Hetty’s trembling index finger pressed the button on the dirty white door next to the jerk chicken shop. She tried to peer through the glass around the sign sayingiLearn IT: Taking you from D- to C++. This was the most afraid she’d been since the terrifying morning she’d first found herself on the London Underground. That seemed like a lifetime ago now.
Before she could worry for too much longer, she heard thumping on the stairs and the door was flung wide open. A cheerful, cherubic face surrounded by a riot of tight black curls peeked around the doorframe.
‘Nice to meet you. I’m Stella. Here for the computer course?’
Hetty had no idea what to say, but thankfully it seemed like she didn’t need to say anything. Which really was very lucky, she thought, as Stella was quite the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen. She was used to the pale, slim, fashionable, insipid young ladies her mother had tried to get her to befriend. Women with nothing to say, and to whom she had nothing with which to reply.
Stella, on the other hand, spoke loudly without even opening her mouth. Short and plump and delicious, she looked like the juiciest pear on the tree she used to sit underneath in her father’s orchard. She wore a scandalously tight green dress and equally scandalous sleek high heels.
Hetty breathed in the scent of lemons and freshly picked mint as Stella stared at her.
‘You’re here for the computer course, right?’
Hetty nodded dumbly.
‘Great.’
Stella closed the door behind Hetty, still looking intrigued.
‘Must say, you might not have much in common with the other students. Are you sure you’ve got the right day? It’s beginner level today.’
‘Yes, quite … quite sure.’
Stella shrugged, then led Hetty up the narrow set of stairs and down an even narrower corridor to a small white room. It was covered in grey carpet tiles, with a huge table in the centre crowded with screens. Elderly people of various shapes and sizes were already sitting in front of them.
She sat down in front of the screen Stella gestured towards and waited until Stella showed the class where to press the small boxes to make the room light up with beeps. Hetty struggled to keep her eyes away from the woman who inexplicably seemed to take all the oxygen from her lungs, as she tried to get to grips with the small grey device she was expected to scrape across the desk.
Hetty was transfixed by Stella’s dazzling hoop earrings, which swung as she laughed with an old man making an incomprehensible joke about hard drives. By her bracelets, which jangled and rattled as she stooped to pick up a lady’sfallen mouse. She forced herself to focus on anything, anyone else, and her eyes met those of the woman next to her instead. She had a knowing look in her eyes, which Hetty decided to ignore.
‘Now then, ladies and gents,’ said Stella. ‘Computer Basics for Beginners. Let’s talk. I know a lot of you might have phones, but how many of you have used a desktop computer before?’
More than half of the class raised a hand. Hetty was not one of them. She felt her heart sink as she read the collective confusion in their eyes.
‘Right,’ Stella began. ‘Why don’t we go around the room and introduce ourselves? I’d love to know what you’re hoping to do after these lessons. Go online shopping, maybe, or pay your bills? Give me an idea of what you’re looking for.’
Hetty breathed out as the man opposite her started talking. She would have hated to have gone first.
Bill was hoping to Skype his daughter in Australia. Mickey wanted to be able to look up crossword answers. Ruth was looking for bargains, while Nigel wanted to pick up a new language (‘Never too late’). And then, finally, it was Hetty’s turn.
‘I’d like to gain an education. My aunts suggested I study for … O-levels?’
She looked around, expecting judgement, but found none.
‘Called GCSEs now, I think,’ Nigel piped up.
Hetty smiled tremulously. ‘Thank you.’
Stella’s expression was one of curiosity as she moved on to Elsie, the last person in the room, who wanted to find free knitting patterns. As she gave them all headphones and put videos onto their screens, she stopped behind Hetty’s chair.
‘I teach this around my Comms degree course and can definitely help you sign up for uni, too, or the local college or whatever, no problem, Hetty – you could be getting started next week if you’d like. Is there anything else you’d like help with?’
Hetty looked up. ‘I … I’d like to write a diary. I see there is a device here with printed letters. Is it as fast as writing by hand?’
Stella blinked, clearly baffled, and then smiled. ‘Oh, yes, it’s much, much faster. The class is quite short today – but if you’d like, I’d be happy to talk you through how it all works? Help you set up a Substack or something?’
Hetty nodded. ‘Thank you – that would be awfully kind of you.’
Stella’s smile brightened. ‘It’s a date.’
