Extrait du livre A Gift for Sophie
A Gift for Sophie Gilles Vigneault and Stéphane Jorisch Publishing house La Montagne Secrète
A Gift for Sophie
Sophie was seven years old and was as pretty as can be, with her two red braids that were always dancing on her head. She loved to draw. She would draw the house with all its windows and its big chimney on the eastern gable. She would draw her father, her mother, and her little brother also, who was only eight months old. But she also loved to draw her great-uncle Tom who everybody called “Old Man Tom.” He was very, very old and didn’t have a hair on his head, but a long white beard. It was easier to draw. Old Man Tom never left his home, but at least it wasn’t too far a walk. Sophie would go there almost every day. And each time, she would bring him a new drawing. And each time, her uncle had a little present for her. The first time, it was a small book with a single tiny sentence written inside. Another time, it was a little ring or a small bracelet, an old picture of him when he was young and a thousand other knick-knacks that had as only value the fact that they were given with love and for pleasure. He would often say of Sophie’s drawings: “My sweet Sophie, there is nothing more precious you could give me!”
Sophie also had a friend called Emilio who had, according to her, skin the color of caramel. Sophie liked caramel a lot. She also liked Emilio a lot. She loved to draw him because it would add color to her pictures. I forgot to add she had a big black cat with spots she called “Sir” whose favorite sport was bird hunting. She could warn and threaten him all she wanted… but it was in the nature of things. Oh, well.
They all lived in a tiny village near a huge lake. Every morning, Emilio, whose father fished all manner of pike and perch, would go and try his luck on a beach near his house.
