To Mary
my love, my girl

Paris, 1967
The day was like all the other days. Hot, sweaty and the
drips of morning dew slowly dried up in the sun. Philip
partly opened his eyes and instantly shut them back. The
dazzling rays of sun and the chirping of birds signaled a
late hour of a spring afternoon. But, let me begin at the
beginning and first - introduce you to the characters of my
story.
Philip; a young, good looking yet unpunctual student of a
law school.
Mary; a beautiful lady of twenty four with exclusively
pretty, long hair who lived across the street.
Nicola; Philip's roommate and his best friend.
A silhouette; a dark, playful and very good shaped shade in
the window across Philip's house.  
Mr. Poulain; Philip's father, liked fishing and smoking, yet
his best habit was taking apart his work tools and setting
them in a different order each day.
Mrs. Poulain; Philip's mother, liked neither fishing nor
smoking, was very irritated every time her husband occupied
himself with his work tools, spent most of her time on
exercising and most of her money on food.  
Professor Du Bois; Philip's favorite instructor lecturing on
the Constitutional Law every Monday and Thursday.
A greengrocer; a mad owner of a grocery in Philip's
neighborhood.  
Luke; Philip's neighbor, a lazy, fat boy usually named an
"idler", who was faithful to his nickname as he did nothing
at all.
And finally, God; who is above all the descriptions and
functions in the story as Luke's complete opposite since he
is the cause of all events.    

Paris, 1967: Continuation
Philip hysterically burst out of the dorms and stumbling on
untied laces of his shoes hurried to school. The hour was
not very promising, neither his clumsy personality. On his
way Philip imagined the hopeless look on Professor Du Bois'
face when he opens the door to enter the classroom and the
way Professor Du Bois will gently remove his spectacles and
with a deep sigh ask Philip to come in and take his seat.
While Philip's creative imagination was picturing the scene
of the near future where he brutally interrupts Professor Du
Bois' lecture, his eyes fell upon a wood digital clock on
the entrance to the Law building. 10:33 April 18th. The
sound of April 18th seemed to be very familiar, as if he has
heard this date a lot of times before, as if it was
appraising him of something very important which would
change his life. As if... when he suddenly realized that
April 18th was the first day of his vocation.
When Philip returned to his room, he found a note from
Nicola attached to the fridge, which stated that it was a
first day of spring vocation and warningly begged Philip not
to go to school. "Only if I had time to eat," Philip thought
to himself, "everything would be much easier". Philip
quickly packed his stuff and in twenty minutes found himself
at the nearest train station to Rambouillet. Nothing was as
exciting for Philip as seeing his parents. Nothing was as
exhilarating as coming to his childhood town where the
streets were sometimes empty, the birds sang differently and
the greengrocer in the grocery down the street constantly
yelled at his employees. It seemed like every time Philip
would leave Rambouillet everything would freeze till his
return. Luke would sit at the same bench and do nothing like
he did four month ago when Philip left and Philip's parents
would enthusiastically wait for his arrival.

Rambouillet, still 1967
When Philip arrived in Rambouillet the streets were full of
people, the birds were not singing and as he reached home,
the house was empty. As a silent, still night replaced that
warm and busy day of spring, the doors were locked, the
lights were off, the alarm clocks were set and a deep sleep
came down on the world. Philip reached the window to close
it, when in a house across the way he saw a silhouette of a
beautiful girl. Through a dark brown, silk curtain with lace
flowers he could only see a shade of her body as she was
standing in front of a mirror and brushing her beautiful,
long hair.
April 18th did change Philip's life. Since that night Philip
spent most of his spring vocation standing by the window in
his room and waiting for the mysterious girl to appear. His
parents became worried and even suspicious since Philip's
behavior changed in a very extreme way. He became less
cheerful and more solemn, he stayed in bed till late each
morning and his actions were unpredictable. Yet most
remarkably he didn't do much of talking, and chattiness,
after all, had always been his favorite hobby.
On a calm, cool evening of a typical French spring Philip
was standing by the window in his room, waiting for his
mysterious girl, when she suddenly entered the room, hastily
fixed her hair, grabbed her bag and turned off the light.
Philip quickly ran down the stairs where he saw a beautiful
girl with long, pretty hair walking out of the building
across the way. As Philip hurried to catch her up with quick
and large steps, he thought of different possible endings to
this story. Yet reality is never as simple as fantasy, it is
neither tedious nor expected. As he approached her with his
clumsy, loud walk she tenderly turned around.
The look on her pale face was naughty yet engaged with
thoughts and full of expectations. She had big melancholy
eyes, full lips and long, thin eyelashes. Her hair was
straight and thin and her skin was colored in a bright honey
shade. She smiled at Philip as he turned to her with the
only possible line that came to his mind at that moment, and
her serene, gracious smile shining with joy created deep
dimples on her face. The features of her external appearance
did not display any unusual picture, yet her big eyes
expressed increased sensitivity to pledges of life. For
Philip she was a special compensation for long and sleepless
nights of anticipation.

Rambouillet, Paris and all the way between, 1967
At that night Philip returned home at five a.m. after
spending it with Mary. He quietly opened the door trying not
to wake his parents and hurried to his room.  But before he
had a chance to get into his bed he realized that it was the
last day of his vocation and in a couple of hours he had to
be in his first class. He packed as fast as he could and in
twenty minutes was sitting in a train to Paris. When he got
to Paris, he put his stuff in his room which was empty from
Nicola, and still a mess from the last time he was there.
When he approached the law building, it was thirty five
minutes after ten, he quietly opened the door and entered
the classroom. Professor Du Bois gently removed his
spectacles and with a deep sigh asked Philip to come in and
take his seat.
Two month after Philip's and Mary's acquaintance, Mary moved
to Paris where she and Philip rented a low-priced apartment
together. After the autumn semester was over Philip got on
his knees and asked Mary her hand in marriege. Four month
later Philip and Mary were joined in holly matrimony.

Paris, Rambouillet and all the way between, 1968
After Philip graduated from the Law School, he and Mary came
to visit his parents in Rambouillet. They were surprised to
find Philip's parents at home, and even more surprised not
to find Luke on his bench to which he was devoted for so
many years. As they entered Philip's room Mary was carefully
examining the collection of paintings on the walls, while
Philip opened a window planning to show Mary how he first
noticed her. His face suddenly turned red as he saw a
silhouette of a beautiful girl in the house across the way.