‘Hi, Eddy.’
‘Hi, Mrs Elsdon.’
Mrs Elsdon shifted her weight over the walking stick and settled in on the footpath below.
‘How’s your study going?’
‘It’s okay. There’s a lot of it, though. Sometimes I don’t know how my head can hold it all in.’
‘Life can be like that, Eddy,’ responded old lady Elsdon with a raise of the eyebrows.
‘Can I ask you a question?’
‘Sure. That’ll make a change from the norm.’
‘What m-makes girls like boys?’
‘Jeez, you don’t start with the small ones, do you?’
‘Sorry.’
‘No, no. I was just having you on, Eddy,’ chuckled Mrs Elsdon. ‘It is a good one, though.’
Eddy suddenly wished he’d never asked the question at all. And even if Mrs Elsdon could answer the question, he had serious doubts he would understand it. It seemed to him that girls were such complicated creatures that even the handbook had to be gobbledegook to a boy like him. He should’ve just accepted his ignorance and avoided this awkward circumstance altogether. Mrs Elsdon wasn’t put off, though, and after a moment to gather her thoughts, she looked back up at him and gave it a shot.
‘Girls and boys are made a bit different, Eddy,’ she said. ‘Some would say too different and others would say not different enough. There’s no rules on that front, except to say they’re different. The way I see it though is it’s how we were made to see the world. Girls are very mature, even when they’re young. Boys, I think, tend to see the world as “today”. Girls, on the other hand, tend to see it as both “yesterday” and “tomorrow”.’ Mrs Elsdon grimaced, not happy with her explanation thus far. ‘What I mean by that is . . . You know your history, don’t you, Eddy?’
‘Yep. Some at least.’
‘Back thousands of years ago, the men were the hunters and the women were the gatherers. When it came to hunting animals it’s all about what happens in the moment that counts. One minute there’d be a mammoth wandering by and the next there wouldn’t. You had to take things day by day. Us women though, we had to reckon with where the fruit and berries would be tomorrow and the days after that. That meant knowing where they’d been yesterday and the yesterdays before that and understanding how and when they grew for the future.’
Eddy wasn’t getting this and it must have shown.
‘Put it this way. When a girl looks at a boy and wonders whether he’s someone she could like, she’s thinking about yesterday and tomorrow. She may not know that, but she is. The yesterday is about her past experience with boys. The tomorrow is all about her security. The need to know that even if the rains don’t come there’ll be a place she can go to and be comforted. When it comes to boys, we’re talking about somebody who can give her two sorts of things really. Those things you can see, feel and touch, like financial security, a house over her head, protection for herself and her children. And the other sort . . . That’s the important stuff. Things like love. A good family. I guess when you look back at it, it’s about wants and needs.
‘What makes it so complicated I think . . . for boys, at least . . . is understanding what the girl is looking for most: yesterday or tomorrow.
‘Gosh,’ rounded off Mrs Elsdon, ‘I’m not an expert, Eddy, and I know that sounds all over the place but it’s my best shot.’
‘Thanks, Mrs Elsdon,’ responded Eddy honestly. ‘I’m not sure I get it just yet b-but you’ve given me something to think about.’
‘Well, don’t think too hard, young man, because you’ve got a lot of other stuff to fit in there yet.’ Mrs Elsdon tapped her head and then tapped her walking stick. ‘Sorry, I’ll have to make it a quick one today; looks like we’ve got rain on the way.’
‘Okay, Mrs Elsdon. B-be careful.’
‘I will. See you later.’
Eddy watched the old lady depart. Her left hip was getting worse by the day but she was never going to admit it. He didn’t like seeing her struggle like this but he would miss her daily visits an awful lot.
‘Yesterdays’ and ‘tomorrows’. She’d certainly given him some food for thought.