Quick trip to France

It’s first thing in the morning and students are trickling into the classroom.

A: Tony, why were you absent yesterday? Did you go to France?

Tony: No. Why would I go to France?!

B: Tony went to France?

C: What? Tony was in France yesterday?

D: Tony went to France?! Why were you in France?

The rumor spreads quickly. Tony tries refuting it, asking, “Why would I go to France on a Wednesday?!” (As if, maybe going on Tuesday or Thursday would have been more reasonable.)

But logic does not prevail this morning, and soon he decides to stop resisting. “Yes,” he finally tells the class, with his fingers in air quotes “I went to ‘France‘. I was in Paris, the City of Quotation Marks.”

Soon the conversation turns to how long his trip was, how much time he was able to spend in France, what he did there.

“I ate bread,” he tells the class. “A baguette and croissants. They were delicious.”

“What about cheese?” a friend asks.

“No cheese. Just bread.”

Later, a substitute comes into the class for the class’s art lesson, and Tony fills him in: “I was in France yesterday. I could only stay 2 hours, but I had a croissant.”

“Is the art teacher in France?” a student calls out.

“Oh, yeah,” Tony answers. “I saw her yesterday. I saw everyone. It was great.”

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