The entire school was full of cardboard crowns yesterday. Children spent hours sticking bits of golden paper on their crowns, then wore them with the points upward or - for the more belligerent - downward, like a knight's visor.
It was the Kings' Day, and the song they were practicing at the beginning of the week was belted out with gusto. 'I'm not singing out of interest / I am singing out of friendship / Singing the story of the Kings / to my community!'
Not the most inspiring lyrics, I must say. The story itself - hmmm. The three Kings come bearing gifts for the baby Jesus. They stop outside Bethlehem and have an argument about which of them would offer the first present. A local lord settles the dispute by making a cake and baking inside it a random bean. The cake is cut into three and the king who finds the bean is the first gift-giver. The Bolo Rei - a crown-shaped fruitcake eaten in Portugal around Christmas (read: between November and February!) - embodies the legend.
As I walk towards my next class, I'm pestered by a few petty questions: why a bean? who would give the second present? wouldn't they be fighting about that next? would a second cake be required?
In the classroom, I am faced with 14 kings and queens and 2 knights. The knights, I suspect, are the 2 children who don't want to see what's going on in the English class, never have. I ask about the song. Everyone jumps into formation, according to instruments: two flutes, improvised percussion, two shells rubbed together, a mouth organ, some castanets, pencils-and-desks. They launch into the song, making a huge and merry racket.
It's another ten minutes until we manage to settle down. Just as they start to concentrate on their worksheet (except the two knights who I suspect have fallen asleep behind their visors) the door opens. In comes the janitor holding a little queen by the hand: it's my daughter!!! Everyone stops and turns to look.
'Snack' - the janitor says. I stare blankly. 'She needs her snack' - he repeats. I am dumbstruck - this has never happened before - and turn mechanically to check my bag. Have I got anything??? I am closely followed by everyone's gaze, in tense expectation. Phewww - I find a banana, it looks OK, not too black, not too squashed.
I take it out of the bag as one would a pistol, going 'Ta-doooom' - Kira runs forward and snatches it, everyone laughs. By the end of the class, they're still laughing, still wearing their crowns, the worksheet still unfinished.
Well, there's always tomorrow.
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