Her Father's Daughter by Marie Sizun

Author:Marie Sizun [Marie Sizun]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781908670281
Publisher: Peirene Press
Published: 2016-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

A strange incident which really surprised the child.

It’s Sunday, her grandmother’s there. The two women are cooking lunch in the kitchen. The radio is on. A journalist is talking once again about the Normandy landings.

The father comes in to listen. The child follows him. She listens too, to be like the others. And the word suddenly strikes her for the first time. One word. That word.

‘In Normandy?’ she asks. ‘Where we went, me and Mummy and Granny?’

A silence. An extraordinary silence.

The grandmother is first to react.

‘In Normandy! As if you’ve ever been to Normandy!’

The child is about to answer back, to press the point. But she notices her mother, very pale, watching her in the most extraordinary way, as if she’s talking to her with her eyes, as if she’s screaming at her to be quiet, to stop right there.

‘Normandy!’ her grandmother says again. ‘I ask you! Nonsense! The child talks complete nonsense!’

And the mother adds in a blank voice, ‘Maybe she’s getting confused with when we went to Ermenonville?’

The conversation trails off. The father hasn’t even looked up. He’s listening to the radio.

He just gestures to the child to be quiet. A very gentle gesture, very kind, drawing her close to him with his big hand.

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