Phalaina by Alice Brière-Haquet

Author:Alice Brière-Haquet
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Levine Querido

TO THE COUNTRYSIDE

MISS HUMPHREY WAS EATING SLOWLY, in little mouthfuls that she chewed for a long time, as her physiologist friend had advised her. She took a third helping of the roast. She’d had a dizzy spell that very morning and her personal doctor had told her not to skimp on protein. She then downed two large glasses of thick, sweet wine, as her surgeon had recommended, and finished the meal with a packet of honey candies, recommended by an herbalist she knew who claimed it was an excellent preventative treatment for a range of illnesses.

You should always listen to doctors.

John was incredibly stubborn, he called all this advice idiocy. He had completed medical school too, yes, but he had specialized in veterinary medicine, so to each his work. Let him stick to collecting centipedes.

On that note, had anyone ever seen a centipede in good health? Huh?

Miss Humphrey opened another packet of honey candy.

The truth was that she adored honey candy. And wine, and meat, for that matter.

Oddly, John wasn’t taking more helpings tonight. He seemed preoccupied.

She shoved three more candies into her mouth, which she swallowed whole before asking about her lover’s gloomy mood.

“Darling, is something wrong?”

Nose in his plate, he was poking his untouched roast with the end of his fork. He didn’t answer, lost in thought.

“Daaaaarling! Is something wrong?”

He lifted his nose this time, but his expression was so sullen that she was sorry to have insisted. Apparently something was wrong, seriously wrong, and under no circumstances could she be vexed during the first phase of digestion, or she was sure to have heart palpitations. Her hygienist had told her that.

John gathered himself and carefully folded his table napkin.

“Sweetheart, pack your bags, we’re going away for a few days.”

Not such bad news after all!

Dear Charles,

I described myself as prey in my last letter, but today I am the most spoiled guest! It would perhaps be an exaggeration to speak of friendship, but I have at least earned their trust. It happened in the strangest way.

I was still recovering, sprawled in my spiderweb bed, when suddenly I heard a terrible racket. It was so unexpected in this world of cotton that I found the strength to get up and see what was happening. One of them had been wounded: a child had been struck in the shoulder by a blazing arrow. Everyone was looking at him without moving, as though stupefied by the horror of the situation. Out of reflex, I took off what remained of my jacket and put out the fire threatening the tiny being. Their eyes slowly came back to life. I laid the child down to try to remove the steel arrow, but calm had already returned. They were all smiling, even the little wounded child.

They brought me back to my room. Two hours later, the child brought me fruit as a sign of gratitude, and who accompanied him? The beautiful angel! The resemblance was striking. His sister, no doubt, or in any case a relative.

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