Page 42 of The Strawberry Thief
I clapped my hands, and made Bam tumble head-over-heels across the floor.We should ask Pilou too, I signed.
‘Maybe,’ said Maman, and smiled. ‘But Pilou’s busy nowadays. With all his school work, and everything.’
I know what that means. It means she doesn’t think he will come. But Pilou’s my friend: of course he’ll come. Besides, I’d like him to meet Yannick: I think they’d get on really well.
Maman said: ‘We still have three weeks. There’ll be a lot of planning to do. Then it’ll be the holidays. Maybe Pilou will come then.’
That’s true. I often forget things like that. Maybe it’s because I don’t go to school. Well, not officially, anyway. Maman says that my reading, my drawing, my helping out in the shop and all the things Roux teaches me are more than enough to compensate. Some people, like Joline Drou, don’t agree. Joline teaches at the village school. Her son, Jeannot, sometimes comes into thechocolaterie, though not as much as he used to when Anouk was here.Maybe he will visit when Anouk comes home, I was thinking, when suddenly there he was, coming out of Morgane’s shop. It’s funny how that happens sometimes. You think about someone and they appear, almost like an Accident—
I waved to him.Hey, Jeannot!But he was too far away to see, and so I sent the wind to shake the boughs of the almond tree, and shower him with petals. That made him look my way, and he smiled, and started to come over.
Jeannot! Come see my Easter eggs!
He understands my signing. And he doesn’t laugh at me, or pull faces, or pretend not to see me, the way boys of Pilou’s age sometimes do. He was wearing a band T-shirt and a denim jacket, and he looked pleased, but guilty, too, like a dog with a secret bone.
You met Morgane,I said.
He nodded.
So?I sat down at a table and beckoned him to sit down.Have some chocolate. It’s fresh. And tell me all about it.
Jeannot sat down, but I saw how his eyes flicked towards Maman as he did. ‘Don’t tell my mother,’ he said, and smiled, and pushed up the sleeve of his jacket.
You didn’t!I said, and made Bam dance all along the countertop.
Maman looked surprised as well, but didn’t say anything just then. ‘I’ve been thinking about a tattoo for years,’ said Jeannot. ‘I just didn’t know what I wanted. But then this shop opened and …’ he grinned. ‘It suddenly seemed to make so much sense.’
I took a closer look at the tattoo on the inside of his wrist. It was covered in a transparent layer of some kind of protective stuff, but I could still see it clearly. It was a dandelion clock, just like the ones by the roadside; seeds blowing out into the wind. The work was detailed; delicate. And it was Morgane’s style, all right: not quite realistic, and in those unnatural colours—
‘Interesting design,’ said Maman. ‘What made you choose it?’
Jeannot shrugged. ‘I guess it means I’m moving on. Going where the wind takes me. I wouldn’t have thought of that design, but when she’d finished, I knew it was right. She’d donejustwhat I wanted.’
‘Morgane chose it for you?’ said Maman.
He nodded. ‘That’s what she always does. She says her clients never know what they want until they have it. It’s all about trust, she says. And she’s right. Honestly, if I’d been left to my own devices I’d probably have ended up with a snake, or a skull, or a lightning-bolt, or somethingreallylame.’ He grinned and drank some more chocolate. ‘Anyway, it’s done now. It feels as if I’ve had it for years.’
It suits you, I said.I like it!
Maman didn’t say anything.
‘My mother finds out, though, she’ll have a bird,’ said Jeannot. ‘But I’m twenty-one. Can’t stay at home forever.’
Maman poured him a cup of mocha and topped it withcrème Chantilly. Jeannot took the cup and drank. ‘Mmmm. Madame Rocher, this is marvellous.’ All this time, and he hasn’t learnt to call herMademoiselle Rocher.
‘So, you’re leaving Lansquenet?’ said Maman in a quiet voice.
‘As soon as I can work something out. It’s not that I don’t like it here. But there’s so much more out there, waiting to be discovered. Anouk knows that, doesn’t she? She’s out there, having adventures.’
Maman smiled, but I could tell she was wondering what he meant. Of course, he stays in touch with Anouk – online, and with her mobile. He even went to Paris once, but only stayed a couple of days. I know his mother didn’t approve. She never really approved of Anouk.
‘Adventures are overrated,’ said Maman, refilling his cup. ‘Once you’ve seen as many places as Anouk and I have, you start to realize that people are more or less the same everywhere.’
Jeannot grinned again. ‘Maybe I’ll believe that when I’m as old as you are,’ he said. ‘For now, I’m a free agent. Freedom at last!’ Then he finished his chocolate and loped off into the square, looking like a happy dog, let off the leash for the first time.
When he was gone, I looked at Maman. Her colours were all over the place. I tried to tell her that Jeannot didn’tmeanto call her old; that he was just excited, but that didn’t seem to convince her. Or maybe it was something else that made her colours all cloudy and dark. Maybe it was his tattoo. Maybe she didn’t like it.
Don’t you like his tattoo?I said.
