Forget-me-not (Joye)
Defi # 11
Pour cette consigne, vous vous levez un matin sans vous rappeler qui vous êtes.
- Houx, âme, ail ? Mais cela n'a pas de sens, madame. Que voulez-vous dire ?
Man, that's so weird, what are those sounds coming from that guy's mouth? I think I've been abducted by aliens, making strange, yet melodic sounds. His mouth keeps moving, the sounds keep coming out, but they make no sense. He's wearing scrubs, he must be a doctor or a nurse. Surely he can help me to remember who I am. So, I repeat my question.
- Houx âme ail? Who am I?
A lady standing next to him seems to understand what I'm saying, because her expressions changes and she murmurs something to the man trying to talk to me. He shrugs his shoulders, and then the lady speaks to me directly :
- Huis donne tenaut houx yeux arts. Doux yeux naute riz-membaire ?
It hits me.
She's French. That's French she's speaking. Heavens to monsieur Chabert, the old Parisian who tortured me for four long years in college! I've died and gone to francophone heaven. Maybe there is a God after all, and He is pleased with me and has rewarded me by sending me to the French-speaking side of Paradise.
All the same, Satan has made sure that I've forgotten every morsel of French I ever knew.
I scrunch my face. They think I'm having a heart attack.
- Non ! I cry, raising my hands to ward off the paddles. Non ! S'il vous plaît !
- Ah ! Quand même ! Vous parlez français, madame ! Fort bien. Alors, dites-nous, qui êtes-vous ?
I struggle some more. I think they're asking me who I am.
- C'est ça, le problème, I respond. Je ne sais pas qui je suis. I just don't remember. Don't you know who I am? Ne savez-vous pas qui je suis ?
Après encore quelques minutes de pénible conversation en anglais et français, difficile, parce que je ne saisis pas tout ce qu'ils disent, mais je comprends enfin qui je suis.
J'entends la dame chuchoter un nom à l'homme habillé de blanc.
Ah, d’accord !
D'après eux, je suis Bea Lang.