As always, here is the link to the updated French to English translations: http://alysonbowen.blogspot.com/2014/05/french-to-english-translations.html#.U50j3hZcMpD
Rose
Chapter 9
As a new month dawned, the
change in season was completed.
The vineyards seemed to have a beautiful orange and yellow glow to them
that matched the chrysanthemums they carried as they walked to the family
cemetery for Toussaint.
The morning had been just as
awkward as Phillippe had expected.
He hadn’t encountered either De La Fontaine sister since he left Vi’s
birthday party. When he arrived,
Dai was sitting and painting in her usual window seat tucked behind the giant
spiral staircase that took up half of the sitting room, while Vi was nowhere to
be seen. He watched Dai’s brush
strokes in quiet awe until she put down her brush and wiped her hands
clean. “It looks très belle.” He finally broke the silence that had been echoing off the
stone walls.
“Merci, Phillippe.” She
lowered her head and tried to distract herself by cleaning her brushes.
“You have such a natural
talent for art. Is that the
vineyard?”
“Well, actually I started it
last week when we were visiting the vineyard à Champagne. We were
only there for a few days so I’ve been improvising most of it because the
lighting changed so fast, and now I don’t even have the view for
reference. I was hoping to finish
it before l’école commence le lundi, but it doesn’t look
like I’ll finish.” The edges of
the painting were still blank except for the occasional pencil mark, and the
sky hadn’t been touched yet.
“C’est incroyable. Tu es incroyable.”
Dai finally smiled up at
Phillippe as she untucked her hair from the pins that held it out of her face
while painting. “Je suis désolée for getting upset with
you at Vi’s fête. I don’t normally react that way.”
“Ne t’inquiète pas. You
shouldn’t have to apologize. I
wasn’t acting very nice and you just pointed it out. Things have been really tough between our parents and it’s
putting extra pressure on me and my relationship with Vi. I feel terrible for how I treated you
and the things I said about Vi.
Why don’t we just forget about it?
I brought over some chrysanthemums for Rose’s grave after thinking of
our conversation about her.”
Dai started to relax and
found it easier to smile. “C’était très sympa. Let me go change out of my painting
clothes, and I’ll get Vi.”
While she was upstairs, he
retrieved the chrysanthemums from his car, and 20 minutes later they were
placing the flowers on the grave.
Phillippe had assumed they would stay by the grave for a little while to
pay their respects, but Vi pulled out her portable
and strolled away having a conversation with one of her innumerable friends.
Dai sighed at Vi, but sat
down on the neatly trimmed grass next to the headstone. “Ma
famille never really celebrated Toussaint
with anything special, so Vi doesn’t enjoy it very much. Even though Rose died il y a 18 ans, it’s still pretty hard on
everyone. It’s like a huge part of
us is missing.”
“I don’t blame Vi. Death is sometimes hard to face. I was hoping I’d get to talk to her for
a little bit. I’ve had to lie to mon père about conversations we’ve had
and I’m starting to feel guilty about it.”
“Well, you don’t have to
leave without trying again. Stay
here for a little while and she’ll eventually come around. Plus, then you can postpone a
confrontation from Hubert about how everything is going.”
He hadn’t planned to spend
the entire day at the De La Fontaine estate, but the more he thought about it,
the better it sounded. The only
other thing he had contemplated doing that day was driving out to Domfront, but
he had no idea what he would do with Rose once he got there. He hadn’t decided on another place to
take her yet. There really weren’t
very many places in that area. So,
he decided to stay and try to get a conversation out of Vi. His father would be so excited.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Because of the holiday,
Domfront seemed busier than everyone was used to, so after Rose had taken her
usual trip to buy groceries, she had stayed to help in the shop. It had been a dull week, so she had
looked forward to getting some fresh air and getting back into her book. However, she figured the extra hours
and pay would help her family, so she decided helping out her aunts would be
best.
In the late afternoon she was
surprised with a visitor.
“Dahlia! What are you doing
here?”
“I haven’t seen you since
last week. I was worried you were
avoiding me.”
Rose had to laugh. “I would never do that. I’ve been wrapped up with work.” She walked out from behind the counter
to return some clothes to their racks.
Dahlia followed Rose to the
far side of the store where she hung up two dresses. “Well that’s a relief.
I spent all week thinking I had done something wrong, like stealing
Phillippe’s affections.”
Rose shushed Dahlia. “Mes
tantes don’t know about him.
They would go fous if they
knew I was spending time with a stranger.
They almost didn’t let me spend last week with you. Elles
sont paranoïde.”
“Vraiment?”
“I guess that happens when
you live in a tiny town where everyone knows everyone else. You don’t know how to live outside of
your comfort zone. I mean, when I
first met...” she paused, and Dahlia nodded to show she knew who was being
mentioned. “I didn’t know how to talk to him because I was so uncomfortable. Later I realized how rude I had been,
and even though I’m sure I’m still rude he keeps coming back and I don’t know
why.”
“Oh, I think I know
why.” She winked.
“Dahlia, non! It’s not like
that at all.” As Rose moved to
hang up a few blouses on another rack, they paused their conversation while
Faline was within earshot. “I
can’t talk about it here. The shop should slow down soon, and then maybe we can
go upstairs and talk more.”
That satisfied Dahlia’s
curiosity enough to drop the subject for the next half hour until Mystie and
Faline released Rose from work and the two girls headed upstairs. As soon as Rose had closed her bedroom
door, Dahlia resumed her interrogation.
As Rose tried to explain her confusing and strange friendship with
Phillippe, she noticed Dahlia biting her nails and redirecting the conversation
away from herself. “Is something
going on, Dahlia? You’re acting
nervous, like you need a distraction from something. Did something happen back home?”
She sighed and looked out the
window. “Aujord’hui is the first Toussaint
I haven’t been able to visit ma mère. It hasn’t been easy. Florian promised he would go for me,
but it isn’t the same. It’s like
with ma belle-mère. Elle
est merveilleux, but she isn’t ma
mère.”
“You didn’t mention you had une belle-mère. I just assumed you didn’t because of how
you described Madeleine.”
“Reina married mon père very soon after ma mère passed away. We had a great relationship at first,
but within the last year it started to deteriorate. She’s the reason I came to Domfront, and she’s the reason I
can’t go visit ma mère aujord’hui. I’m not angry with her about
anything. Mostly I’m just
confused.”
“You want to know
confusing? Last time ma famille came to visit, I overheard ma mère et mes tantes discussing money
and if they needed more of it to provide for me. Ma famille is so
poor that I’ve been working in the shop since I was old enough to work le guichet. The money I make gets sent back to mes parents to help them out.
How would they afford to give me more money? It doesn’t make any sense at all. I will say this though, it is incredibly hard to be so far
away from family and it definitely doesn’t help to solve conflicts. But as Phillippe taught me, it can
sometimes be better to get away from it and clear your mind. I think for now we should change
subjects to keep your mind off that problem.”
Dahlia smiled gratefully as
Rose changed the subject to talk about clothes and other girly things that
neither girl had ever had anyone to talk with before. It felt good for both to be distracted from their problems. After a little while, Dahlia got up the
courage to ask Rose about the gold chain around her neck.
Rose pulled the chain from
its usual place tucked into her shirt.
“It’s a ring from mes parents. They gave it to me on my first
birthday. I like to wear it
because it keeps them close.”
“I wish I had something like
that from mes parents. Mon
père has never been sentimental.
As soon as ma mère had passed
away, all of her things had been cleaned out by the next day.”
Rose tucked away her
ring. “We were supposed to take
your mind away from those things.”
“Ho, do you want to come over to my apartment for a bit? I’m still unpacking. Maybe you could help.”
“Bien sûr! Allons-y!” After grabbing her scarf and purse, they left with Mystie’s
permission. After walking in
silence to enjoy the sunset, they arrived at La Mine.
“Florian!” Dahlia was swept up in a tight embrace
as soon as they entered the shop.
Rose stood by awkwardly
watching the two together, waiting until she was noticed again.
“Oh! This is Rose. She’s been helping me adjust to the change. Do you mind if she stays with us for a
little bit tonight? I had no idea
you were coming!”
“I thought I’d surprise
you. When I got here, Joye
informed me you were out with a friend.
I told you that you would be fine here.” He kept one arm firmly around Dahlia while reaching out to
meet Rose. “Merci for helping Dahlia feel welcome. This change has been hard for her, and it is so great to see
a smile on her face again.”
Dahlia knew how uncomfortable
Rose could be with strangers, so she decided to change the subject. “She was going to help me finish
unpacking. Let’s head upstairs.”
Rose was definitely
uncomfortable and nervous at first, but Dahlia’s energy was hard to resist,
especially with Florian there. She
tagged along with the two close friends and eventually found that she did enjoy
Florian’s company almost as much as she enjoyed Dahlia’s or Phillippe’s.
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