In the Rue de la Chanvrerie (original) (raw)

He sits in Corinth, late in the evening, when the customers begin singing and growing louder with the larger quantities of liquor. He doesn't drink anything but tea; he's never had any good experiences with alcohol.

He sits at a table in the back, trying to write. It's not poetry, or prose, or anything that would be rewarding to write: it's an essay about...something about education, something about the Pope, something about his opinions on education.

Jehan traces idle circles on his paper, and wonders if his friends have already finished their work (Why has there suddenly been such an accumulation in exams and essays? Why so much raucous laughter?), realizes they're probably much smarter and much more ambitious than he is, and sighs. He wonders if they have as much work to finish as he does, and wonders if they're having fun somewhere else, or perhaps somewhere in the cafe, with a glass of wine in all of their hands and a smile on all of their faces.

He shifts and attempts getting his pen away from the circles and to the Pope.