Amazon
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords
Even before any of us spoke, I think Maman sensed
something was very wrong.
She said
nothing though, as Monsieur Bruyère told her of the accident. Her face a milk-white
mask, her green eyes wide and staring somewhere beyond, her fingers groped
about her neck for her angel pendant. She rubbed the old bone between her thumb
and forefinger.
Ancien Règime |
‘Death
came instantly, Madame Charpentier,’ Monsieur Bruyère said. ‘Emile did not
suffer.’
Still
Maman did not flinch; the only movement was the angel pendant rising and
falling with her shallow breaths. My mother’s tears came only when Grégoire
told her the noble didn’t even stop; he hadn’t descended from his decorated
carriage to check on the commoner he’d run down.
Women marching to Versailles |
My tears
came too, burning my cheeks, and I wept long and hard for my father; for the
fascinating stories he conjured up to entertain me––tales of werewolves, of
flying snakes with boils for eyes, and of green men who looked frightening but
were harmless. I sobbed for his stories from the far-off coast––of mermen who
broke fishermen’s nets and of horned men who stole young girls, because there
were no horned women. I cried for the touch of his tender hand, which seasons
of carpentry and knife-grinding had roughened and calloused.
No comments:
Post a Comment