“Yo a ti te conozco,” she said sweetly as she came near his desk.
He looked up as she was handing him back his graded homework assignment. His teacher smiled
and winked and then went on handing out the rest of the papers.
Harvey watched her walking up and down and among the aisles of his fellow students, other
adults like himself, who were taking evening Spanish classes. He noticed, perhaps for the first time, that
she wore her hair loose around her shoulders, and smiled involuntarily as the thought of kissing her neck
crossed his mind.
He thought of what she had just said to him. What did she mean, “I know you”? How did she
know him? He was just one more foreigner in this bustling city, just one more person captivated by this
fascinating country and trying to learn how to communicate better.
Now, in his second semester at the CAS, Harvey was gaining more confidence when he had to
converse with board members and parents who spoke little if any English, and it helped that most were
very patient with his language handicap, although there were often little jokes and subtle innuendos that
he missed because he just hadn’t yet developed enough of an ear for the language.
Harvey had been taking Spanish classes for several months, and was quite enjoying the
opportunity to be learning and meeting new people on an entirely social level. In late December he had
passed the quarterly exams and had been moved up to a new class which met Tuesday and Thursday
evenings. His new teacher, Carmen Mendoza Moreno, was frankly very beautiful, Harvey had to admit.
She seemed to be in her late 30’s, close to his age, and her short dark brown hair was always
immaculately styled. Like most Spanish women, she wore elegant, flattering clothing and generally
seemed poised and confident. Although he had only been in her class for a short period, it was still early
January, he had heard right away through the rumor mill that she was a single mom and that her husband
had passed away three years earlier. As one of many students in her class, he had not really entertained
the idea of her taking any special notice of him. It wasn’t that Harvey didn’t want to be in a relationship,
he often thought, it’s just that with his job taking up so much of his time and energy, there never seemed
to be enough left to go out and meet someone. When he had first arrived in Spain, well-meaning parents
had tried to set him up with several nice women, but their match-making attempts had led to naught. He
was unperturbed, however, and enjoyed his life as it was.
But what exactly did she mean, “I know you”? The words, “Yo a ti te conozco,” rolled around in
his mind making it difficult for him to concentrate on the lesson. He waited impatiently for the class to let
out so he could have an opportunity to speak with her. He felt like each of the forty five minutes stopped
to have a cup of coffee and linger over the newspaper before bothering to tip the hands of the clock the
tiniest bit. Now, finally, that was the bell! She gave them an assignment and walked back toward her
desk.
Harvey gathered his writing utensils and closed his notebook, which normally would have been
completely scrawled over with new words, phrases and grammatical constructs to practice, but which
today had precious few notes. Having packed away his things in his satchel and risen from his seat, he
began heading toward Carmen, still not sure what he would say to her. When he was about half way up
the aisle he was cornered by Gary O’Brien.
“Are ye up for a beer, tonight, lad? Ya look like ye could use one.” Gary was an Irish
businessman who had been living in Spain for fifteen years, but was just now getting around to improving
his Spanish. He and Harvey had a cordial relationship, having met after class when Harvey first started at
the Camara de Comercios and Harvey had joined him once or twice, but often he had declined Gary’s
offers in order to get back to his apartment to have some time to read or catch up on some American
football games via the internet.
“Sorry, buddy, can’t tonight.”
“C’mon ol’ mate, it’ll be a barmy good time,” Gary cajoled in his Irish brogue. Harvey did not
want to be rude so he turned back toward his friend and grasped the extended hand and shook it, but again
insisted that he could not go out tonight.
“Oh, all right, please yourself, then,” said Gary amiably, putting on his coat.
Don’t mind if I do, thought Harvey and turned back toward Carmen, only to see that she had
vanished. That was quick! A tiny part of him was disappointed that she hadn’t made an effort to follow up
with her remark to him. Why say it and then disappear as soon as class had ended? She didn’t even give a
body a chance to ask her anything. Well, he wouldn’t just let it stand at that, would he?
Instead of turning right, toward the exit, Harvey headed left once he left the classroom, thinking
that perhaps she had gone to her office. But when he got there he saw that the light was out.
Disappointment mixed with intrigue in Harvey’s stomach as he walked back to catch the bus to his
apartment. It would be too late to go swimming, and he also wanted to look over the draft of the latest
newsletter he was preparing. Again his mind returned to the question of the evening: how did she know
him? Surely not from school, he thought. He knew that he had never met her there. And he hadn’t seen
any students with the last name ‘Moreno.’ He always checked that at the beginning of each new class, just
in case. But none of his Spanish teachers had been connected with the CAS. So then, where? Perhaps she
was mistaken? There were so few people with red hair—maybe she had confused him with another man
from another of her classes? But no, she had looked directly at him. It must be from the school. Perhaps
she was related to a board member? Yes, he thought, maybe that was it.
Still, he wrestled with thoughts of Carmen all night long. That wink that she had given him, was
that just the normal garden-variety flirtation or did she mean that she could be interested… Stop it! You’re
not a seventeen year-old! Quit acting like you’re love-sick! You just noticed her in that manner for the
first time today! But no, his mind did not let him rest. What a long night it was!
The next day, Friday, got filled with work and between one thing and another, Harvey was
distracted from his questions about Carmen. Having broken the obsessive cycle, Harvey was able to
partly quench his surprisingly ardent feelings and think more clearly without succumbing to the
annoyingly cyclic nature of his prior broodings. He would simply find a way to speak with her and ask
her directly what she meant. There was no need for drama and he was far too old to feel shy about
approaching this lovely woman. Either she was interested in having a relationship or not. If not, it might
be a bit awkward to continue as her student, but they would get past that and he would move on to the
next level. With new found enthusiasm he delved into the subjunctive conjugations they were covering
and began practicing them aloud.
The following Tuesday evening, Harvey arrived early to class and was delighted to find that he
had guessed correctly: Carmen was sitting at her desk, putting the finishing touches on the lesson she was
about to impart.
“Hola,” he said, a bit shyly.
“Hi,” she answered, smiling warmly. “How was school today?”
“You know I work at a school?” he asked, uncomfortably aware that he was stating the obvious.
So I was right, he thought, she does know me from school.
“Hey, Carmen,” came a voice from behind Harvey. It was Sean, one of Harvey’s classmates. “Is
now a good time to go over the subjunctive with me?”
“Sí, ¿cómo no?” she answered, pulling out her teacher’s book.
Harvey stepped back and out of the way as Sean pulled a chair up to her desk. Harvey gave her a
quick smile and she cocked her head at him, a typical Spanish acknowledgement, and then turned her full
attention on Sean.
Harvey walked across the room and exited into the hallway. Class would not be starting for
another ten minutes and his heart was racing. I’m acting like a schoolboy! He went to the men’s room
washed his face with some cool water. When he felt composed, he returned in time to join the others who
were entering the classroom and taking a seat. Harvey thought about approaching Carmen again at the
end of class, but found that he had lost his nerve. When Gary asked him about getting a beer after class as
he had promised, Harvey readily agreed, relieved to have a reason not to linger.
Another full week went by before Harvey decided to try to speak with Carmen again. As he had
done the prior Tuesday, Harvey showed up early to class, and again found Carmen seated at her desk,
reading over her lesson plans for the day. He was determined to have an entire conversation this time, and
as he approached her desk he glanced around to be sure no other students would be entering soon. No one
else was around. He took a quiet breath and stepped forward.
“Hola, Carmen,” he said, walking in and placing his book and notebook on a desk toward the
front of the room, fairly close to her desk.
“¿Qué tal en el cole hoy?” She asked, repeating the question she had asked last week, but this
time in Spanish.
Harvey knew that his Spanish was not good enough to continue this particular conversation with
any type of finesse so he changed back to English. “School was good, thanks,” he answered, pleased that
she was making it easy to speak with her. Before he lost his nerve, he pushed forward and said, “I was
meaning to ask you, Carmen, are you a parent, I mean, you know about me working at the school. Do
you, maybe, have a child at the CAS? Or perhaps you are related to a board member?” He was
stammering! How embarrassing! But he had to ask. The Spanish had the annoying habit of using two last
names, so it was very difficult to match children to parents by just looking at names in the directory. He
had nevertheless re-scanned the enrollment list this past week to see if he could figure out if she was a
parent, but his search had not met with success.
She smiled again and Harvey felt like he wanted to melt. Stop it, you fool! Don’t grin like that at
her. Get a hold of yourself!
“Yes, my daughter is in pre-Kindergarten at the CAS.”
“Oh,” Harvey said, blushing. He had not thought to check the pre-K list. One of the oversights
that many high school teachers and administrators develop is not thinking of the younger students as part
of the school until they are in the first grade. Or at least in kindergarten. But pre-Kinder was mandatory in
Spain and began at three years of age. The children were practically still babies when they first come to
school, barely out of diapers and still needing naps.
“I see you in the parking lot every day,” she offered.
Oh, so that was it! How had he never noticed her? And had she seen all his rearrangements of
cones and traffic lanes and all of the iterations he had tried? With a sinking heart he realized that she
probably had. He blushed deeply at the thought, and his pale skin betrayed his blush quite easily. She
must have thought he was crazy out there, among all the cars, morning and evening. The full picture, as
she must have seen it, now came to his mind—just another crazy American shaking up a system which no
one thinks is broken in the first place, and trying to fix it. It was a humiliating thought.
“Yeah, well… I just like to make sure, you know, that everyone gets in and out safely.” It was a
very lame answer. It had been years since he had been at a loss for words.
“I am glad there are no more orange cones to run over,” she said, her eyes twinkling.
He could tell that she was playing with him, and for some reason, this took all of the tension
away. “Yeah,” he admitted, chuckling now as he thought about it, “that was a bit of a disaster.”
Just then several of his classmates entered the room.
“Harvey, ol’ boy, you missed a good time Saturday night!”
Harvey shrugged his shoulders, half at Carmen and half at Gary O’Brien, and sat down at his
desk, relieved not to be talking about his embarrassing parking lot fiasco any more with this beautiful
woman. Yes, she seemed to get more beautiful each time he saw her, Harvey realized. And she had been
every bit as friendly as he had dared to hope she would be.
He fished out his Spanish grammar book from his satchel and opened it, flipping the pages
whose edges were getting curly from use, back and forth to find the correct location. They had been
covering the elusive subjunctive verb tense for the last two weeks, and most people still had trouble with
it.
Carmen stood up from her desk, smoothing her dress over her slender thighs, welcomed the class
and began the lesson. But as the class stretched out, Harvey hardly listened—his mind was again on his
teacher. He wanted to ask her out, but was not sure if she was already seeing someone.
At the end of class he purposely took longer than usual to gather his papers and place them in his
bag, while keeping an eye on Carmen to be sure she would not escape unnoticed. He had decided that if
she began leaving, he would abandon his things, temporarily, and go after her. His dallying allowed the
majority of students to leave the class before him. Luckily, Gary seemed to have something better to do
tonight and did not renew his regular offer to have Harvey join him for a brew. Harvey picked up his tote
bag and swung it over his shoulder and then summoning his courage, he approached his lovely teacher
who was still assembling papers at her desk. Was she perhaps also lingering? If so, she was much more
subtle about it than he had been. He took a breath and she looked up. Before he could lose his nerve he
blurted out, “Carmen, would you like to, you know, go out to dinner with me sometime?”
Carmen smiled warmly at Harvey. “Faltaría más,” was her answer.
Harvey translated her response in his mind. More would be missing. Okay…that didn’t make any
sense. Missing what? How could that be the answer to “Would you like to go out with me sometime?”
What was it with these people that they had to take more words to answer a simple yes or no question?
How had he not managed to come across that particular phrase yet?
Carmen noticed that he was still processing her answer so she returned to English. “It means, yes,
of course.”