the Book Club is missing Tom

Tom’s still away on his bike ride. This is Ellie, reporting on the latest Book Club meeting.

We meet on Zoom.

The topic this time was France.

Teddy’s been learning French since March, so he had suggested we talk about French books, and books set in France.

He brought The Little Prince and explained the little prince’s philosophy of life.

I brought all my Anatole books, about a cheese-tasting mouse in Paris.

Gibbs told us about the Red Balloon, and we watched a little bit of the film.

He and I had agreed before the meeting that we wouldn’t go on and on about our wonderful trip to Paris to find the places in the book, but I’ve promised him that I’ll mention it on the Book Club pages about French books.

But then Lopsy reminded us that at the last Book Club meeting, Tom had said that the Red Balloon was much too sad. And that made us all sad about Tom not being here.

We thought about the bad boys with their catapults, attacking Pascal’s red balloon, and it made us feel anxious about Tom.

Points tried to take our minds off our worries by talking about revolutionary politics, and A Tale of Two Cities.

But we all remembered about the ruthless Marquis, and the guillotine, and that made the world seem a very dangerous place, so we worried all the more.

Teddy had the good idea that Lopsy could recite one of the Madeline books to us to cheer us up.

She knows them all by heart, and they’re very jolly.

Everyone was sad and cross by now, and there was an argument about how to pronounce “Madeline”.

In the end I had to intervene as chairperson, and say that on this occasion we would rhyme the name with FINE, not FIN or FEN.

The first page of each of the books incudes the couplet “They left the house at half past nine – the smallest one was Madeline”, which I believe backs up my choice.

But I didn’t argue the case, I just said we could discuss it further another time.

But unfortunately Lopsy chose to tell us the story of Madeline and the Gypsies, and Points objected that the book is racist.

She says we shouldn’t use the word “gypsies”, and that the book promulgates the idea that all Travellers are in the habit of kidnapping children.

Lopsy was firm in defending her book.

She says that Romany Gypsies are a distinct ethnic group, and that the book does not use the word in a pejorative way, but is very positive in representing their skills and culture.

She also said, correctly, that Miss Clavel had carelessly left Madeline and Pepito behind at the carnival, whereas the gypsies had taken very good care of them, apart from not making them brush their teeth at night.

Points was just starting to object again, but I cut this discussion short too (I think I’m getting better at chairing meetings) and I invited Lopsy to go ahead and tell us the story.

(I discussed some more with Points after the meeting, and she has convinced me that we shouldn’t use the word “Gypsy”. Any word that has a history of being used as abuse had better be avoided by people without a personal reason for using it as part of their identity, which means most of us at the Book Club.

I do think now that I should have asked Lopsy to tell us a different Madeline story. That one has some wonderful parts, but there are plenty of wonderful parts in the other books too. We live and learn.)

Lopsy recited the story beautifully, but when she got to the part where Madeline and Pepito send a postcard home, to reassure Miss Clavel that they are all right, she started to sniff and had to stop.

Poor Lopsy. She says she’s a shadow of her former self, from worrying about Tom.

This isn’t exactly true, but she certainly was too snuffly to carry on.

That was a pity, because we would soon have reached the happy scenes of homecoming and reunion, but we didn’t get that far.

I felt that as the convenor of the meeting, it was my responsibility to stop everyone from bursting into tears.

I suggested that we all share any news we’ve had about Tom, and look forward to having a celebratory Zoom meeting when he gets back.

So everyone read out their postcards.

Madame Cholet and Reindeer had had one of the Black Welsh cow postcards from Tom (he told Walrus that he’d bought a bargain pack of them, and several of us had been sent the same picture). Madame Cholet’s card said that Tom had eaten one of his tent poles.

Lopsy got agitated again, worried that the tent would fall down.

But Reindeer said that Tom is managing fine with sturdy plants holding his tent up.

Then I showed them my map, where I’ve been marking what I think has been Tom’s route so far.

We’re pretty sure that he’s now in the south of Wales, and we know there are beautiful beaches there.

So we hope he’ll soon have achieved his aim of having a lovely seaside holiday, and will be setting off home.

Then Dillion played us a tune on the Welsh harp that Tom has sent him.

Dillion’s been practising day and night.

Luckily it’s quite a quiet instrument (I live with Dillion, but my room’s up in the attic, and anyway I’m a sound sleeper).

We were all exhausted by then, and the music made us feel pleasantly sleepy.

We agreed that we’d Zoom together again in a few days, just to exchange Tom news.

That’s if he hasn’t got home by then.

Lopsy asked if at the next Book Club we could read books about people getting lost.

I’m not sure whether that will cheer us up. Perhaps it had better be books about people getting lost and found.

But anyway, Tom isn’t lost. He’s just travelling.

He may go anywhere!