The Beauty and the Sheriff...

At the beginning, she thought it was a game.

She was laughing. Her little brother too. He was playing as a cowboy with the other kids in the street and he was the one who always played as the sheriff in view of the fact that he had the badge.

Her, with this little yellow stain (like a brooch) sewed on her grey schoolgirl blouse and her long black and curled hair falling on her shoulders, she seemed a thousand times more beautiful than ever.

I loved her. I have always loved her. I never told her. She was too beautiful. She would have laughed at my face. Maybe...

Since that day, everything changed for her and around them, her little brother and her parents. Almost like if they all were sick in her family and the illness was contagious. It is also true that she was becoming more and more beautiful and, like my grandfather says, “beauty arouses jealousy.” But oh well, this is my grandfather.

One night, the soldiers came to take them. Every sheriff and every beauty around here. They left towards the train station, for a trip without luggage. And the time stopped talking.

I understood. Later. Even later. The star. The stars. In the sky. It is shining. They are shining and then nothing, all blown out, all lighted off, the beauty and the sheriff. The stars.

They were six millions in a piece of sky, which stopped to exist...

At the beginning, she thought it was a game...

© translation : Pauline SALAFIA