. He taught chemistry and physics and made himself known for his unusually just treatment of the pupils. He became the school system’s living model, who proved that it was possible to treat everyone alike: cats and chimpanzees, foxes and badgers.

Therefore it was peculiar that Rector Owl called on Father in that particular affair that would transform their lives.

This was at the time when Eric and I were not yet in school, because we were too little. One evening as Father sat correcting papers in his office, there was an unexpected knock at the door. Father stopped what he was doing and looked out through the window. The storm had swept in over the city. Father often worked late, because he could be in peace in the evenings. Now he asked the person who was knocking to come in. To Father’s astonishment, Bo Owl was standing outside the door.

“Bloom,” said Rector Owl, “do you have a minute?”

Of course Father had a minute for the venerable rector. Owl had already been serving at Amberville when Father had been a pupil at the school. Father pushed his papers aside and prepared to listen. It was the first time Owl had called on him after school hours.

“You do have Nathan in your physics class, don’t you?” said Bo Owl.

Nathan was Bo Owl’s cub, a beaver who’d been delivered to the rector and his wife late in life. Now Owl’s cub was in one of Father’s final-year classes, and he had major problems with physics.

Father nodded thoughtfully, and said, “With your help, Bo, I’m certain that Nathan is going to pass his examination.”

“Unfortunately that’s not good enough, Bloom,” sighed the owl. “Nathan wants to continue his studies at the art academy. So he has to have the highest grades in all of his subjects, even in physics. Just passing isn’t good enough.”

“Then he’s really going to have to work at it,” declared Father.

That Beaver Nathan would receive the highest grades in physics, Father considered to be more or less impossible. Nathan had neither aptitude for nor understanding of the subject.

“We’re planning to work at it,” the rector assured him. “You can be quite certain that I as well as Nathan are going to do everything in our power to succeed.”

Father nodded.

“But what I would really appreciate,” continued the rector, “were if you, Bloom, also did everything you could.”

Father said that he always did his best. According to his opinion, most of the pupils responded well.

Father misunderstood the rector’s intentions. The idea of giving Beaver a grade that had nothing to do with his efforts was so preposterous that it didn’t occur to Father.

Rector Owl was forced to become explicit to the point of vulgarity. The conversation ended with Owl openly threatening Father. If Beaver Nathan wasn’t guaranteed the highest grade in physics, Father would lose his job.

Father left school that evening crushed. When he came home, at first he didn’t want