Alec

by William di Canzio

Alec grew to be a cheerful, sturdy boy and then a good-looking teenager, with bright brown eyes, thick wavy hair, and a reputation in school for brains and diligence. He benefited from England’s progress in free education. From age seven to thirteen, he learned to read (well), write (poorly), and do arithmetic (accurately). Because his father prospered and Alec behaved himself, his teachers encouraged him to stay on for three more years. He studied basic mathematics, history, a little Latin and French, and read the English poets. He liked geometry: spheres, planes, lines, angles, volumes. They gave the schoolboy pause—maybe what seemed the random stuff of everyday life partook of a complex, cosmic order, like that of the planets and stars. As for English history, he enjoyed the Wars of the Roses and the ensuing mayhem of Tudors and Stuarts; but after Cromwell things got dull in his opinion and stayed that way. Latin and French were no fun at all: the smattering they offered at the village school got barely further than grammar. As for poetry, it baffled but intrigued him; when he spent enough time, letting sound and sense come together, it could stir unnameable feelings.