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24/04/2010

Week-End Charter : Candles on a satsuma



A couple of months ago, I booked tickets to go see « M » As usual, I got it wrong and booked the wrong date. The tickets I got were for may 20th 2010, which also happens to be my daughter’s 3rd birthday. I immediately called friends, sold the tickets, and got new ones. The new ones are not as good, they’re for the Bercy concert hall rather than the Olympia, and they’re in December.

When I was little, I had the greatest babysitter. We loved each other deeply. I think I wanted to marry him, a little, and he liked me so much he had a picture of me on his wall (yep, the one you're seeing now). I only found out years later, or I didn’t remember and Sandrine told me about it. He was always taking my side when I fought with my sisters, he would always hug me whenever I wanted him to, and he made funny noises with his nose.

If I could only remember one thing about him, it would be the evening of my birthday. I must have been either 3 or 4 years old . He came in that night as usual, made us dinner – he looked after my sisters, of course. After dessert he let them go off to play while we stayed in the kitchen. Then, he grabbed a satsuma and pricked small blue candles on its skin. He lit them, and started singing Happy Birthday. I know he said something to me then, something sweet, but I don’t remember what . I sang along, we blew the candles and shared the satsuma.

When people asked me why I wouln’t keep my concert tickets, and told me that Roxane was way too small to care and that she didn’t really understand it was her birthday, that we could tell her it was the next day - people really say the strangest things don’t they ? - all I could reply, was : « I won’t let my daughter blow her candles on a satsuma».

It doesn’t make me sad, it’s not such big a deal, and I'm pretty sure my parents celebrated my birthday a few days later and that I got tons of presents, but I figure if it stayed in my memory for so many years and chose to come back to me now, it must have been important to the little girl I was.


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