Celine | English Version

f o u r

All of a sudden, light appears. Finally.

Light, light, light.

Radiators come back on, warm up the man and the little girl and provide a promise of love; maternal for one and romantic for the other. And this promise appears, in flesh and bones—all dressed in black, yet as shining as a fallen angel from Heaven.

Leaning against the peach-colored wall of the living room, Celine silently watches the father and daughter's tight embrace soothening gradually, as the new lightness chases the fear away from their shaking bodies. Their bodies relax, their eyes close for a few moments.

"I am home," she announces soothingly. Oh, what a sweet reality check!

It is Eulalie whose eyes first go towards the door, noticing her Mom wearing a patient smile on her lips. With haste, she slips away from Jerome's arms to run—and jump—in her mother's.

"Mommy, Mommy!" she screams. "I was so, so scared, I thought the lightning had gotten to you!"

Celine's laughter, as she tenderly kisses her little girl's forehead, softens the frantic pounding of Jerome's heart. He puts his hand to his chest and, almost fearfully, walks towards her.

Because, deep down within him, there's always that little concern which whispers that, at any moment, if he doesn't enjoy the present moment or be careful, these times of pure happiness will fade away. And furthermore, their keys.

His wife, when she'll realize she can find better than him, a man which the claws of fear have caught. Imprisoned.

Eulalie, when she'll be eighteen and will have found the path she has to take in order to earn the welfare which, then, she will most certainly dream of.

And then, he will be forced to face the pain that the darkness will bring with it. The cold that loneliness will provide him with, a little more everyday. That's why, with the strength he has regained these last few minutes, he takes in his arms of a husband and father the girl and the woman who make up his life. Each one embraces him as tightly in return.

"We needed... need you, Celine."

She runs a hand through her husband's red hair, sighs for a long while.

"I'm here, my angels. Everything is okay."

Outside, the rumbling gets less powerful; some rays of sunshine timidly pierce the cottony surface of black-grey clouds, and the lightning has gone away.

Celine, light, Celine!