“
Lucy picked up the point. “I remember this one time when I was in the third grade? And Jesse Cantu decided that he liked me? But I didn’t like him? So he decided that I would fall in love with him if he rescued me from some kind of danger, because that’s what always happens in the movies? So one day he told me that there was a surprise waiting for me in the cupboard at the back of the classroom and all I had to do was go in at recess and open the cupboard door—”
“And you believed him?” Benno interrupted, aghast.
“Of course!” Lucy said indignantly. “Because I’m from Mississippi! Where we believe people! So anyway, when I opened the cupboard there was a whole mess of spiders in there and I know people say that spiders scuttle away when they see you coming, but these spiders jumped out at me like they were rabid or something and Jesse ran into the room to save me but I was screaming so much that the principal called 911!” She paused for breath. “And the only good thing that happened was that we all got out of school for the rest of the day.”
There was a brief silence as everyone absorbed this. Finally Silvia muttered, “Men are pigs.”
Giacomo sighed. “How old was this boy with the spiders?” he asked Lucy in a patient voice, as if they had all gone off the rails but were fortunate that he was there to put them right.
She frowned, as if suspecting a trick, but finally answered, “Eight.”
“As I thought! Far too young to realize what a mistake he was making,” he said triumphantly. “But I’m sure he learned from this sad experience, yes? He didn’t keep trying to attract women with spiders?”
“Well, no, of course not,” Lucy said. “Jesse’s still real immature, but he’s not an idiot.”
“There you are, then.” Giacomo leaned his chair back, teetering on the back two legs, looking pleased with himself. “Everyone makes mistakes in love. The point is to learn from them. For example, Jesse learned—”
“What?” Kate scoffed. “That attacking a girl with spiders isn’t a good way to say ‘I love you’? That should have been obvious from the start.”
“Well, yes.” He nodded, as if conceding the point, but then added. “Of course, all knowledge is useful.”
“But not all knowledge is worth the cost.”
“And what cost is that?” Giacomo’s deep brown eyes were alight with enjoyment.
“Looking like a fool.”
“Oh, that.” He folded his arms across his chest with the air of one who is about to win an argument. “That’s nothing to concern yourself with. After all, love makes fools of everyone, don’t you agree?”
“No, I don’t.” Kate bit off each word. “I don’t agree at all.”
“How astonishing,” he muttered.
“In fact,” she said meaningfully, “I would say that love only makes fools of those who were fools to begin with.”
She smiled at him, clearly pleased with her riposte. Giacomo let his chair fall back to the floor with a thump.
“If the world was left to people like you,” he said in an accusing tone, “we’d all be computing love’s logic on computers and dissecting our hearts in a biology lab.”
“If the world were left to people like me,” Kate said with conviction, “it would be a much better place to live.”
“Oh, yes,” he said sarcastically. “Because it would be orderly. Sensible. And dull.”
“Love doesn’t have to end in riots and disaster and, and, and . . . spider attacks!” she said hotly.
”
”