The homeless Catwoman

The high ceiling & huge white bricks make it difficult to recognise it as a high school. It looks more like the white house than Hartley High.
Without paying any attention to the beautiful building facing us, J and I are laying on the soft green grass, studying. The sun is high but neither blinding nor burning, it's a perfect weather.
We are so focused, we don't see O rushing to us. I only lift my head when I hear her calling my name. "Come here" she repeats, spreading her arms as she's trying to fly off.
As I stand up, I see in the corner of my eye, a dark haired man crawling in my back, trying to steal my phone from my bag. I stand up, shoosh him away and start arguing with my old friend. "It’s always the same with you", I shout, my face burning with anger, "you just want people to look at you, think you are the best! Get a grip, get a life and stop worrying about what others think!”
Her face twist and the pride turns into long and desperate tears. "It's true" she weakly says. For some reasons (the main one being: I am a Masochist) I decide to do something for her. I walk up the long and silent corridors to the second floor; push the first door on my way and climb on the window sill. Surely, I sit on it (1). Slowly, I stand up and start screaming her name. She had followed me. I can't see her eyes but I can feel them on my back. "O, I am going to jump for you" I start screaming.  People start to chant her name. I turn to her, see the regret in her eyes, bend backward and fall to my death.
Somehow, I have fallen in a small back room. It's dark here, and has a warehouse kind of atmosphere. Nobody will come to find me, they think I am dead. Which I am. Or at least, until a little brown cat comes toward me and starts licking my fingers. It somehow wakes me up. I feel a bit groggy but my body’s fine. I leave by the back door and make my way toward the exit, first avoiding a camera then a man who doesn’t know me.
I walk up the American style, large main road to the furthest part of town and turn right in a quiet street. Houses built on rows of empty shops are falling apart. Nobody seems to live here. The slim blond girl from the agency's standing outside the house. She's not so keen on being here, even less on coming in but she has too. Her suit looks brighter standing next to the long leather jacket of the homeless looking man standing next to her. I've known him for a long time, the same has happened to him. The tour's quick. Nothing is covering the floor, there are no furniture. Nothing is covering the walls, there is no decoration. We don't care, we only need the basic. She soon comes back outside and point to a big black stain over the door. Bits of wall are falling. Regardless, this is the house we want and so, we move to the little white house.

(1) I am so scared of height I can hardly stand on a tool. No way on Earth, I’d climb a window sill!

When the light is with me

The ropes are really hurting now. I can't move an inch without having skin scrapped off my wrist and ankles. I am lying on my sister's bedroom floor, paralysed. Bending over me, a young lad is going to give me the final blast. That's gonna hurt but what hurts more, is that I know my uncle's paying him to do it. The brown hair boy doesn't look happy with his doing so I beg him to let me go. "Please", "please", "please" and "pretty please" are flooding out of my mouth. "I am a big fan of yours, I don't want to kill you" (1) he says "but he will kill me if I don't do it". "I promise, you don't need to worry, untie me and I'll make sure we're all safe" I assure him. So he starts undoing the knots.
I run to my bedroom on the other side of the hall, he follows me. My parents are kneeing under the green flowers of the wallpaper. "You have to go through the window and save yourself" orders my dad. My bedroom is on the first floor, the house has a high ceiling so it's a good 7 meters high. My mum's comes; hugs me and insists I need to do it; I can do it. "It's time you learn how to do it" she concludes.
I climb on the window sill and without looking down, jump in the air. The fall is short, not even a second and I'm already being blown by the wind, flying toward the front of the house.
My uncle's standing in the garden. Next to him, my parents and the young boy are tied up together. (2) All the eyes are on me. It's the first time I do it but I know exactly what I'm suppose to do. I need power, I need to gain energy. I am still flying but I can't go very high, I'm only two or three meters from the freshly cut green grass. I can also only flight straight so it looks like two clothespins are holding me to a washing line. With difficulty, I move my arms on my side from top to bottom to gain few centimeters. It's a struggle but the higher I go, the easier it gets. I look at the sky getting brighter with every move I make. I gain strength. Their eyes are still on me. Wanting to save my parents give me strength, wanting to destroy my uncle gives me strength.  The sun is out now, the clouds have moved further away. I look up to the sky then down and the light follow my glaze. A huge and beautiful sunray burns the rope restraining my parent's and hits my uncle, sending him to the ground. 

I'm in space now, the chase is still on! With the help of other resistant, I’m shooting my uncle's spaceship. Oh crap, our little robot has just fallen on a space rock. I can see him struggling to fix his flying devise to catch up with us. Good, an alien woman comes to his rescue. Or so I think until I see her take his little ship away. We'll have to get him back once my uncle's down. 

What a day! Walking in my village, I am looking forward to get back to my house. It's early in the morning and the street is filled with music (3). I can't see any speakers, but I know where it comes from. I start to sing. Singing makes me want to dance and the more, I dance, the more the sun shines (4).  
I meet my mum at the corner of the old witch house. She's not in a good mood, the music woke her up. "It's A" I tell her, happily selling my sister up,” I know" she says, and I can see that my former bully's in trouble. The sun shines some more. We walk back home singing together.

(1) I have a fan! Yeah!! What do you mean? Of course a fan is a fan, real or not real, don't be so mean. I have a fan!! :)
(2) That was quick!
(3) Yes, THE street. It is a small village... lol
(4) I like how humble I am in my dreams...

Life on the Riviera - The wildlife

#1 If you think the sea is great, so blue and sweet. You wrong.
No, this apparently calm and safe sea is full of creatures only waiting for you to pass by so they can pinch, bite or sting you. Particularly, sting you. A friend got sting by a jelly fish. Let me tell you, it's not pretty, her skin's falling off, I won't beat around the bushes: it looks like she's got leprosy. The Angels' bay they call it. Funny people they are...



#2 If you think you're more clever than mosquitoes. You're wrong.
The little blood suckers can smell you over 30m away. You can try to spray or cream your body, wear full clothing, put a nuclear field around your flat; the tiny bastards will always find a hole which gets from wherever they are to your veins. My legs and arms are covered with their bites and I can't stop scratching them. I try but I can't. So I look like a junkie running out of "good needle spots".


#3 If you think cicadas are lovely. You're wrong.

The male cicada, (tree cricket or cigales as we call them here) have tymbales on their abdomen which allow them to create a loud sound. The purpose being to attract female's attention (isn't it always?). A bit like these guys listening to loud music in their BMW coupé...Turns out cigales are as annoying as them. At the beginning, you think the sound is cute but then it drives you nuts. It can be up to 120dB and all day long you can hear it. Alllll daaaaayyyy loooonnnngggg. They even wake you up in the morning. Seriously!

Saving Tira & Mitsu

The party is over. People are slowly making their way home. The streets are covered with confetti and flat balloons.
My guinea pigs seem to love playing with them. They put it in their mouth as if they'd blow it, but actually, the balloons are blowing them. Mitsu, the most adventurous, does it first. She starts to inflate, inflate, and inflate. So much that she looks like a football. I'm afraid she might explode so I take it off her; the air comes out, she's back to her "normal size"(1). Annoyingly, animals are stubborn and often do as they like. As soon as I've taken it off her, she starts running toward another one, followed by Tira who has realised this is fun.
This goes on for a while: They blow; get huge; I take the balloons off them; they run to other ones; I run after them and so on...

Other guinea pigs join the party and at some point I am holding nine of them, looking for a box in which I can safely keep them. I go to my dad's butcher van where I find plenty of -previously filled with sausages, now empty- crate. I ask him to pass one over, which he does. I carefully put the guinea pigs in the box and immediately notice that the bottom panel's not strong and might not hold all the way home. Still, I don't swap, I just go home.
The flat is pretty empty. Few furniture, no pictures on the white wall (2). The only ornament is a brown fire place in the center of the living room. As soon as I put the box down on the wooden floor, the guinea pigs manage to get out and start running around, looking for places to hide. I start to run after them (again) but the doorbell rings.
The landlord has arrived with his wife and their teenager son. I let them in and offer them to sit near the fire place. As soon as they do, the man notices a strange smell. With the iron claw he pulls three burned guinea pigs out of the fire. They were so scared that they hid too close to it and were killed. I’m happy it’s neither Tira nor Mitsu (3) but still I am saddened by the little animal's death. I start to cry. The wife stands up and puts her hand on my shoulder. I turn around, see her eyes filling up, and wake up.

(1) My guinea pigs are not, what you can call, of normal size. This picture might make you think otherwise, but it's an old one.
(2) Nothing to do with my colorful and very crowded flat.
(3) Last thing I ate before buying them, luckily it wasn't a fish and chips ;)

Landslide

A Landslide is running down the mountain. At the feet, the inhabitants of the village are standing gob smacked like a teenager's dad reading her phone bill. They're astonished. Something never seen before is happening. They can't believe their eyes. Neither can I. Is my mind playing a trick? 
It's getting closer, I cannot afford to wait and see if it is a illusion or not. 
I start shouting at my parents "Mum, dad, move away, here!" but they don't move. They stay at the feet of the brown mountain fixing the rocks rolling toward them. I look around me, trying to think, we need to get out of here. I turn around and can see my little sister's blond hair being blown away (1) I hurry toward her, grab her hand and push her away from the main slide. Stones are falling around us. We move as fast as we can to avoid them. I notice a more stable area on the right and decide to run toward it.  I protect her as much as I can but we both feel our heart sink as we see all the faces. Their pale grey skin, the fixed expression, the lifeless body., it is as we are running on a chest board. Every time the rocks touch somebody, they turn to stone. We hide behind some to avoid more rocks. The rumbling is horrific, but, so far, we're safe. 


We're at my parents. I'm sitting on my bed. My ex-colleague N and my sister A are buzzing around me. We've been out last night and they're trying to convince me into going out again. I'm not feeling like going out again. I can feel the soft mattress under me and it is not helping. I actually think it's calling my name, or maybe some invisible ropes are tying me down to it. 
They do manage to convince me to get change. I stand up and open my wardrobe. But there are no miracles inside, only horrible old clothes & thousands of underwear. I turn around, tell them I'm broke and sit back on my bed.


(1) I do not have a little sister, certainly not a blond one...