fawns retreated to their enclosures, suddenly afraid of the approaching footsteps, Mai and her father were now invaders of the animals’ harmonious existence, Mai thinking about the visit to the doctor’s with her mother and grandmother and about the moment of judgement so full of imponderables, Mai flashed back to the girls in handcuffs with a sort of guardian tugging them toward her till they tripped over one another, Marie-Sylvie was something like that with Mai, and after the medical exam their judgement and trial would come too, bunched up against one another with their long hair tangled together, waiting for the disgrace to end, you may think these are innocent children standing before you the guard seemed to say, but be very careful, for when we caught them they were armed and in possession of drugs too, saying nothing more, Mai in between her mother and grandmother had nothing to say either, irritable and nasty just like Marie-Sylvie thought Mai, and whatever was going to happen to them, the girls in handcuffs and Mai, who was only able to calm down when she felt Mélanie’s hand on hers, it’s okay honey, everything’ll be all right Mélanie had said, really, though it had to be one of the most devastating days of Mélanie’s life to learn what was happening to her mother, the one person she loved most in this world thought Mai, still it was nothing, really nothing, and where would the girls in handcuffs spend the night, in what disgusting dining hall would they have breakfast in the morning, always squeezed in next to their guard, not able to go anywhere, just go, the summary medical exam would tell all, and they were hemmed in for good, nowhere to go, nowhere at all to get away from all this, never, and that was the moment Mai saw the June bride behind the line of little girls once more, there on the beach, the tall fiancée with blackened teeth seated at the table with her men on the wharf, yes Mai remembered full well that walk along the beach with her dogs when the men laughingly stroked her, a lingering hand touching her hip, hey sweetheart where ya going they all yelled amid wild laughter, and the tall drunk June bride in her white dress and soiled bouquet of roses did too, saying yes, one day Mai would wind up right there with them on that same beach, the same docks, just like her with globs of dirt on her legs, no, no she wouldn’t, a child in her own right just waiting for her father’s car, a writer and speaker, allowing time for her to finish running her dogs along the beach, so special and so distinguished, ah the old Mai would be no more, none of those white jeans and tops washed by a household servant for her to wear at supper with Grandmother, boy when was he going to honk that horn for her, Mai saw them, every one of them, seated at the table under the pine trees pouring wine, filthy every one, dimly anchored in groups or clans, go tell them all yelled the June bride, that I’m not marrying the man my parents picked for me, you go tell them that right now, ’cause you’re gonna be here with no enamel left on your teeth just like me, crazy for one drug or another and getting raped right here under the pines day and night, and Mai remembered that when she drove by these same beaches and docks with her father, the groupings, families, and clans seemed to have multiplied with the overflow of those evicted from their homes, now camping out everywhere, often in cars with their cats and dogs, in tents by the side of the highway, in public parks, the June bride had malevolently predicted a succession of these massive squats while the rare few who were burying them like Mai all had homes, although there was nothing wrong in being loved by one’s father and walking through parks perfumed with pine and acacia, Mai hugged her father in a moment of unexpected gratitude, and though Daniel still frowning looked just as displeased with himself, certainly because he wanted to know all about this visit to
Similar Books
