De Fevrier

"Diner!" Jean-Noel calls out across the house. In a loud tumble, all five of us get up off of the couch, four of us jumping up more easily, while Antoine moves slowly with his crutches. We run across the house, bumping into each other and throwing words back and forth in loud, loving voices. This is where I belong, I thought, in the midst of a loud and busy family.

There is a nurse that comes every evening to give Antoine a shot of pain medication, following his knee surgery last week. Yesterday when she came, all five of us kids were flopped on the couch watching Les Profs while Jean-Noel and Alia went to go get dinner. Antoine saw headlights out of the window and said "She's here." In an instant, as if we had rehearesed the scene, we sprang into motion. We paused the movie and turned the TV off. Antoine said, "Quick! Let's all look like we were not just vegging in front of the TV!" Jeanne grabbed her tablet, Simon said "someone hand me a book," I opened my computer, and Martin went to open the door. I started cracking up. "Noo, we're just five kids sitting on the couch on a Sunday night during vacation being studious and and quiet." Martin, Simon and I all had to flee the room so as to avoid serious merriment in front of the poor nurse, who asked, Antoine later said, where the clowns had gotten to upon hearing the hilarity exploding on the other side of the house.

From February, when I was in France.