Trafika Europe 9/10 - UK in Europe

THE FLOWERMAKER

Amanda was nine years old. She lived with her mama and papa in an apartment on the Rue St Denis. Mama, Papa, little mouse, Amanda and her collection of beautiful German dolls. It was 1940. Mamawasn’t well. She had a bad head and lay most days in the shuttered room at the end of the hall. The door was always closed. Their maid, Julienne, came every morning to clean the house and wash their clothes and to tell Amanda that shewas a very bad girl, a spoiled girl. But Amanda tried hard to be good. She whispered, she tiptoed so that she wouldn’t wake Mama. She never made a mess, was careful not to scatter crumbs when she ate her bread and she

folded her clothes and put them away in the dresser when it was time to go to bed. As it was the Christmas vacation and Mama was still not well and Papa had to go to his office, Amanda spent most of her time alone in her room. From her window she watched Monsieur Arbot across the way. As the weather was wintry and dark, even in the middle of the day, he had the gaslight on in his little shop. There were not so many flowers then, because it was winter, because of the war. Lately he had been selling flowers made of tiny scraps of fabric; the silk and satin and tulle of long-ago ball gowns, the silvery slippery

79