Table of Contents
One day, on her way to work, Silna saw an advertisement. The advertisement hit her like a baseball
bat. She drank a lot. And she looked much older than she was. She wanted to say that the sign was
wrong. She could drink as much as she wanted! But she couldn’t say that to the sign, because it was
a sign, and not a person. Behind the letters, there were pictures of people laughing. They looked
young and happy. [ Story Of A mature Elegant women ]
Their faces were soft. They didn’t have any grey hairs. Their teeth were perfectly
white. Silna hated them. She felt sick from hating them so much. As she walked to work, she kept
thinking about those laughing faces. She carried the hate on her back, and it got bigger and bigger.
Silna was a teacher.
When she arrived in class, she looked very angry. One of the students, Pegro,
said to her, ‘Miss, does your back hurt? Maybe you should lie down. At your age—’ She looked at
him.
Her hair was wild, her lips were pushed together, and her eyes were on fire. It was the look of a
monster! He stopped talking immediately. Today’s lesson was about the Romans. Silna shouted for
the students to get their books out, and they began. ‘Well, if you look at old books and old pictures,
you will see that the Romans drank a lot of wine. In fact, they drank wine every day! And they never
said, “You have had too much to drink,” or that you should “drink less, live longer…” ’
The students
found the lesson very funny. Silna shouted so much that she gave herself a headache. So she went
home and lay down on the sofa. Then, she had an idea. She would lie about her age. She would say
that she was older than she really was. Every time someone asked her age, and she told them the
truth, they clearly wanted to laugh.
A mature elegant women :
They never did laugh, but she could always see that they wanted
to. She looked far older than she was. Like a monster. But if she started lying… When people found
out her age, it would be a pleasant surprise! They would say, ‘Oh, Silna, how soft you look! How
pretty you look! I thought you were far younger than that.’ Her classmates in university always said
that she “lived in another age”.
Well, now she really would live in another age! She wanted to try her plan immediately. But how could she do that? At work everyone knew her too
well. She could move to another city, but that would take too much time. She had to go somewhere.
Somewhere where nobody would know her. She lived in a big city, so that wouldn’t be hard. In fact,
there was a concert that night, by a famous piano-player. She had seen a poster about it. ‘Yes, yes…
That will be perfect!’ She went to her bedroom to decide what clothes to wear. But wait.
A mature,
elegant woman doesn’t spend hours choosing clothes. She is too clever for that. She chooses
something pretty, but also comfortable. So she chose a simple black dress. Then she went to the
bathroom to put on makeup. She took out a bright red lipstick. But wait. A mature, elegant woman
doesn’t wear too much makeup! So she put on some light makeup, and didn’t wear any lipstick.
Afterwards, she stood and looked at herself in the mirror. She didn’t see the angry, ugly old woman
from before.
Now she really did see a beautiful, mature woman, with simple clothes and makeup.
And she had saved so much time! She had a light supper, because a mature, elegant woman knows
not to eat too much. She had a glass of wine with her supper, because even mature, elegant women
drink. Then she drove in her car to the concert hall. In the concert hall there were lots of people.
Silna looked around.
She saw a group of women who were talking about culture. Yes, perfect. She
went up to their group and said, ‘This building is wonderful, isn’t it? I love neoclassical architecture.’
The women quietly agreed. One of them, a blonde woman with a big ring, said, ‘Do you know the
piano-player?’ ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I have some of his compact disks. Or, as the young people say, “CDs”!’
The other women laughed quietly.
‘I think I’m the only one who doesn’t know him already!’ said the
blonde woman. ‘But I love concerts. I think it’s the best way to find new music.’ ‘Yes,’ said a brown-
haired woman, ‘you invited us to the Facero concert, didn’t you? That was amazing.’ ‘Yes, that was
me!’ The women started talking about concerts they had been to. Silna had to find another way to
talk about her age. ‘Ha ha,’ she laughed loudly. ‘That makes me think of when I was younger! I loved
going to concerts when I was a student. I was one of those “hippies”. I’m lucky that I passed my
exams!’
The brown-haired woman looked at her. Silna thought she was trying to guess her age. She
smiled. ‘Did you study in the city?’ the brown-haired woman asked. ‘Oh no! I studied in the United
Kingdom, at Cambridge. I graduated in 1981.’ She happily used the new date.
‘Wow!’ said the blonde woman. ‘Wasn’t it really difficult to go to Cambridge at that time, for people
from our country?’ Silna stopped smiling. It was true. It was hard to get in at that time. She had
completely forgotten that. ‘Well, I had a friend who was already studying there, who gave me lots of
help and advice. But yes, in that time it truly was difficult.
I was very, very lucky.’ She stopped and
waited for someone to ask her age. But then the brown-haired woman started talking about the
wine. Silna understood her mistake. Mature, elegant women don’t ask other women how old they
are. It is simply the wrong thing to do. She drank her wine, and thought of a new plan. ‘Silna! What a
surprise to see you here!’ Silna turned. It was Kasha, one of the other teachers from her school. She
was much younger than Silna, and had lots of energy. She made Silna feel very tired and very old. ‘Is
your headache better?’
The other women looked at Silna. She had to be careful. Kasha might say
something about her age. ‘Yes, I took some medicine. Now I feel much better.’ ‘Pegro was in my
class after you. He is so bad. And he is so afraid of you!’ The other women laughed. ‘Shall we go find
seats?’ Silna said.
‘I think the concert is about to begin.’ She wanted to move away from the other
women. But it was impossible. Kasha walked quickly, and talked lots. She was talking about how
awful Pegro was in her class. ‘…he says so many bad words. I don’t know where he learns them,
because his mother is lovely.
He always says—’ ‘Oh, Kasha!’ Silna said. ‘You are so funny, you young people. But please do not say those terrible words. I am too old to hear them!’ ‘But you’re only a
few years older than me, aren’t you?’
Silna smiled, and said loudly, ‘Kasha, dear! You are too kind. Many people have said that to me! But
no, I’m probably twenty years older than you. I won’t say the exact number, but I am older than
fifty.’ ‘Really?’ said the blonde woman. ‘I thought you were younger than fifty. I thought you were
around forty!’ Silna made herself smile. She thought that they would guess a lower age than that.
But a win was a win. Kasha shook her head.
‘No, that can’t be. Pegro said that you always talk about
the year you graduated, 19—’ ‘What a great view we have here!’ Silna said loudly. At that moment,
the lights went down. She was safe, and she could enjoy the music. The concert was very good, and
a mature, elegant woman would enjoy it a lot. But Silna couldn’t enjoy it, because she was sad. Her
plan wasn’t working very well.
Only one of the women had said anything about her age. But after
the music finished, something amazing happened. A handsome, mature man came up to her. ‘Good
evening. I was standing over there and I thought, “Wow! A beautiful woman from my dreams is in
the room!” And I decided I had to talk to her.’ Silna smiled. She was very surprised. ‘Lovely words
from a lovely man.
Do you often come here? It’s strange that I haven’t seen you before.’ ‘Not at all. I
couldn’t come, because I hadn’t dreamed of you yet…’ He bought her another glass of wine. They
moved away from the other women, and Kasha. Silna gave them a strong look of happiness as she
left. Kasha looked amazed. Another win. She loved mature men, and this man was very mature.
Unfortunately, this kind of man usually thought she was too young for them. But this time, that
wouldn’t be a problem!
‘This building is a great example of neoclassical architecture, don’t you think?’‘I thought the same!
My friend didn’t think so, though. Are you a historian?’ ‘Yes, I am a historian.’ She felt a fire inside
her. He was a man of culture. Finally, someone who knew as much as her! The conversation kept
getting better. She almost forgot about her plan. But then, she saw a chance. ‘Oh, I loved The
Beatles when I was younger,’ he said.
‘I suppose you were too young for them?’ ‘Well, The Beatles
are for all ages. But actually, I was a small child then, in the sixties. I listened to their music all the
time!’ The man stopped smiling. ‘You look much younger than you are.’ ‘Thank you! Yes, sometimes
people say that.’ A mature, elegant woman is never too proud. But strangely, her lie didn’t make the
man happy.
In fact, he looked very surprised. In a bad way. ‘Excuse me, I need to go to the toilet.’
She watched as he walked away and left the building. She wanted to follow him, but then Kasha
came up to her. ‘Silna, you won’t guess what happened to me! I found another Cambridge student,
who studied at the same time as you.
Maybe you know each other!’ She turned and looked at Kasha.
She felt very old, and not mature or elegant at all. On Monday morning, Silna went into school
wearing all the makeup in her house. She fell into her chair. As always, the first one to make
problems was Pegro.
‘Miss, miss!’ ‘What, Pergo?’ she said. ‘Kasha said that you’re over fifty years
old. Are you going to stop working soon?’ She couldn’t even do that! ‘Thank you for the interest,
Pergo,’ said Silna. ‘But Kasha didn’t hear me correctly. I am without age, and I plan to stay here until
you finish school. So I’ll probably be here forever.’ This made the other students laugh. Pegro went
red, and stopped talking. Silna smiled. At least she had won that
